I Surrender — The First Listen | Riddler, Madalina Cretu | Out August 7th

During Covid I was writing a lot of music.

One of those songs took five years to finish.

Not for a club. Not for radio. For myself.

And today — for the first time — someone outside our small production circle gets to hear it.

The Story

The instrumental started in 2020. The world had shut down. No shows. No venues. No crowds. Just the music and whatever was inside you that needed to come out.

I started writing lyrics. Not for a club record. Not for radio airplay. For myself.

I worked on the track and brought it to my production partner Ethan Capps who took my ideas and elevated them into something bigger than what I originally imagined.

But the song still needed a voice.

The Right Voice Found Us

Her name is Madalina Cretu. She's from Romania.

We have never been in the same room together. Every single exchange happened through email and audio files sent back and forth across the Atlantic.

No video calls. No studio sessions. No in-person collaboration of any kind.

Just two artists communicating through music — her voice and my production — until something beautiful emerged between us.

From the very first listen I knew she was the right one.

Not maybe. Not possibly. Immediately and completely.

The Line That Started Everything

There's one line in this song that captures everything I was feeling when I wrote it.

"When the sun comes up — will I still be enough?"

That question has followed me my entire career.

When I drove from Houston to New York for a $28,000 a year job at Tommy Boy Records — will I still be enough?

When I came back from Miami at 19 years old homesick and defeated — will I still be enough?

When I lit a candle at Montserrat in Barcelona feeling my mother's presence — will I still be enough?

That question never goes away. But the answer — surrender — always leads somewhere better than where I was trying to force my way to.

That's what this song is about.

The First Listen

Today I'm sharing a snippet of Madalina's voice on this track for the first time.

Just a taste. Just enough to give you a sense of what's coming.

The full song drops August 7th on all streaming platforms including Spotify Apple Music and YouTube.

Pre-save it now so it automatically appears in your library the moment it drops.

Pre-save link: paradise.ffm.to/ptl008

What's Coming

August 7th is going to be a significant day.

I Surrender drops on all streaming platforms.

And that same night — I'm opening for Morgan Page at Warehouse Live Midtown Houston.

It's a classics night — 2005 to 2010 era. The same records I was playing on SiriusXM BPM on Adrenaline and Riddler's Revolution before most people knew these artists names.

The classics that built my career. The new music that represents where I'm going. All on the same night.

Five years in the making.

Worth every moment.

Stay tuned. 🙏🏽