Most people don`t know this but this record was written in the weeks and months that followed the events on September 11, 2001. My wife and I had just returned home from spending 10 days on Lake Powell and the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Southwest. The beauty and peace of those 10 days inspired me to come home and write. Then a week later, the tragic events of 9/11 would further inspire me and then in November of 2001, we found out we were expecting our first child. So Be Your Own was truly inspired by beauty, tragedy and the promise of new life.

Be Your Own is a dark album no doubt but its also one full of promise. After my wife and I found out we were expecting, I actually wrote most of the lyrics to this record as if I were speaking to my child, especially songs like "In An End, A Beginning" and "Happy Mothers Day". And of course for the discerning listener, you`ll hear much of my own spiritual struggles and yearnings in the lyrics.

It was important for me to include as much information in the