"I want people to connect when they hear my music. Connect to the music, to the far-out parts of themselves, to other people, to the world. That's what good music does, it makes you stop for a minute or two and go 'wait, what's all this about.'
Derek is drawn to the creative and musical potential that percussive fingerstyle guitar holds. He focuses foremost on writing compositions that are music-centered as opposed to overly-technical and meandering. "A black hole has a boundary called an event horizon," says Derek. "Nobody knows what happens past that point. That's what my music is like. It's like being in the event horizon and peering over the edge. That's where I feel all my music comes from: the unknown, the uncharted, the great mystery."