My CD

Songs from the album Genuinely Nineteen:

1. Free Me
- soft rock
- this song is about imprisonment of the poor, helpless animals that are trapped in cages in factory farms across the US. These animals can feel pain, just like humans, and we should understand that there's no need to torture an animal just because "it's going to end up dead anyways".

2. Gone
- soft rock
- this song tells two individual stories, one about a girl, one about a boy, who both ran away from home. They each have their own reasons for leaving home, their school, their friends, never to return again. But the song is meant to reflect on the large number of children that are homeless and dig deeper to see why that number really is so high. Most kids "run away" at some point or another during their childhood, but the ones that never come back...well, there's usually a reason for that.

3. The American Dream
- soft rock
- "Welcome to the 21st-century: the American Dream". This song pokes fun at America, and everything it has become. We try to portray America as a place where dreams come true, but with so many people without health insurance, the over-population, polution, corruption, and crime-rates...America isn't really something I'd like to dream about. Would you?

4. Hollywood
- soft rock
- This song is about a girl who wants nothing more than to be famous, drive a bright red car, get that second glance. Sure, everyone wants to be famous, but why? What can really make the human heart happy? Is it how many "things" we have or how popular we are? Or is it what we do that defines us as people and, more importantly, that what we're doing is ethical and noble. Does being a famous singer really help anyone? What about joining the Peace-Corps, where no one knows who you are or even speaks your native language?

5. Automoton
- punk rock
- This song is written from a teenager's perspective. Sometimes we (teenagers) feel like we are living someone else's life - or living our lives for someone else. It's almost as if we are programmed: wake up, go to school, do homework, repeat. If I want to leave home when I'm 16 to go join a band and follow my dreams, why can't I? If I would rather take 7 hours of ballet 5 days-a-week, why can't I quit school and become a dancer? Why do we always just do what we're told? What about the things that WE want?

6. Better Half
- soft rock
- A story about a man who loves his wife, his soul-mate, his life partner, this song explores the mysteries of the human heart. Do humans truly "mate" for life? This song proves that some can.

7. Here With Me
- soft rock
- This is a song about death. It's hard to believe that emotional problems can take hold of a person's life and even harder to believe that emotional pain can suddenly turn into physical pain, but all of this can happen. And it does. The concept of loss is a complicated one, and this song tells about the pain of losing a loved one and the phases of greif, all ending in acceptance.

8. A Day at the Beach
- soft rock
- This song is mainly about stress, caused by anything in our hechtic daily lives. Most of us are too busy and in over our heads when all we really need to do is take life one day at a time, stop and soak up the sunshine or feel the breeze, enjoy the simple pleasures in life.

Lyrics: A Day at the Beach

I say life is like a day at the beach (day at the beach)
Plenty of sun, and warm sand (and warm sand)
Test the water before you jump in (you jump in)
The land strip of life can be so long (be so long)

Chorus:
And even though the sound of the ocean breeze
It turns you on
Sand gets in your eyes, it's hard to see.
The waves crash over
You fight for air, you fight to breathe.
You're in over your head too deep.

Album Cover:
My album, which is titled Genuinely Nineteen, would be a streaky grey background where you can just make out old buildings, leaf-less trees, streets, etc. Everything looks the same. You can also see bold black figures walking along the streets; each figure is facing a different direction and everyone looks disoriented. This image symbolyzes the age 19, and the fact that this is the time when we feel like we don't really know who we are, and we are all just trying to discover ourselves, our purpose, and what truly excites us in this world of monotony.
Obviously, the text for the title of the album would be in bold red, so it would stand out against all the blacks and greys. This is to signify that music is my passion, what truly excites me, and that this album is something extraordinary.