On Playing Under Your Own Name

Having recently retired the Jacksonism moniker entirely (goodbye, connotations of failure and bad decision-making!), I’m proud to have my first show as Stephen Carradini and the Midnight Sons tonight. Interestingly, I will not have the Midnight Sons with me, but I am playing the songs on which they are collaborating with me. It’s the first time I’ve played live in three and a half years. I thoroughly anticipate that it will not be the last time.

I am excited to be playing under my own name. I have long derided people who play under their own name, because I felt that they were not creative enough to think up a name or friendly enough to find good musicians to play with. But I am finding now that there is good in it; you can’t break up with yourself, for one. For another, you can pick and leave off; you don’t have to be hard-charging at music all the time. You don’t have others to support, so it doesn’t have to be your all-encompassing passion. It must be at least a passion, but it doesn’t have to be your only one.

So, playing under my own name allows me a freedom to change, morph, waste time, get prolific, or whatever. I’m still me, releasing an album. It’s good.

So, if you want, come out to Starbucks on Campus Corner, 6:00 p.m. and watch me play some tunes that are going to be on my upcoming album “How We Live.” I am so excited.