Ever since I first heard Jimmy Eat World's Futures in the fall of 2004, I've wanted music to be my life. That album sparked an obsession that dominated my high school years and inspired me to pursue a music major in college. Heartbreakingly, things didn't work out on that front/ But when my girlfriend/now wife encouraged me to start writing about music in the summer of 2011, it opened up a new window for me to keep music in my life as college wound down and I prepared to enter the professional world. Five years, a writing degree, hundreds of album reviews, a handful of remarkable interviews with my all-time favorite artists, countless petty arguments with fellow music fans on AbsolutePunk.net and Twitter, and god knows how many hours of music listening later, here I am.

I served as Senior Editor for AbsolutePunk toward the tail end of its run. I write about whatever strikes me over at my blog (furtherfromthesky.blogspot.com), which usually means incredibly personal and introspective essays about the albums and artists that have meant the most to me over the past decade-plus. These days, I especially love folk, alt-country, and roots rock, but the albums I love span many genres.

A few more things: Bruce Springsteen and Butch Walker are my personal Jesuses; the E Street Band is the greatest live act in the history of music; my favorite "band" proper is Jimmy Eat World. That about covers it!