https://siebass.bandcamp.com/album/2025-highlights

A year in music, from me.

In 2025 I wrote, covered, or collaborated on 27 songs; pretty good this year, a little fewer than last year, but still a number I’m happy with. They were almost all written for songwriting communities or contests such as FAWM, SpinTunes, Nur Ein, or SongFight; some are more raw than others.

I wanted to share this curated list of the ones that are my favorite songs I’ve written from this year, the top 5 that I think are a cut above (or worlds above some of the worst ones, heh) the rest.

1. You’ll Never Break it Again (A song about growth, and I just do so love the chord progression from “Creep”)

2. Pyramids (A silly song about building a time machine that only goes backwards. My kids love this song)

3. The Butterfly Garden in the Zoo (A song about spreading my brother’s ashes; I think this is the best song I wrote this year by far)

4. I’m a Creator (I won a close SongFight challenge against 8 other song entries to write a song for the title “I’m a Creator”) www.songfight.org/songpage.php?key=im_a_creator)

5. Tomorrow I’ll be better (A song written in honor of a songwriter acquaintance who took their own life just this fall; this song was written in an attempt to write a song in her style, a song about something deeply personal, possibly dark, in a relatable way that hopefully reaches other people with an uplifting message)

There’s a non-zero percent chance I get around to pulling together one album of kids songs and one album of personal songs in 2026 from all the music I’ve created in the last nine years, but getting my second album out the door has been on my list since 2020 and still as-of-yet un-started, so I’m not holding my breath, nor should you.

I also was interviewed as a special guest artist on a song review podcast related to these songwriting contests, so if you’d like to hear some interviews with me, or my commentary on the entries of Spintunes 25, Round 2, or a pretty interesting discussion about my song, “The Butterfly Garden in the Zoo,” with the hosts, you can find that

here http://twojerksonevote.com/chaps/ST25R2_TJ1V/chap-03.mp3,

here twojerksonevote.com/posts/st25r2/,

and here twojerksonevote.com/chaps/ST25R2_TJ1V/chap-29.mp3, from the Two Jerks One Vote podcast.