What is A Violent World of Neon Color?

After over a year of toiling, I’m finally in the final stages of my latest album, A Violent World of Neon Color. While all of my previous work has been distributed primarily online, I decided to collaborate to create something tangible. A Violent World of Neon Color will be released as an album booklet containing photography, art, stories, and lyrics. This piece of art will therefore be more than just music and will produce its message most effectively as a whole. A Violent World of Neon Color is an ode to the era of physically produced music – a true form of cross medium collaboration. Working with musicians such as Joshua Lee, Anton Kompare, Joy Martin, Taylor Phipps, Alex Boddy, and Isaac Jacobsen has been a humbling experience. On top of the fact that this will be the best work I’d have produced, this album will also feature soundscapes recorded around the city of Chicago blended into the prologue, epilogue, and its two interludes. A Violent World of Neon Color is a piece of work I’m excited to soon bring to you. Look out for our release date soon.

New Reality

Our new single entitled “New Reality”, has been recorded, mixed and mastered, featuring fellow musicians Joshua Lee, Joy Martin, Ben Sanford, and Anton Kompare. The concept of this song was to sample sounds from everyday life to create surreal synths. So what you’ll be hearing in the song will be the sounds made from bowls, lamps, wires, toy pianos, cubes, drawers, and cabinets on top of your traditional instruments.

New Reality speaks about the new life we receive from Christ and how it should look different from the old life. Often we find ourselves reliant on false securities guised as money, or even healthy relationships. If Christ truly calls us to be completely dependent on Him, we can find no security in our human born wisdom. This is a terrifying notion, as we are sometimes called into dangerous and volatile situations. Just remember - Christ is our true and only rock.

Look out for Daniel and the Sparrows' new single "New Reality", out on February 3rd!

We shall meet again some day

I'm sure many of you are wondering who dear Jane is. Well, literally, here she is in the pictures below (with her husband Robbie, Steff, and I). But figuratively, she's that friend who comes and goes in your life, that someone you consider family even though you only met her at two points in your life.

"We shall meet again some day Our tangent lines do not run straight Following our hearts Like falling rocks, we stray from gravity."

Who is Jane?

A little about Jane and I. Jane, a british lady who runs a trattoria in Bobbio Pellice, and I met as chef and patron. With her being one of the few in town who could speak English, I found myself spending more time in her trattoria. We developed a friendship and discussed food, relationships, passion, and spirituality. It was difficult leaving Bobbio, but I knew I would be back one day. That day came three years later and by then I was in school and married. I was a different person, and so was she. The hike that inspired Dear Jane took place on a surprisingly foggy day. That day, we crossed the border to France, which was a sentimental accomplishment to Jane and I because we attempted this same hike three years ago, but failed to succeed due to dangerous weather conditions. While hiking, I contemplated the strange relationship I had with Jane - how we became close friends, in spite of our geographical and generational gap.

I learned that all relationships need space, and that space isn't to be shunned. I learned to embrace the people who come and go in my life, and to fill my heart, not with the sorrow of separation, but with the joy of having met, and the further joy of knowing we will meet again, if God wills it.

Dear Jane (chorus) "Dear Jane is like the woods and we flow through like a river. If we linger for too long in the mountains, we may flood this valley"

Sweet Autumn and Summer Days

It's been three years since I moved to Chicago. Since then, I went through several life changes. I got married, I became a music director at a church, and I began developing my musical and technical skills at a higher level. As such, Chicago has a special place in my heart. For one, my wife is from the region. While I was on the ship, Chicago presented itself in my mind as a gift-giver – the bringer of my wife. Now that I'm a part of this community, I decided to give something back.

“Chicago Skyline”, which was recorded in one day in my apartment in old town Chicago, is an ode to the great city and its people. In the short three years that I've been here, I've watched the city change, and yet it has also seemed to remain the same. Perhaps it is more like staring at the face of a rotating diamond that catches the light in ways never done before. This song is my gift to the city and to you.