I'm particularly interested in your affinity for Bossa Nova and the inception of that and how that's bled its way into the music that you make.

Yeah, I guess I kind of started listening to Bossa Nova around the same time that I started studying jazz because aside from learning like the standards and learning Charlie Parker tunes and stuff like that, part of the repertoire was learning some of the really popular Bossa Nova tunes like Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado and Wave, I think are like the three that I remember focusing on.

in high school.

But yeah, I think that's kind of how I was introduced to it and then I ended up really liking that type of music and just kept listening to it and it felt When I first started writing my own songs and releasing my own music, it just came out.

I think just because I listened to it a lot and practiced it.

And I would try to learn how to sing it in Portuguese and stuff too.

And I still do that.

What was the message with that record when you were making it? What were you trying to convey?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

It's definitely important.

I would say for me, what I'm thinking about is I'm trying to play, every show that I play, I try to play the best that I've ever played.

Like, play the songs the best that I've ever played, which I definitely don't.

That's not actually how it turns out.

But I like to have that attitude, because I want to be, like, giving my all to every show, if that makes sense.

Mm-hmm.