Ben Folds Five, Randy Newman, Ani Di Franco, Tori Amos, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Sunny Day Real Estate, Carole King, Gershwin(grew up with my dad playing lots of old standards), lots more who I can't remember, Ryan Adams, Anne Sexton, Charles Bukowski, Nada Surf, Rufus Wainwright, Billy Joel
I'm a singer songwriter piano player from Michigan. I began writing poems and stories when I was really little, and my parents made me take piano lessons from the age of six, so the two outlets combined pretty easily. I didn't start performing until I was eighteen. While I was in college at the University of Michigan, I played on campus a lot and toured in New York and Detroit, just me and piano. That's still how I like to do it today. Writing songs has become a way for me to say things I'd never say in real life, a way for me to reach out to other people the way the music I love has reached out to me. After college, I moved out to LA and after I recovered from the culture shock, I recorded some demos and started playing live at places like Hotel Cafe and Largo. I got signed to Capitol Records, recorded my debut album "Fool," then left the label with my record, and released it on Itunes on my own. Now I'm working on my second record, a whole new batch of songs...