Don Cusack in High Fidelity Turns 15

Remembering my first solo album and the headspace I was in while making it.

Mar 25, 2025

The other day

reminded me that my first solo project is hitting that 15 year milestone. It’s an album that I occasionally sit with and rarely acknowledge but love immensely.

This anniversary snuck up on me so this post isn’t as comprehensive as I wanted it to be. It’s more or less just a bunch of loose thoughts about the album, how it was made and a few extra photos.

Like this gem from an unreleased music video that I found on an old hard drive of photos.

A still from a video the December 27th video.

I might have to load that video onto my Bandcamp page for the real fans.

THOUGHTS

For the most part I enjoy exploring my back catalog but this album is kind of hard (for me) to listen to. My dad died around the time I started working on it and my daughter was born two months before as it’s release. I guess God has some kind of one in one out policy or something.

I recorded it all in my tiny shared one bedroom apartment and when I listen to it I can literally hear that room. I didn’t have much. It was basically the ‘Damn bitch, you live like this?’ meme. And while my (love) life is in a much better place now it’s just hard for me to sit with this album and not be thrust back into the world that it was created in.

(Fun fact: I remember Rob Riggle who was on The Daily Show at the time came over to record some vocals for a thing they were doing and he was like “uh… I thought you said you had a studio?” Oh to be young-ish and naive again…)

I found a photo of my old set up. Yes that is a beach chair. Bask in the opulence.

We were courting managers at the time and we had met with one who strongly advised us against dropping solo projects so close to Brooklynati. Cleary we did not listen. We also didn’t end up working with him but in his defense I think that the person we ended up going with, Alex Damashek of Move Forward Music gave us the same advice. Again, we did not listen lol.

The ideas for some songs were bigger than the execution which makes it hard for me to actually hear how charming some of the songs are. At best I can hear what I was going for and hoped they’d be but I also think that’s a me thing more than anything. Most of the songs lived up to the ideas that I had for them but there are a handful that didn’t make it seem to taint the whole bunch for me.

The album was mixed by a guy named Ethan DeLorenzo and I haven’t spoken to him in years but just doubled back to see what he’s been up to and he’s doing photography now. A lot can change in 15 years! I am pretty sure my project was one of his firsts and really enjoyed working with him on it.

This album never made it to vinyl and while I could absolutely go crazy with the bonuses and easter eggs I don’t know if there are enough people willing to buy it so I’m hesitant to press it up. Maybe I’ll do it for the 20 year when even more people have forgotten about it haha.

This is the guy who made that album. If anyone ever wants some Donwill memorabilia for their museum I still have those glasses.

NOTES ABOUT A FEW SONGS

December 27th is one of the most well written songs on the album. It’s the one that always stops me in my tracks. I think I wrote it in my old childhood bedroom while my dad’s death was still a very fresh feeling.

It’s still VERY wild to me that I got Opio to play Ian on the album. I don’t know if I ever got to tell him that his pony tail was one of the main reasons I needed him to play Ian on the album. It’s also crazy that I got beat from A-Plus. He produced 93 Til Infinity… FUCKING CRAZY!!

Ragen Fykes was the unsung hero of this album. I remember asking her to sing a few hooks that I had written for the album and her response was something to the extent of ‘I don’t like singing words that I didn’t write’. I think the compromise was that she could have her own song on the album which is why Hey Baby was just a Ragen Fykes song. She wanted to do it as a duet but I wasn’t confident enough to sing with her. Funny enough, Hey Baby is my favorite song on the album.

I have thought about making a sequel but I don’t think I ever will. I do think about it tho, especially after that limited series reboot on Hulu.

I legit thought I could act after doing the monologues… LOL

VIDEOS

Marques Green shot and directed the video for Laura’s Song. He was also my roommate in that old apartment. Finding an apartment on Craigslist only to have the person you rent from direct your video is such a New York story.

It was a very fun video to shoot and I pulled in so much of my community to make it happen. Shouts to Jasika, George and Kristy, Von Pea, Che Grand, Amenan, Michelle, Sonya, Fat Beats, Bob’s Bar, Audible Treats and Common Ground (RIP).

I don’t remember what the budget was for this and I’d be shocked if it was more than a thousand dollars. I am so proud of this video.

A scene with an actual actor is solid proof that I, in fact could NOT act lol. Jasika carried this scene and I am standing there with very solid ‘i don’t know what to do with my hands’ energy.

This was shot in George and Kristy’s old apartment. I miss that place so much.

My acting is way better here but mostly because I am not doing anything haha. Von on the other hand turned around an Oscar award winning performance.

Shout out to DJ Eclipse for letting us use Fat Beats to shoot this in. Glad I got to use such a landmark in this video.

This video was shot somewhere in deep Queens by these guys that went by 5486 films. I think I met them through Che Grand and they also did a clip for December 27th but I don’t think that it ever released. I’ll upload it to the Bandcamp page if i can find it.

The infamous Wallpaper remix of Love Junkie. At the time I thought that this song was such a curveball for people. Who expected the dude from the backpack rap group to willingly make a 117 BPM four on the floor indie pop banger?

The folks in this video are legends at this point. Wallpaper is Ricky Reed and not only is Lizzo’s main producer but also works with everyone from Jason Derulo to Tinashe. Derek G Taylor, Josh Lippi, Ben Schwier and Nate Mercereau. A killers row of musicians!

THE MIXTAPE

In keeping with the theme of the movie I cast King Most to play DJ Rob Gordon and put out a mixtape of mostly new music and a few of the songs from the album. It’s a really dope project and that Love Life remix is definitely one of the best songs in my discography.