Documentary Filmmaker Lucras Negroni visited my studio in LA and we spoke over the course of two days about various aspects of my work and career.

As an artist, being pigeonholed is an unfortunate reality that comes with the territory. It can be frustrating to be cast into the same pools as things you might find distasteful, poorly executed, or weakly related ... But these associations are rarely malicious. They are judgments, often based on a small sample size ... a single point in space. People try to pin things down as static objects. It's a convenient shortcut that fails to illuminate the complexity of our world. We're all dynamic beings moving through space and time.

I think the frustration I sometimes feel comes from an inherent desire to feel connected to people. I use my work as a way to connect to the world. On occasion people do manage to see what I am trying to express in my work and that is a very gratifying feeling. But often people find their own meaning in the work and it's been an ongoing process to accept that, especially when there is a consensus of which you are not a part.

Once you make something and release it out into the world, it can be hard to let go. But to find a healthy sense of distance from the work at that point helps to accept that others will experience it in their own way. There will always be some new genre, or some new piece of pop that people are influenced by, and no one's work exists in a vacuum. What you make will get caught up in the greater school of culture whether you like it or not. I've found it helpful to try and detach myself from the minutiae of external perceptions, whether they are collective or individual. I just try to focus on myself and my work.

If I'm doing the right things, I think I'll always be a few steps ahead, people trying to pin me down by the tail as I move past. And I'll always be misunderstood. Mostly.

I grew up in a complicated, but loving family. I discovered my talent and love of music as a teenager, and rode the wave of excitement I had for my gift for many years, all the way up into my 30s.

I had a lot of career success along the way, but with time the way I lived began to feel detached and empty. Many of my relationships were either superficial, or conflict-averse and lacking the honesty required of true bonds. While being authentic has been a calling card of my work, my desire to please others hindered my ability to live that same way.

Eventually, it all caught up to me. I wasn't following the path I was supposed to be on, and as a result my passion for work suffered immensely. I tried (and failed) to use my career as a distraction as I struggled to cope with familial deaths and relational issues in my life. As I leaned harder into my work, I lost all sense of enjoyment for it, and seriously considered calling it quits.

It took hitting rock bottom for me to get my life on track.

Not long after, I met my future wife in the unlikeliest of ways and we eventually moved across the country to be near my family and ailing Mom. I hadn't lived near her in almost two decades. Our courtship was difficult and full of challenges we were ill prepared to face. But we cried out to God together, and He carried us through dark times we could not survive alone.

All in the span of a year, we gave our lives to Jesus, got married, lost my mother to cancer, and welcomed our first child into the world. And yet it's easy to see how close we were to the brink before, and how none of the good parts would have been possible at all without surrendering to the saving grace of God.

There are still great challenges in my life, and I'm sure there always will be. But the more I give things up to "the big guy upstairs", as my grandfather used to call Him, the simpler it becomes for me to know which direction to go.

It's not in my nature to share publicly about my personal life, but should you come across this testimony, I hope you know that God is with you always. He loves you. And I owe him everything.