There is so much emotion wrapped up in this song for me. Some people may recognize it from its earlier life as 'Aphrodite’s Blessing', which I released in 2024. At its heart, it has always been a love song about my partner about that totally immersive, almost surreal moment when someone seems to hand you the entire world, and you realize the love story you once only dreamed of might actually be yours.

The lyrics themselves aren’t overly complex, but they hold some of my favorite words I’ve ever written. I absolutely adore the line “I wanted something beautiful to find me, then you arrived.” It carries an innocent, romantic curiosity,  like a fairytale princess waiting for someone to slay a dragon and rescue her from her sadness. For most of my life, that’s exactly where I lived: in my imagination, dreaming about love and wondering if it would ever find me.

I opened my song ‘The Strangest Thing’ with the spoken phrase, “I think that everyone has a fear at some point in their life that they’re never going to find a person to love them. I know I felt that way until I woke up next to you.” That same emotional truth runs through this song. If you’ve known me for a long time, you probably know that I was a very ugly duckling through my childhood and adolescence. I was insecure in so many ways, but fueled by an unwavering passion for music and dreaming. That hopeful, slightly insecure little version of myself still walks closely beside me today. I don’t try to stuff her, in fact, we spend time together and  talk often. I think you can hear her voice in this song.

Because if there’s one thing that defines me, it’s that I don’t give up. I get in my head, I doubt myself, but I remain stubbornly optimistic. The things I want are often unreasonable–yet even if I don’t reach them exactly as imagined, I usually land somewhere among the stars.

This song feels like the dreamy inner world I’ve always carried with me. In fact, it’s one of only a handful of songs in my catalog that fully captures the essence of who I am–the sound I want to create and the story I want to tell. 'Eyes Wide Open' feels like the inside of my brain and spirit more than almost anything else I’ve made.

When I first released it, it was only my second single, and I knew I was still learning. I also knew I hadn’t yet brought it to life the way I heard it in my heart. But I’m grateful I shared it anyway, because the feedback and growth that followed allowed me to shape it into what you hear now.

Interestingly, this was the first song that made me feel less like a songwriter or producer and more like a composer. While finishing it, I found myself instinctively returning to the conducting gestures I learned while studying classical music in college. This newer version embraces that instinct, weaving in orchestral textures that I’ve long wanted to explore. In many ways, the feeling of creating this song reminds me of Fantasia–an impossible dreamland where imagination and music intertwine freely.

The song itself began instrumentally. I produced the entire piece before writing a single lyric, which is ironic because I’m such a natural writer in other forms. Song lyrics, strangely, are often the hardest part of my process. When I feel stuck, I turn to mythology. I find a ton of inspiration in Greek and Roman stories that mirror human emotion in timeless ways. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, felt like the perfect lens for this song’s energy. The original version even referenced mythological places like Oceanus and the Elysian Fields, elements that didn’t all survive this version but left behind a dreamy, goddess-like aura that still lingers.

Sonically, the song wanted to feel evolving, floating, expansive, feminine, and heavenly, yet still driving forward. A sense of weightlessness paired with momentum.

At its core, ‘Eyes Wide Open’ is a declaration of love–the kind that feels innocent and all-consuming, like a first love you throw your entire being into. It’s the experience of following someone without hesitation, turning your world upside down, and wondering with equal parts awe and disbelief: Is this real? That feeling is reciprocal in the song–both people searching, both surprised to find each other.

Within my larger body of work, I hope this becomes one of my legacy songs. It feels like an anchor, or a meeting point of my lifelong influences: Disney-like storytelling, classical instrumentation, progressive electronic energy, and the voice that has been with me since the beginning. It’s soft yet powerful, dreamy yet grounded. More than anything, it feels honest. Not an attempt to be something else, but a glimpse into the world I live in internally.

If this song carries a message, it’s a gentle reminder for anyone who has ever feared they might never find love or magic in their life: sometimes the thing you’ve been dreaming about quietly finds its way to you. And when it does, it can feel like waking up with your eyes wide open inside a dream 💭