Wrapped: Sugarland

UPDATE: You can now listen to the soundtrack of Sugarland! Click here!

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In March, I was cast to act as a jazz singer in a movie. The perfect marriage of my worlds.

I sat down with the writer/director, Jason Chiang, who handed me his script: a true labor of love. As we sat in a cafe, I read it the script start-to-finish. It was a story about music and love. A love letter to his own mother and her struggles to come to the USA to give her kids a better life, Jason had written a complex relationship between a mother and a son that hit close to home for me. Not only did I want to act in it, I wanted to write music for it, too. I wanted to help promote his kickstarter, I wanted to help find locations, talent-- I believed in seeing this story come to life.

Along with writing the new song for the movie, which I worked on with the incomparable jazz guitarist Akira Ishiguro, I agreed to re-record one of my older songs, Alphabet Seafoam, to fill out the film's jazz-club scene. Alphabet Seafoam was my first-born: almost ten years ago, this song came to me as a fragile seed as I drifted along in a boat. It's a song about the ebb and flow of a relationship, and moving on when you need to. At first, I was scared to share this

song, but now it has sea-legs of its own. Back then, I didn't even think I could call myself a singer. And now that song has been sung in Israel, France, at Lincoln Center.... the baby has spread its little wings.

As we recorded the song for the movie, I couldn't help but smile thinking of how much the song has grown, and me along side of it. When I listen to it, I hear no regrets: only celebration.

Stay tuned for the release of these recordings, and for updates about "Sugarland!"