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,
DH
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