It could be that throughout my entire life my Dad was a General Contractor who built custom homes, that I think building a home is a good analogy for many other concepts in this life. If you’re going to build something, why not build a strong foundation and embellish it with beauty, personality, and meaning so you want to live there. Now, I’m not a general contractor, but I am a songwriter, and there is an exercise that I practice often wherein writing a song is akin to constructing a house. Once again, you start with a well-made structure (you know, your verses, choruses, and bridge), you build walls with chord progressions and melodies, and then you finish the design with tempo, lyrics, and harmony.

Here at cityhomeCOLLECTIVE we love to approach the concept of home with a lot of ideas, opinions, and love. We ask ourselves constantly what home is to our community and ourselves. I see our little COLLECTIVE as being a disruptor in the oftentimes cold and fast world of real estate. We do our best to offer a personal experience to those wanting to purchase or sell a home or just be at home in their bodies. And, as the guy at the front desk, I feel like it’s my job to ensure that our spaces feel welcoming and that folks are taken care of when they walk through our door. That it all feels like home. 

Before I was an Office Manager at cityhomeCOLLECTIVE, I was the Musical Arts Instructor at Spy Hop where I taught songwriting to teenagers for 10 years. I mentored kids through the process of writing and performing songs; to get their musical ideas out of their heads and onto recordings and stages around Salt Lake City. And, more importantly, to ditch that imposter syndrome that can come along with creative experimentation and making stuff. It was the perfect outlet for me to make use of all the experiential knowledge I had from years of being in my own bands.

Finally, I could do more than tell tour stories at the bar, I could teach kids!

If you don’t know about Spy Hop, you should. Spy Hop is a Salt Lake City not-for-profit epicenter of creative vibes made for young, aspiring filmmakers, musicians, and designers that has been in our midst for 25 years now! It’s a home and much needed grounding space for kids from all walks of life who need a studio roof over their heads, a badass team of artist mentors, and maybe most importantly, a forgiving place to land as they make missteps on their paths. Lucky for us Salt Lakers, all of this goodness is wrapped up in a tidy package of free after school programs at Spy Hop for any interested teenager. It should be said, it’s no wonder that Spy Hop is celebrating 25 years as it’s also home to an amazing Staff and Board of adult artists, deep thinkers, and free spirits who set the tone for the space and raise the funds to keep this wild dream alive.

It was my personal focus, obsession, and work home for 14 years.

I used to teach all my Spy Hop students the analogy of songwriting as building a home. Both songs and houses need a strong structure to ensure they’ll stay upright, as well as finishing touches to bring out the personal aesthetic. To me, it’s an easy concept to grasp. It’s also very meta, as Spy Hop offers a very literal home for these kids to learn, dream, and create art alongside one another. Through the iterative process of art creation, Spy Hop kids learn about (and comment on) the world around them and their place in it. They concieve and create structured projects while being in a place where the overarching focus is physical and creative safety. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Sounds like home!

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the concept of home is important for people.

To use songwriting terms, we’re looking for that 5 chord to lead us right into the 1. In my life, as an artist and a grown-ass adult, I’m still searching for the secrets to solve the creative puzzle and to help make my personal spaces feel comforting and safe. My upbringing, my musical passion, my songwriting, my family and friends, and the places I’ve worked have all been my homes. 

If you’d like to learn more about Spy Hop, that magical place that can help kids become the people that they want to be or realize who they already are, visit www.spyhop.org. And, please consider signing your kids up for their remarkable programs, or perhaps donating to the cause as it’s communities like us that sustain these important spaces.