I wrote Cool Tattoo on Thanksgiving Break my sophomore year of high school.

My family and I were in Chicago visiting my grandparents. It was Black Friday. That night my Grandpa let me play his guitar he bought in the military. It was there I wrote Chill Chill 2, or as it's called on the album, Keep on Chillin’. By Christmas Break, the first version of Blow Out Your Candles was recorded. It was a three song ep, with the cover being a screenshot I took of a video from my 12th birthday. I uploaded that ep to the app Bandlab in early 2020, with zero intention of ever putting music on streaming services.

After People are Mammals Too, I returned to the idea. It was the summer of 2021 and I had just fractured my right leg by getting crossed up in basketball. In a boot, laying in my humid bunk bed as a counselor at Camp Ernst, I wrote Your Favorite Backup Plan (which at the time was approximately one minute long)

Slowly, I started accumulating songs. After my homecoming senior year, I wrote Prom Song 1 and 2, now titled Doorstep and simply, Prom Song. By 2022, I began drafting what was to become the Home Videos by recording the instrumental to Home Video 1, at the time titled Afterprom.

After I graduated high school the album really picked up steam. I wrote Kill the Artist in another bunk bed the next summer in an assuredly even hotter counselor cabin. That summer, I would play the kids to sleep every night I could. I played the kids Nightlight most nights. I didn’t sing many BOYC songs, but I drafted the album in my head every minute.

Then I went to college. Before the first semester ended, I wrote “BOYC TRACKLIST REV 1” probably thirty times in my notebook. Right before I left for Christmas break, I recorded Cool Tattoo’s piano and Overture for Your Birth’s choir synth in the UD piano lab. Second semester I started losing sleep. I wrote Picture Me Old after therapy one time. I wrote Self Sabotage for a music theory project (which I got extra credit on)

That summer was the summer of the album. In my third year as a counselor, every track became a lullaby for the kids. I’d tweak album lyrics playing on my cabin floor and dream of the best possible chord or bass note or keyboard lick. I truly finished the album in August. I utilized the beautiful Music Resource Center’s gear for recording Nightlight and Doorstep. For months and months I mixed and mastered. I even met up with my younger self for a little bit to record a duet. And now, the album is yours.

Thank you to my parents, and my sisters who loved the album every step of the way. Thank you to the Peeneys, specifically Cracka Barrel for endless support. Thank you to the goat Joe Dougherty. Thank you Stuart and Ben for what I’m sure will be a fire listening party. Thank you Jacob and Jude, for being the actual listeners. Thank you Chris, Wally and Kyle. Thank you Riley, thank you Steven, and yes thank you Eiffel the Dog. Mostly, thank you for listening. And finally, thank you Blow Out Your Candles for helping me define myself. I hope you enjoy the album. If not, no worries. It only took a day or two.

Love,
-Johnny