This Isolation EP was written and recorded in an 8x8 foot cell of a rented room in Medford, Massachusetts. During a quarantine. The coronavirus outbreak of 2020 had just began. I had just started my life as a city-dweller about 4 months prior, and my life as a suburb dweller just 5 years ago. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania was challenging for someone as extroverted as myself, but one of the things that I had always taken solace in was playing my $90 guitar in my bedroom. Quarantine had brought back those feelings of isolation, but the ability to record this album is what kept me sane during these trying times

The first song "Merciless" on the album was the third song written during this period. I had been struggling with writer's block pretty hard, alongside the increasingly apparent reality that quarantine was not going to end any time soon. There was a sense of dread that I felt during all of this, being optimistic during this time period was increasingly harder and harder. I wanted to make something that summed up the where my thoughts were bouncing between in this time frame. Long, hopeful melodies interrupted by merciless, driven and dramatic tension points, fading into introspective and complex counterpoint.

"Burning Trees and Lava Lamps" was the first song written on this album. It's my personal favorite. Coming from a world of progressive rock, my influences being some of the best guitarists in the world, I had always felt imposter syndrome knocking at my door. My musical tastes have developed and changed over the years, and I had gained an appreciation for simple writing, and a newfound knowledge that simplicity was an art form in itself. Learning to let go of the need to write long drawn-out songs interlaced with all the tropes that came along with progressive rock was a challenge for me. This song isn't a happy one, but it isn't a sad one either. It lets you latch on to something, and let everything else move around you to take you where it will lead.

"Insurrection" was the road that we were lead down. The political discourse of the nation was the only thing to latch on to, as COVID-19 had killed our distractions. Themes from the prior song come back as a reminder of what this aggressive, violent song was born from.

The final song "As it Was" was written directly after "Merciless", with the full intention of it being the closing track to the album. Writer's block had come back for a few weeks, and the direness of our collective situation had not let up one bit. The powerless I felt had depressed me, and I felt myself trying to force out the last song, hoping something good could come of a bad situation. It wasn't until I had really stepped back and listened to the sadness I had been feeling during this entire period that this song had started to come to fruition. I had tried to skirt around the fact that this time period had been affecting me more than I thought, and I felt it was time to reevaluate everything as a whole. I looked at the melody to "Burning Trees and Lava Lamps", the flowing contours of the notes reminiscent of the classical elegies and reveries. Instead of trying to make the best of a sad melody, I wanted to let it shine for what it was. Looking deeper at my emotional state, I didn't want to leave anything out. As things built upwards and began to boil over, I made the decision to include one of the more egregious things to come out of the news cycle from this time period. The complete apathy of our government, and it's unwillingness to reconcile with it's mistakes. Not just Donald Trump, but every politician and citizen who enabled him.

In reality, the ending to "As it was" could be it's own short epilogue to the piece as a whole. Putting aside emotions, I wanted to challenge myself into writing something to tie everything together. Simple, catchy melodies was the goal of this piece, and I knew I needed to do the progressive rock thing of smashing them all into each other..