January 2018 – Davis Harwell

The Frontier: The players

Happy release day, everyone! Thrilled that “The Frontier”, my new 3-song EP, is released out into the world for all to hopefully enjoy. You can check it out on iTunes or Amazon Music, and most streaming sites as well. For you filmmakers and video gurus, you can license the music over at The Music Bed! Exciting times!

I wanted to make sure I give credit to the amazing people who made this new music possible. When I look back on how it all came together, I’m really blown away and overwhelmed with gratitude. As discussed in my previous post, music COSTS…and especially in this season of life, every penny counts…so it is really humbling to be able to work with people who give such great care and attention to your music (as well as your budget). Without further adieu, here are the geniuses that made my music so lovely:

Miriam Mayer: violin, viola

Simone Vitucci: cello

Sarah Wilkinson: french horn

Matt Adkins: acoustic guitar

Josef Mirakovits: acoustic guitar engineering

Scott Michael Smith: strings engineering, mixing

Drew Lavyne: mastering

Mary Fortson-Harwell: artwork

The experiment and the process. This EP was always a bit of an experiment, and at times I was very nervous about how it was going to turn out. With our move, my budget for new music was basically cut in half. (I talked a bit about working with the limitations in my last post). I also wanted to use the opportunity to try and start building a bit of a community here in Los Angeles. But where to start? And when every cent counts, it became quite a stressful experience trying to find the right team for this project.

Enter Facebook. Yes, Facebook. I joined a Facebook forum for composers in all stages of their careers (from beginners to Hans Zimmer…yes, THAT Hans Zimmer). I connected with Scott through this forum after he posted offering to give some mix feedback to composers who needed it. We grabbed coffee, talked about my EP and he really helped get the ball rolling. Scott recorded the violin/viola/cello at his house and also mixed the entire EP.

Now to find the players. Again, enter this Facebook forum. Miriam is an administrator of the Facebook group, a prolific film composer, and a wonderful violinist. Through her we were able to figure out that she’d record violin and viola, and recommend a cellist. That cellist happened to be Simone (who you recently heard as a featured soloist on the score for Blade Runner 2049). The sessions went great…we did violin/viola with Miriam one evening, and then cello with Simone the next evening.

For french horns, I turned to Sarah…she’s recorded on several of my previous songs and I’m a huge fan. Fantastic playing and really wonderful to work with. She also played on some Sleeping At Last stuff, so I’m always a bit starstruck when I get to work with her.

At the last minute, I realized that the third song on the record “Sunsets With You” needed a little something extra in the bigger “chorus” sections at the end. Matt and Josef were the answer…they tracked a couple of acoustic guitar takes that are very subtle, and really perfect for the song.

Scott then took all of my stems, and somehow made it all into the wonderful mixes that you hear on the EP. I really can’t believe or describe to you the difference between what I gave him and what he gave back to me…the mixes are perfect.

The glue that ties it all together, and puts the perfect bow on it all, is the mastering. Drew Lavyne for some reason agreed to master it all for me, and he knocked it out of the park.

My lovely and talented wife Mary did the artwork for the album, and it’s so inspiring! The Frontier! Adventure! Let’s do this!

Long story short (if you’re still reading, thank you and I’m sorry)…the team is made up of friends (old and new) who are all completely out of my league, and I’m very grateful. Be sure to give them all some love, and thank you for reading along!

Cheers,

The Frontier EP: The music

Friends! Family! Strangers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that the holidays were wonderful for you and yours, and that your 2018 is off to a great start. I’m thrilled to be writing this post because I’m releasing a NEW EP of original music…and it’ll be available TOMORROW! Woo! This here blog post will (hopefully) be a little window into the inspiration behind the EP.

Working with limitations. As a composer, one of my biggest dreams has been to compose music that gets performed by real-live humans who are great at playing their instruments. Thankfully, over the last few years, I’ve had lots of opportunities to make that dream a reality. My last few releases have included guitars and drums and bass and string orchestras and low brass sections and woodwind players. While this always increases the cost of a project, it is ALWAYS worth it.

So, after we moved from Atlanta to Santa Monica, and since it costs about $100000000000 to move here and live here, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to afford releasing any new music. After talking with Mary and figuring out our budget, the name of the game was “work with your limitations”. That could have been a very constraining thought, but ended up being really inspiring!

The scope of the project completely changed. From full album down to an EP, and from full instrument sections down to solo players. So there’s a solo violin, a solo viola, a solo cello, a solo french horn, and an acoustic guitar. We did overdubs on some of the stuff to make it feel a little bigger. Everything else like pianos, synths, vocals (don’t worry I used a ton of reverb) and other subtle textures I did on my own. It was a challenge but also very fun to write music specifically for this smaller “ensemble”, and to still find ways to be dynamic and cinematic throughout.

The songs. This is a 3-song EP called “The Frontier”. You’ll notice that the photo on the album artwork is of Los Angeles. This music is all about Mary, Indy and I taking the leap to move out to California to pursue our careers and dreams. We’ve been here for 6 months now and haven’t been evicted yet, so I guess we’re really doing it!

Westward: This song kicks off the EP, and I was hoping to capture a sense of optimism and adventure…of pointing the car west, and driving off to catch the horizon. There are some elements that almost make it feel like the wild west (pizzicato strings, and some boisterous french horns).
Harvest: This song was written as my response to the horrible shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas. I’ve always believed that as composers and musicians we can push back against senseless acts of violence by creating new art and (hopefully) beauty for the world.
Sunsets With You (For Mary): I wrote this song for Mary! Obviously. She is such an inspiring, wonderful woman that I could never possibly write enough to convey. Her passion and ambition and intelligence and hard-work are eclipsed only by her heart and compassion for others, and her courage to stand up for her fellow person. She has supported me and pushed me and loved me so well…and this song is for her.

That’s it! So there you have it! “The Frontier” will be available Thursday, January 11, 2018 for purchase on iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify/Pandora, basically everywhere. Check back soon for a post about the players and the process, and I really hope you enjoy!

Cheers,