DJCM

After much delay, I have finished "Anthem, Part I: Summer Review." I admit, I've been procrastinating and just incredibly busy with work and family stuff. It has taken some time, a few edits and I have a few things to go over before I publish Part I. I started working on this months ago with the intent of releasing it late August but just couldn't find the time to get it done. I was being pressured by some people (won't mention any names) to release something soon so...here it is. "Anthem, Part I: Summer Revue" promises to be a fun, lively and energetic dedication to what this summer truly was: full of friends and fun. Another exciting part about this series is that each song will be a "Chapter" of the podcast with song titles and artwork; so you can take note of what the songs are and rewind/repeat the song without trouble. Special thanks to my best friend, Mike Maven of Young Pandas (http://www.youngpandasband.com) for his assistance in this creation and Michael Pytka--one of my Boston boys, for being such a sweetheart and a hottie to allow me to use him as the cover for the sneak preview. I admit, the cover for this preview was last minute--I promise the artwork cover for Parts I and II will be truly incredible. Until next time... -DJCM

Well, it's finally here. I started working on this while in the midst of a 13-hour flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California. This is the first musical production I have put together. A lot has happened over the course of the last two months--this has been one of my many outlets next to spending time with my son, working out obsessively and overtraining; and eating Chipotle everyday. On this flight, I was going over my entire music library, trying to figure out what songs I wanted and what order I was going to put them in and kept looking over at the gorgeous blonde 31-year old from Toronto who I impulsively brought with me--the rebound, as he's called. Next to him in the lie-flat bed lay my eight-year old son who has gone through the incredible ordeal of dealing with grief, loss and death for the very first time. There's a significant amount of sadness, heartbreak, anger (at myself) and mourning within this mixset--a hodgepodge of emotions I've been going through since mid-March. While what has happened lately is not the biggest atrocity or heartbreak in the world, it's still raw. It's fresh. It's still mine. I lost my last grandparent--an incredibly sweet, honorable and lovely woman who I miss dearly. I lost the first man I've loved since 2006--never being able to tell him how I felt or why I loved him. I tried to fight it; tried heavily to convince myself I was wrong and that it was pre-mature. But in the end, I know what I was feeling was true. And I fucked it up and lost it. For months, I was incredibly, magically, disgustingly happy--where life was almost perfect. My grandmother was doing wonderfully considering her age; and I had reconnected and finally had my chance with someone I've always had my heart set on for six years and was willing to be patient for everything to come together. All of that is seen through the first song of the mixset, "What A Feeling featuring Kelly Rowland." Then boom--all of it was gone. I gave up on trying to figure out how and why everything imploded. Rather, I have focused on moving forward with all the other awesome things going on in my life. This podcast is a musical explanation of what I am going through--from the beginning of how things were to some of the emotions I felt (and still kinda feel). The music is a demonstration of thoughts and emotions going on in my head and in my heart. However, despite all of this, "Indestructible" also reflects that despite pain, heartbreak and loss, I still remain indestructible; that life goes on and there's still brilliance, resolve and resiliency at the end of whatever we go through in life. Until next time... -DJCM