The Artist: Cerulean - "island"

island

Im Stile eines klassischen Singer and Songwriters beglückt uns Cerulean mit seinem neuesten bzw. letzten Release. Es ist zwar nicht die Gitarre, welche meist für dieses Genre zur Hand genommen wird, sondern der Klang des Pianos welches ihn begleitet. Ganz im Sinne eines Storyteller startet er seine Reise. Im Vordergrund einzig und allein die Vocalparts bzw. das erwähnte Piano, dezent begleitet vom Rest wie Drums und Bass. Die Hauptrolle ist Cerulean mit seinem fast schon berühmten Bariton der ihn beinahe einzigartig erscheinen lässt. Ein ausgewogenes Arrangement, welches den Vocals respektive den Lyrics den Vortritt lässt, zeigt hier auf beste Art und Weise, dass nicht immer die special effects der Peripherie oder unendlich klingende Wall of Sounds benutzt werden müssen um ein gutes Stück zu erschaffen. Mehr über den Track und Cerulean selbst erfahrt ihr im nachfolgendem Interview.

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The Interview

Cerulean is...?

an independent performing-artist, born Laurence Warner in Eastleigh, a small town on England's South Coast. Cerulean has the recording artist's taste for wrapping his baritone voice around deft lyrics, and performer’s love for delivering them with theatrical flair.

Who inspired you to make music in general?

I’ve always played music, but my first vocal coach John Moukarzel inspired me to wanna write & perform melodies.

...and especially to the song "island"?

Here you hear I go back to my keyboard-playing roots and let the instrumentation do more of the talking in the hook (or should I call it a non-hook because it allows silence where pop music would usually blast sound?!)

"island" stands a bit out from the crowd, coincidence or did you invest more time into this song?

I was funded by the nationwide songwriting program MAS Records to record with innovative Producer & Engineer cinningbao, so I pushed myself to experiment with self-producing the synth melody, which is the sort of thing he’d tend to invent. That freed him up to focus on enhancing the sound for an amazing listener experience.

What is your creative process like?

How about: “emotionally-inspired, tech-enabled rapid prototyping”. I’ll be sharing more insights & advising others with my SavvyIndie.com artist community I’m launching later this year.

Your album "Smalltown Dreamer: A-side" is out now. The album is very piano-driven, is there a reason for that or is it simply your fav instrument?

I’m inspired by other Brits (like Tim Rice-Oxley, James Blake and Elton John) who took their classical piano training and made it their instrument of choice as a singer-songwriter. I love seeing my keyboard front & centre on stage waiting for me to stand behind it to put on a show!

If you could change anything in the past, what would it be?

Rather than getting caught up with the lost time I no doubt spent muddling along in Middle England, this album finds beauty in my upbringing & declares my hopes for a better future for me and my hometown of Eastleigh.

What is the most useful talent you have?

Wordplay: making connections other people (and even computers) might not think to make, and getting a hell of lot of enjoyment out of it! So much so I invented a rapper alter-ego so I could spit fire bars and pack more wordplay in on the B(east)-side of the album!

How do you feel the Internet (especially Social Media platforms) has impacted the music business?

I’ll let ‘MC Beastly’ take this one:

When I

put out a webpage
The whole world's a stage where I rep my city
But get #SavvyIndie, 'cause this place ain't pretty
You call yourself independent on the 'gram
But it weighs a ton round your neck
Shining hard like a pendant
You're dependent on this endless quest for resplendence
Got a few followers but your friendless
Gotta end this, gotta be a leader
“The most creative thing right now is to get off social media"
That was M.I.A. explaining why I go MIA
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
BURNER

What’s next for you?

From Smalltown Dreamer to Smalltown Dreamers!

This autumn I’m hitting 6 English cities and hosting a big show in each, for an album tour with a collaborative twist! In association with MAS Records, I’ll take applications from 3 #SmalltownDreamer artists from nearby small towns to perform and show ‘MC Beastly’ round their hometown, as they prepare for their biggest gig so far!

It was so amazing to get to know my own South Coast better producing music videos like “island”. Now I can’t wait to go find out about other overlooked parts on these British Isles!