Released in May of 2005.

"Grounds" is Derek's first record as a solo artist. It laid the course for the, shall we say, bipolar nature of the rest of his career. Bouncing back and forth between sentimental ballads and rock-based songs, the record shows Derek's full dynamic range. Focusing largely on Christian material, the record made a good starting point, even if it was done more as an obligation than a labor of love.

Says Derek: "'Grounds' was an interesting experience. I had like ten-years of songs that I had to deal with. I had a duty to some of those songs, and also to some people who had expectations of hearing them. I narrowed it down to the ones I felt like I HAD to put on a record, just incase I only got to do one. Stuff like "Fall Apart" and "Beautiful" seemed more necessary than anything else. I'm really glad I have those songs down, but at the same time, I don't really feel like the record was truly representative of who I was as a writer or person at the time. I still do a few of those songs live--a LOT of them, if I'm doing a church gig--but there are some I'd probably have done without were I putting it together today. ("Wonderful" comes screaming to mind. Sorry to anyone who loves that one.)

It was a first project. A learning experience. I engineered it myself, having never done that before. In that respect, I'm extremely proud of the end result--especially considering I was using a VERY sub-par free recording program, in whatever version of Windows I had before XP came out. The odds were against me (laughs)! I don't want to sound like I don't LIKE it, because I do--really. I listened to it not long ago, and I enjoyed it. It's just one of those things that I hear it and think, 'yeah, that's good...but if I could do it NOW, I'd...' whatever. I hear the places I could have done better or fixed. No one else does--or at least no one's said anything.

In all, there are some really GOOD songs there, and I'm really happy with it. Plus, working with Nikomas (Perez, drums) is always a pleasure. I occasionally sell or give away copies of the stuff I've done, and I keep getting really positive reviews on this record--in fact more people probably refer to this one than anything else I've done. That says something. I'm pretty proud of that. I like that the thing that I think of as getting my feet wet is the thing people gravitate toward. Kind of tells me that I should always look at music that way--as a learning experience. I got it right on this one, by that reasoning.

I also enjoyed doing the commentary track and writeups for this version of the website.  I hope you'll all take time to listen to and/or read that stuff.  I don't know how huge the interest in that will be, but I'm hoping at least a few of you will find it interesting."

Click here (or go to "Downloads") for the Audio Commentary.

Click here to read the write-ups.