Jonathan Fleming has always had a passion for music—he grew up singing Gospel music and playing the guitar at his local church’s youth group and, in high school, found a love for songwriting. Now, he’s found a new passion in writing songs about the city he loves—Sarasota. When Fleming wrote Siesta Key and Sarasota Skies, he was at a lull in his music career. He even considered packing up and quitting altogether, until the inspiration for Siesta Key hit him during an early morning coffee. “I was just drinking coffee and had a morning thought about drifting on Siesta, and then really liked that—it got me pumped,” Fleming says. He sat down at his piano and wrote the entire song in 15 minutes, his thoughts of quitting music erased. “When you have something inside of you that's innate in your DNA and how you express yourself, you can't get away from that,” he says. “The beautiful thing about music is that it's a deep connection with your soul.” Siesta Key, a coastal pop tune, reflects what Sarasota is all about—sun-kissed skin, salty air and drifting through the open ocean. The song marked a new chapter in his songwriting career, a chapter all about writing songs for Sarasota. “It just landed at the right time and place,” Fleming says about the niche in music he’s recently discovered. “Luckily, Sarasota is a popular city, but it's not the most popular city in the world, so not everyone's writing music about it, either.” Sarasota Skies flowed just as quickly as the first song dedicated to the city, leading Fleming to solidify his love for writing about the city he calls home. “I decided to write music for Sarasota, to stop trying to appease the masses and stop thinking about if a song would do well in LA or Nashville or Chicago,” Fleming says. “I decided to write music people here in Sarasota would like, and not worry about anybody else.”  Fleming calls Weight in the Wind, his song set to release in late September, “winter beach music”—the moodier, introspective sibling to his summery singles. Weight in the Wind will carry locals through the end of summer and into the busy season with an unconventional approach to love. “When I'm around my kids and my wife, I feel free. A lot of times I felt that love would contain me,” Fleming says. “But actually, that structure is what allows me the ability to float.” Next time you’re drifting across the water at Siesta Key Beach or looking up at a classic Sarasota sunset, try pressing play on Fleming’s coastal serenades to this special city.