Album notes:

​

In college someone told me I need to write love songs. This album wasn't written because of that statement, but if I had a way to talk to the person who told me that, I'd tell her, "I finally wrote some love songs."

​

Kissing With Open Eyes is my seventh full-length album and the first that deals exclusively with a romantic relationship. Though the album is very personal to me, I hope that others can find some of the feelings relatable. It goes through the first seven months of a relationship and deals with the highs of first dates, the pain of non-commitment and betrayal, the confusion of self-reliance, and the bittersweet peace of wanting what's best, even if that's the end.

Kissing With Open Eyes takes its title from a line in the song "Parlor City," which says "I'll kiss your lips and watch your eyes to find it." I was told that too often we kiss with our eyes closed and that we should learn to kiss with our eyes open to really get to know people. The title also refers to seeing relationships for what they really are, not what often we're told they will be. While going through the first year of this relationship (and concurrently writing the album), I found that I wasn't always experiencing the warm, fuzzy, sunshine love we often hear about. It was often full of warmth and joy, but other times it was messy and painful and full of mistakes. I was kissing with open eyes and seeing that love isn't always pretty.