"Truthfully, it wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I fully realized the ubiquitous role The Bouncing Souls have played in my life. The first time I ever left my hometown in rural Northwest Pennsylvania to see a show, I rode in the trunk of my friend’s car two hours west to Cleveland. I was 11 years old at the time, and that night The Bouncing Souls were playing at the Agora Ballroom.
"That night, I crowdsurfed for the first time, which I didn’t really know how to do, but I think my friend Marc thought it’d be funny to hoist an 11-year-old with leopard-print hair up to the stage. I remember falling onto the monitor and Greg reaching down and pulling me up. He asked my name, and if I’d sing the next song with them, to which I agreed, though I was terrified. I did my best to follow, but was mostly just nervous. The only way off the stage was to crowd surf my way back down so that’s what I tried to do. The first time I was ever on stage was that night. I wouldn’t say it went great, but I’ll always remember that moment and that show.
"When I was 14, my friends had been asked to go on the road opening for The Bouncing Souls on the west coast. That was the first time I had been so far outside of the Northeast, aside from visiting family down in Texas. Watching the Souls every night and what they were able to create through music, as well as traveling through areas that seemed so foreign to me, deconstructed the confines of my little hometown. I felt hopeful for the first time, like music was a way out, and it was on that trip that I realized that I had to follow it.
"There is a sort of magic that the Souls emanate. Later in my life after establishing myself more with my songs, I reconnected with Kate before a show I was playing down in Florida. Our friendship reintroduced the Souls into my life in a big way. I’ve learned so much about the way I want to approach making music from being able to watch, listen and share with the Souls over all these years. Most recently, I got the opportunity to travel abroad with them. On that tour, about 20 years after the show in Cleveland, Greg taught me how to properly crowdsurf.
"I can’t help but wonder where I’d be if it wasn’t for that first show, that tour in California, and all the other moments I’ve been able to share with them. Music brought us together, like it has so many, and I’m grateful that it holds us here. As a music maker, it’s easy to be discouraged. There is no shortage of things in this era that can make the creative individual want to hang it up. But it seems that so often when I’ve found myself at those crossroads, the Souls have come back around, showed me that there’s a different way, another world, and reminded me to keep going.
"This, to me, is the magic that is The Bouncing Souls."