When I sat down to write "Brighter Days" with my co-writer Lincoln Parrish, we had a blast and a pretty easy time sorting this one out. This was the first time we'd written together and sometimes that can be shaky but we knocked this one out in a morning session!

The real story behind this song came down to the recording of the song. When Lincoln and I wrote the song, we had a very energetic work tape, which always seems to help when sitting down with a producer and figuring out direction and energy of a song! When we sat down to record, somehow in the first few sessions of tracking and laying down "base layers" of instruments, the song lost its energy. Suddenly it felt a little sluggish and underwhelming.

I knew the song had more potential, but when you start a recording on the wrong foot, every other over dub you're putting on the track is working to "fix" that instead of serve the song. You have to remember that I'm an independent artist working with a tight budget and that doesn't offer a lot of wiggle room in the studio. So, instead of spending more time on the song or completely starting over on the recording, I decided to can it and record "My Heart Says Go" instead.

A few weeks later, I was sitting with a different writer/producer friend of mine. The thought crossed my mind�"Hey, you should play the work tape of 'Brighter Days' for him and see if he's got any ideas or direction on a recording." As soon as I played it for him, he was in! "Yes," he said, "let's do this!" So, I trusted him and we spent two days recording a new version of the song, and that is what you hear on my new album. And, that's how I ended up with 11 songs on the album!