Guitar Player magazine described tracks from this project as existing "in a wierd middle ground between [my] rocker heroes and [my] newer, artier idols." This is the sound of the arena-rock anthems, shred-guitar fixations, and meticulous-yet-stiff drum machine programming of my midwestern youth, as it collides head-on with my CalArts studies of odd time signatures, looping, and advanced guitar lessons.

For me, listening back to it now - five years after the fact - is the musical equivalent of gazing at some particularly awkward high school yearbook photos: you can see signs of the maturity to come, but you'll have to put up with the acne, the jean jacket, and... oh man, that HAIR.

What you hear on this page is NOT the entirety of The Prodigal Son Comes Clean as it was originally completed. The tracks collected here represent a little more than half of the project: they're the ones that have either aged the best... or embarass me the least.