Today is August 3, 2026. It is my late cousin Skyler's birthday, and it is the exact day I am releasing my new single, "Basement to the Attic," officially on all streaming platforms.
https://too.fm/basementtotheattic
This is the most important song I have ever put out. It is my official debut in the Midwest Shadow Folk genre. There are no big hip-hop beats, no polished electronic production, and no studio magic. It is just me, an unvarnished acoustic guitar, and my raw vocals, recorded with all the mistakes left in on purpose because life isn't edited and I am done pretending that mine is.
But the real weight of this song is in the guitar itself.
In late 2018, I was lost in active addiction, deep in a drug-induced psychosis, and decided to run away from Wisconsin. On my way out west, I stopped in Illinois to visit my Aunt Paula and my cousin Skyler to hug them goodbye. Skyler was autistic, and he spent most of his time up in his attic bedroom while my aunt was downstairs. He came down, we talked, and he took a picture with me. I had no idea it would be the last time I ever saw him.
A few hours into my drive, my phone rang. It was Aunt Paula, crying. She told me I was the last person to see Skyler alive before he passed away. I was in complete shock. I kept driving, numb, going back to Phillips after the three day weekend at my friend's house in Omaha, The next spring I went through Colorado, Oregon, and Texas, living in my Camry and delivering food with a new girlfriend, completely avoiding the grief.
When that journey finally collapsed in 2021, my car died and my relationship fell apart. I was crushed. I went back to Illinois and stayed at my Aunt Paula's house for two weeks. I stayed up in Skyler's attic, which was still untouched. I sat up in his room, isolated, smoking weed, and feeling the heavy presence of him and honestly I got closure feeling like I got to spend time with him but I still can't imagine what it was like for my aunt.
Paula gave me Skyler's acoustic guitar. I brought it back to my mom's attic in Phillips, Wisconsin, and that physical instrument has become my lifeline. I learned how to play chords on his strings, and I recorded this entire album using his guitar. One isolated soul in an attic passed his instrument to another isolated soul in an attic.
The song is called "Basement to the Attic" because that is the literal and metaphorical story of my life.
When I was 13 years old, living in Beloit, Wisconsin, I was dealing with a strict dad and the emotional grief from my grandma passing. I retreated to my basement bedroom and started writing my very first lyrics in a notebook to escape.
Now, at 37 years old, I am sitting in my mom's attic. Metaphorically, I fought like hell to climb the stairs out of the basement of my trauma, my years of heavy meth use, and my financial struggles. But instead of walking out onto the main floor of normal life, relationships, and balance, I bypassed it completely and went straight into the intellectual isolation of the attic.
We all do this. We build basements out of our shame, our secrets, and our coping mechanisms and when we finally try to heal, we build attics of isolation to keep ourselves safe from being seen too closely. We tell ourselves we are protecting others, but we are really just hiding in high places.
Radical honesty means admitting exactly where I am today. I am not standing here as a perfectly redeemed, polished Christian success story. I am still a guy navigating addiction, still dealing with a heavy dopamine debt, and still waiting on a professional evaluation to figure out if my brain is actually AuDHD instead of just bipolar.
But I am no longer running. I am staying in the room with my shadows instead of putting a state line between myself and my pain. I am not editing out the cracks in my voice or the mistakes in my guitar playing because those imperfections are exactly what make me human.
This is the core of #EmbraceF8. We all share the same fate. It just isn't the same date. The clock is ticking, so why waste time performing a version of yourself that isn't real? The only way out of the dark is to drag the shadows into the light and own the mess.
My brand hyFen8ed is no longer a record label or an entertainment company. It is God's bridge. The hyphen is the literal connection between K (representing the innocent kid I was) and Holla (representing the survival armor I had to wear). Releasing this song, playing Skyler's guitar, and telling you this story is my way of walking across that bridge.
If you are currently sitting in your own basement, or hiding out in your own attic, know that you do not have to carry that weight alone. You can join this community of broken but trying souls as we figure out how to stand in the light together.
Join me and let's walk this bridge one step at a time.
You can sign up at www.hyFen8ed.com
Like Skyler said... LIGHTS ON!