October 7, 2023, was a tragic and fateful day. My family and I were camping on the bank of the Jordan River in northern Israel when we heard that Hamas had attacked the south, and that the nation was now at war. A few hours later, a line of mobile artillery noisily clamored past us, not 50 meters from our campsite. It’s a terrible, fearful noise – hardened, metallic, merciless screeching, unyielding and leaden. Soon we felt the ground shaking as those same artillery shelled Hezbollah positions in South Lebanon.

The uncertainty, grief, and fear permeating Israeli society at that time were palpable. One thing, though, was, sadly, very certain: the coming years would be very trying for the entire country, and if one had a place to which to escape, one should not shun such an opportunity lightly.

Thus, my family and I made the extremely difficult, painful decision to uproot our lives and return to Northern California, where I grew up, to wait out the storms of rockets and heartbreaking news. The disruption such a move represented to our lives – to our childrens' lives – seemed, at the time, the lesser evil.

Music has always been a therapy for me; when I need to cry, it embraces me; when I need to celebrate, it leads me in dance. It has been a better friend to me than I to myself, a rock for solace when I’m dizzy in life’s maelstrom. Thus, when my time at BackBox came to an amiable end in the summer of 2024, I was left with an incontestable urge to channel the previous year’s intensity into something creative, something musical – something to soothe my soul, which was aching badly. Thus I embarked on a new journey, the first in my life: the composition of an album.

Six months later, working often 14-hour days (sometimes more), I have now eleven songs that I am very, very close to being ready to release; I need to only record the horn sections (know of any baritone sax players in the bay?), have it mastered, and take the final step of surrender (perhaps the most difficult), to release it into the world. During this time my co-producer was my wonderful brother who I love very much, Michael Beck; together we are The Brothers Beck. Here I offer you a sneak peak to one of the album’s tracks. If you’d like to hear the other tracks when they’re ready, please enter your email address here and follow us on Bandcamp!

Thank you for reading and listening! I ardently hope that this music can bring to the world some of the comfort it has brought to me.