Gates releases Parallel Lives

"Trying to absorb and deal with how you can't know everyone, and you won't ever know how they affect your lives or how you're affecting others with simple things you're saying or doing. I tried to hone in on that and use these songs to get that point across".

The album mirrors life's series of altering paths: songs reference each other in lyrics and style, but sound wildly different from one moment to the next. "Parallel Lives" concludes with the lyric that was written first: "all we seem to be are parallel lives caught crossing". It serves the point that Gates went a step further than songwriting, this time hammering down on making the album consistently about the intertwining nature of reality.