Playing Through Pain

Playing through pain, this pianist sings with his fingers.

"If there's a moment of trauma, or a moment of triumph, hopefully [listeners] will feel they've been taken on a compelling emotional journey and can attach that to whatever resonates with them," he said. "As I was writing, I was able to get pretty deep into some of the specific things that I was processing and, at the same time, not have to have that manifest in the finished product in a way I had to be too concerned about."

Baerman tends to downplay some of his accomplishments, most notably the very act of playing piano, as a person with a painful, degenerative condition known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Therefore, the following statement bears particular attention: "Ultimately, I'm really happy with ["Know Thyself"]. I think I've managed to come up with something that's emotionally substantial, certainly the most intense and most genuine work I've produced to date."