Second Single Released!
My step mother and her college friends used to have this theory that Track #4 on any given album was always the one the artist cared about the most. Or at least the one they’d worked on the hardest. I’ve always remembered this idea and think about it everytime I discover new music. So when I was planning out the structure for Under the Chestnut Tree, I knew going in that I wanted my little folktale, “Will the Last” to sit at #4 on the tracklist.
Yes, this song is probably my personal favorite, or at least, is the one that went through the most work to bring together. I wrote the first version of it during the semester I spent abroad studying Commedia Dell'arte and physical theatre in Arezzo, Italy. This was a time of great personal upheaval and transition, and I found that the toxic ego upon which I’d built my sense of self-worth had broken down, and could no longer fit into my emerging new worldview. “King Will,” as I called it then, was a personification of that dethroned part of myself, and how I felt learning to let it go.
The following year, I used a live performance of the song accompanied by a stunning piece of shadow-puppet-dance theatre (created by my super talented thesis partners) in the collaborative theatre arts thesis that helped me complete my BFA. Years later, as I began reworking the song for the album, that idea of shadow-puppetry (like the kind you’d find among oral traditions and old folktales from all over the world) served as the guiding principal for the composition. I wanted distinct musical voices, rich with individual symbolism, to float in and out of the song to emphasize and lend identity to different aspects of the narrative. You can ask my producer, Matt Heath, he’ll definitely tell you this is the track that went through the most revisions to get it just right.
As I pitched it on the streaming services for algorithm reasons: “A new old folktale about a faded persona learning to accept that the world is no longer fit for him, and the final wisdom he has to share before bidding it adieu. With the grand adventurous feel of a sweeping epic poem, but a scope that turns out to be far more earnest and personal. A thrumming heartbeat-like rhythm of acoustic guitar underpins an enchantingly sung story with a vibrant array of instrumental voices unfolding from within.”
Huge thank you again to Tyler Prendergast for making this goooooorgeous cover art for the single release!!!
Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks!