Jude & the Strangers

In the winter of 2018, I went up to Bear Mountain. I was newly moved, drifting from my younger self and really starting to grow up without any idea of what I was going to do. If there's one key moment that describes the true beginning of my songwriting career, it's that trip to Bear Mountain. I was up on the summit and there was a One Way sign pointing towards the edge of an enormous cliff, something about it struck me as odd and funny. I took a picture of it, I thought it would look cool. I had tried to put together beats in my bedroom and at one point I was even thinking of becoming a rapper. I love hip hop but it just didn't feel like me. After I saw that one way sign on the top of the mountain I went home and went down into my basement and wrote what I consider to be my first actual song, as in, an original piece of music. Everything before that was recordings of me singing or rapping over sounds I got off the internet and sampled into a beat, but this wasn't. This was mine. As you can probably tell, it was all off from there. I bought a new 4 track interface, took all the guitars in the house (of which there are many being from a family of musicians) downstairs into the basement, set the drums up, bought a couple of microphones and recorded my first full album filled with nothing but completely original material. I knew nothing, but I came out with something that will forever be the starting point to whatever I create for the rest of my life. There's plenty of recording flaws on this album, the high end shrieks sometimes, some of the material I find regrettable but I was 16 when I started this. I think there's some really pretty moments on this album and it kinda has this joyful kid like energy. I didn't know what I was doing but I had so much heart into it that I found some magic moments, like the drum sound on Shallow Wave or Maria Take My Hand's arrangement. I released this album under the name Jude, this was before I changed to Jude & the Strangers. But this will forever serve as kind of a hidden demo to anyone who goes peaking a little further past the music J&TS makes.