Hi Friends,

I’m getting pretty excited about my upcoming tour, which kicks off Friday 10/15 in Santa Cruz. Adding fuel to my fire is this tour poster that my awesome friend Anna Friedland designed.

What’s “The War on Gravity” all about? It’s an evolution (and elevation of) the flying pig mascot/motif from my album cover.  I was kicking around ideas for a tour theme. When the idea sparked for “The War on Gravity,” framed by a winged pig in space, I had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of it. But more than just being amusing, the shoe fit–if a pig could take wing and defy gravity, what’s to stop it from going off into space?

A few have asked, so why the flying pig in the first place (as the album cover for “First to Believe”).  The flying pig represents a deliberately whimsical take on the impossible. Forging a career as an indie-artist is tough—it seems nearly impossible at times to get things off the ground. A big part of what keeps me going is a blind-eye, tenacious sense of play…still feeling like the kid in his room making up mulit-track beat-box raps using two tape recorders (that’s how I got my songwriting start). I wanted an image that put these two different elements together—the heavy and almost ridiculousness undertaking with the underlying sense of play and wonder that fuel it. Hence, a large flying hog.