Over a year in the making, White Collar Crime is now available exclusively through yours truly.  Recorded at Birchwood Studios and mixed by Doug Johnston at Cue Recording in Northern Virginia, White Collar Crime is told more like a novel than an album.  Twelve brand-new songs will illuminate you about the fall of Wall Street, the rise of terrorism, the perils of complacency and codependency, the hope for a way out and the promise of a new generation. 

After the release of my first album, A Critical State of Affairs, I became more concerned with success in my day job than in my music. For a couple of years I thought I was suffering a major writer’s block. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was researching the concept for my next album.

White Collar Crime started to emerge two years before its release, with life in DC/Northern VA my primary inspiration. We became the Silicon Valley of the East Coast during the boom of the late 90s. When the bubble broke, I personally knew more people without a job than with one (myself included). We were also victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a fact that gets lost in the shadow of the World Trade Center. We were victims of an Anthrax attack. We were held hostage for weeks by a pair of snipers who struck from nowhere and stayed in the shadows. Now many of our friends and neighbors who wear the uniform are overseas as the war drums bang louder.

Some of these songs are direct accounts of my life over the past several years. Other songs come from observation of others during these times of woe, doubt and fear. As a result, not everything that has been written in first person necessarily comes from personal experience. Instead, I’ve tried to put myself in the shoes of many, looking at the world through different sets of lenses, and then finally superimposing my own perspective and experiences over these observations. Hopefully the result is something everybody can relate to.

While I’ve structured the album so each song can stand on its own, if you listen to it start to finish, like a miniature play in three acts, it provides greater depth as a commentary on American life. Act One deals with the rise and fall of corporate America from 1997-2002. Act Two deals with the impact of external forces on interpersonal relationships. Act Three deals directly with the war on terror, followed by an epilogue that attempts to answer the question underlying all of these issues: “Why?”

White Collar Crime has taken more than a year to write and record, using up every spare moment I could find. As before, I didn’t take the music or the words lightly. I sincerely hope this album reaches you deep inside and reassures you that music can be so much more than the supercilious musical fluff we’re being bombarded with these days. Because you deserve better, I’ve done my best.

White Collar Crime features the powerhouse drumming of Jon Jester.  All other vocals, instruments, and programming were performed by yours truly.

Track listing and sample downloads for White Collar Crime