Gun
This is Gun. It’s a song I wrote as a reaction to the plague of awful things happening in this country at the hands of its own ‘elected’ officials. It’s meant as a unity song, suggesting the idea of people uniting and working together to solve the troubles ruining things for everyone. It’s part of a broader body of work I’m composing that explores the idea of using the language of violence to speak for peace during times when peace is no longer heard.
If you want to dig in more on my extended thoughts around the morality and politics of such things, I’ve expanded some of them Here, but some of the quick general sentiments are that I think it’s time for us to start being loud and demanding immediate and just accountability. Law makers don’t seem to be capable of making that happen, so where does that leave us? And why do we continue to give them further chances to hurt us and limit our rights?
Ultimately, get your hands off our fucking people
Art
The art for this single (and a number of my other releases) was drawn by Clarke Curtis. Clarke is an amazing artist whose work I find a lot of inspiration in. Just look at the image on his homepage! Thanks to Clarke for making this work under such tight deadlines, and ultimately making something way cooler than I could have imagined.
Tiny Desk
I wrote the song on January 16th 2026, feeling helpless watching the events in MN unfold. I was soon reminded that Tiny Desk submissions were happening, but by that point there were only 2 weeks to go. I had trouble picturing an exciting Tiny Desk format for my music, so I tried to escape the idea, but the more I avoided it, the more I developed a need to loudly say some things in an artistic fashion. The only issue was that it’s a unity song, and singing that alone seemed sad to me and a bit defeating of the purpose. What I really wanted was to have the voices of the people I love singing along with me, but time and geography made that complicated, so I went for the same goal via different means. I reached out to friends and family and asked them to join me from their desks to lend me their voices in singing my song (and they did!!!).
Then, the rest was a fever dream of rehearsing, assembling my first projector light show extravaganza, learning new skills, and trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how. Two weeks was a quick time to get it together, but I really love how everything turned out, and I think it says what I wanted to say. It’s no Bad Bunny Super Bowl show, but I stand by it. Thank you so much to my friends and film crew for helping me make this possible :D
Here’s how it turned out:
The song is live now on streaming platforms as well. You can listen below or on your platform of choice:
What’s Next
I’m going to continue exploring Gun and the songs I’ve been writing around it as a larger work. I think we need as many people and artistic voices as we can enforcing truth and demanding accountability, so that’s how I’m going to spend the next month or two. The current working title is American Death 2: Dead, White, and Blue, which makes me laugh every time I say it so will likely end up being the title :D
I have other music I want to release that’s not political though, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the first half of this year go by without getting some of that published too. I have my next album ready. It’s a big art pop record and stands pretty clear in my view as the best record I’ve ever made. I’m likely going to release it on my birthday in July and am working on figuring out art and how to release singles etc. Stay tuned for more news as we go!
New Music
While I’m here and of the mind, I wanted to shout out some new records I’ve been enjoying a good bit.
First off, Mandy, Indiana released their second record and it rules. I’m not quite sure how to describe them, but Urgh is noisy, groovy, and fierce. It’s also angry, dystopic, and a ton of fun despite all that.
Next up is Wormy! Wormy is Noah, who plays drums for the band Samia. Wormy is his solo project and falls somewhere between country-tinged singer songwriter and indie pop. His first album, I’m Sweating All the Time, is one of my favorites of the last decade, and the Shark River is somehow just as good (if not better). Noah is a wonderful songwriter and is so exceedingly affable and charming that you can’t not smile when he sings, even through the sad songs. Just give it a try:
Finally, one of my favorite DC artists, Den-Mate, released a surprise set of songs called Blue & White this past week. Part folky indie, part dream pop–I’m still sinking into it but I had to go back for thirds on my initial listen. It’s lovely and wonderfully produced, and definitely worth a listen:
That’s it for now! Thanks for tuning it and let me know what you think of Gun. Have a nice rest of the week and stay safe!
-CL