Anti-Social Extrovert

“Anti-Social Extrovert” came from me realizing I’m a walking contradiction and being completely comfortable with it. I can walk into a room, talk to anybody, make people laugh, lead, perform, connect…and still reach a point where I want everybody to respectfully disappear. 😂

That contradiction became the song. How can somebody genuinely love people but need solitude just as much? How can you be outgoing without wanting constant access to everybody...or everybody having constant access to you?

I wanted the lyrics to live inside that gray area instead of trying to diagnose it or put it in some neat little box. The record plays with self-awareness, social batteries, isolation, overstimulation, humor and that strange feeling of being fully present while part of you is already planning the escape route.

The title gave me the doorway. From there I built the lyrics around contradictions, metaphors, internal rhymes, conversational bars and little psychological fingerprints. I wanted people to hear it and go, “Wait…damn. That’s me.”

I wrote the song and shaped the production around the lyrics. My process usually starts with the truth before the beat. I figure out what the song is actually trying to say, then I build the drums, bass, textures, vocal delivery and arrangement around that emotion.

With “Anti-Social Extrovert,” the music needed swagger on the outside and breathing room underneath it...the same way the character in the song can look completely comfortable socially while internally guarding his peace.

That’s really the heart of what I call Forensic Soul. I like taking something we experience all the time but rarely examine, putting it under a lyrical microscope, and seeing what evidence is hiding underneath.

I’ve been writing songs for more than 30 years, poetry for nearly 30, and making beats for almost 25. At this point, one of my favorite parts of creating is taking one strange thought, sentence, contradiction or life experience and asking:

“Okay…where’s the song hiding in this?”