“Haus of Love” - a house dance party remake of “House of Love”, the song I wrote that was made popular by Shoshana Bean - was released to the NYC club scene in 2021. Blaine Alden Krauss recorded it for No Reverse records. I had the pleasure of joining Blaine at 54 Below as a surprise guest when he premiered the song in concert. We were the big encore hit of the evening!

When I finally made the decision to create the album that would become "Iron & Coal", I knew I had a long and difficult road ahead. My father, Dr. Gustav Schonfeld, was near completion of his memoir, "Absence of Closure" when he confided in his children that he was embarking on a double-blind clinical study for a new drug treatment in hopes it might cure the cancer he had been living with for many years. For a physician and researcher who regularly administered these kinds of tests, the idea of Dad going through was serious business - a last resort. I wrote "Mourner's Kaddish" from the vantage point of a son, mourning the death of his father, then expressing his thoughts, questions, and anguish through his inner monologue as his father is being lowered into the ground. I played this song for my father before he passed away. One of the hardest performances I will ever give.

When COVID lockdown hit New Zealand during Spring of 2020, my family and I were holed up in the small northern town of Tutukaka on the North Island. I was lucky enough to pick up a keyboard on a day's notice from a local music shop in the nearby city of Whangerei, about 45 minutes drive from our hideaway. The original trip to my wife's home country was supposed to be three weeks in total. We stayed four months. Thinking about and missing our beautiful house here in Beacon, New York, I penned this song.

“Queen” , from a theater piece I created, was originally recorded as “Rock and Roll Fag” for the album 37 Notebooks featuring vocalist Luther Creek. Frankie related to the story of a glam rock icon who might be on the downhill side of his younger career. Put into proper context, fag is a word that the character uses to describe himself. For the Frankie release, we renamed the song “Queen” to make sure people weren’t turned off before they tuned in.

I wrote “I Got Me” as a follow up to “Queen”. Frankie and I were discussing the concept of important and empowering people and items in our lives. I asked him to write down anything he could think of that meant something personally, and email the list to me. The resulting specific lyric was try inspired by Frankie’s note.

"Babazille Mahlangu" I was asked to write a song for a new charitable organization created by Sean Bradford, Adam Kantor, and Frankie Grande Called "Broadway in South Africa". A few of us composers were given 3 handwritten personal essays by children living in impoverished townships in places like Johannesburg, Durban, and Capetown and asked to pick one and write a song based on the lives, dreams, and desires described by each child. I chose a letter written by a little girl named Babazille Mahlangu who lived in a town called Theo Twala. I was able to perform this song in South Africa with local students, teachers, and our visiting staff when I traveled there with the BSA in 2012. And yes, I got to meet Babazille and her mother. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Broadway in South Africa provided and for the help BSA provided for many young artists in South Africa.