"Front" is the first song I wrote that had an impact. Songs like "Automatic" and "October" went on to reach hundreds of thousands of people in their time. However, "Front" was the first real taste of what having a "hit" is like. It wasn’t a national thing. It wasn’t even a regional or city wide thing. It happened in the microcosm that was Governor’s School East. Governor’s School is a six-week summer camp for high school Juniors and Seniors who excel in academics and are generally considered "gifted." I did well in high school and I qualified. It was during this summer camp that I wrote "Front." The song is a ballad. I learned how to play finger-picking style from my church folk group growing up. If you’ve ever been to a Catholic folk mass in the 80's you’ve probably heard a few Glory & Praise songs. I coped just about every lick in the book for this song. It’s slow and pensive. I gleamed this song from a conversation I had with someone one afternoon when I was at Governor’s School. We were doubtful of the resourcefulness of prayer. Sometimes we didn’t see the point in spite of our effort to believe. We discovered that faith is hard work. I guess that’s what "Front" is about. I performed the song at poetry readings throughout the summer. It became the theme song for the summer, kind of like in 1998 when you couldn’t leave the house without hearing "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. It was as if it were the biggest song on radio, except we didn’t have radio. We had each other. It’s special for that reason. I get requests for it occasionally even today. But, usually, its from someone who was there at St. Andrew’s College that summer.