Marc Enfroy’s new album Awakening will be released on June 16, 2009. Below is BT Fasmer’s interview with Marc about the upcoming album.

BT Fasmer: First, welcome back! When we did the interview with you in August last year, Unbounded was just released and you were an unknown artist. Now you have won the NAR 2008 Best Neo-Classical Album award, and the album has become a major success. What is your reaction to all of this?

Marc Enfroy: Thanks BT. It’s always fun to be here with you. As far as Unbounded and the NAR award goes, I certainly wasn’t expecting the kind of response I’ve experienced. As an artist, you hope that your music will strike a chord with people and that you’ll find an audience.

As you know, my music leans more toward classical music or a film score so I wasn’t sure how well it would do in the new age market. Plus, there’s an over supply of piano music covering every imaginable niche: new age piano, instrumental piano, romantic piano, solo piano, piano for massage, piano for wedding music, piano for stress relief, piano for meditation. People have even written piano music to play for your pet. So I wasn’t really sure if my music would stand out enough to get noticed. In the end, I just wrote heartfelt music that I liked and hoped other people would like it too.

Somehow, the music found an audience and so I’m really grateful for that.

The other thing I hadn’t anticipated was how many people would connect with the story behind the music. As you well know, when my sister Suzanne passed away in 2006 from skin cancer, I wanted to follow in her artistic footsteps and started teaching myself to compose music. Countless people have told me that they are either in the throes of battling cancer or lost a loved one to the disease and they say things like, “your music gives me strength” or “there’s something indescribable in your music that touches me.” I had no idea it would have that sort of impact. It’s like we all share a special, almost mystical bond through the music.

So all in all, it’s been a very enlightening and uplifting experience.

BT: Your new album, which will be released June 16, 2009, is entitled Awakening. Here you are accompanied by three fine artists: vocalist Jillian Goldin, flutist Jack Chen and violinist Janet Sullins. Recording Awakening must have been quite a different process from the previous album? Is it also a cinematic piano album?

Marc: Yes it’s still cinematic piano music although you’ll hear other instruments taking more of a lead role. That made the creative process quite different. With Unbounded, it was just me and my keyboard. I’d first write the piano part and then layer on other sounds. When I started working on Awakening, I knew I wanted to take the sound to a new level by incorporating different acoustic instruments. So in many cases, I’d write specifically for that instrument as the lead with piano providing the support. Also, I can’t read music so I had to figure out how to write music charts for various instruments that would be recorded in studio. To do that, I wrote the music for each instrument on my keyboard and figured out how to use software to translate the performance into sheet music.

The other aspect that was new to me was selecting which musicians to work with. Thanks to the Internet, I found out about Janet Sullins and was excited to learn that she lived really close by. When I contacted her, Janet was really open to working on the project. Then for the flute, that was an easy decision because I had met Jack Chen through Tim Janis and had also seen him perform last Fall. From the moment I met Jack, I knew he was a really great guy and would be fantastic to work with. I also wanted to try some ethereal voice on the album and discovered Jillian Goldin last Summer on the radio. I immediately fell in love with her voice so she was the first person I thought of for vocals. Did you hear she’s getting married soon? She’ll be Jillian Aversa.

BT: Tell us about how the album was recorded. Have you had any help with mixing and mastering?

Marc: Where to record was a big question for me, especially for the violin. A contact at the University of Michigan school of music recommended Solid Sound Studios since they record a lot of classical work in addition to popular music. When I heard that Tori Amos, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson and Art Garfunkel had recorded there, I figured it might be good enough for me (laughing). Seriously though, the process of hearing music you’ve written performed by a world class musician is incredible. We had a great time in studio with Janet and it was an awesome learning experience for me. A few of the songs have parts written for a violin section so poor Janet had to play the same part over and over in many cases but she was a real pro about it. It took 3 separate recording sessions to get it all done. When we were done recording the final take of the final track, we played a little prank on Janet. We pretended she had to record one more time and then blasted some Evanescence drama rock into her headphones. She was looking at us like, what the heck? The best part was, after her initial surprise, she started improvising on the violin and it sounded fantastic. If I can find the video I’ll post it on my website one of these days.

Here are some pictures from the recording:

 
Then for the flute, Jack Chen was a real workhorse and banged out numerous takes of 7 songs in a single 5-hour session at Sound Market studios in his home town of Halifax. That’s in Canada for those of you who struggle with geography like me. The next day I was downloading Jack’s tracks and adding them to the mixes so it all went really quickly. Jack was really helpful when it came to assessing the mixes and being another set of ears. He’d listen to a song and have one of his engineer pals listen as well and then come back to me with suggestions.

For the vocals, Jillian was really easy to work with because I didn’t have to produce any sheet music, just a recording of the notes to sing. She’d record the tracks in her studio and email them back to me to drop into the mix. Jillian is on two tracks, “Before the Dawn” and “Maiden of the Morning Star.” Her interpretation and pitch are phenomenal. I’d like to work with her again in the future…well not just her. Jack and Janet too.

So I did all the mixing work but mastering I leave to a pro since it takes a special talent. Hans DeKline mastered Unbounded and I was really happy with the results so I used his services again for Awakening.

BT: Ok, here is a big one: What are your thoughts on the spiritual significance of music – and how does this affect your creative process?

Marc: Have you been hanging out with Justin St. Vincent lately? I just wrote up a little piece on that very question. You can read it at this link. In short, regardless of who you are or what you believe, I think there’s a place in every person that only music can reach and when it grabs you, it’s a spiritual event. I don’t mean that in a religious sense. It’s more like a deep emotional sensation that only music can create within the human spirit. When I’m writing a piece of music, I’m on a search for a combination of notes that creates a deep response within my core. When it does, I run with it.

BT: You are an independent artist. After all this success, will you still stay independent?

Marc: I’m no expert on the business side of things honestly. I might see if an indie label wants to pick me up just to see what would happen. Everything I’ve heard and read says that there’s no real advantage to being on a label these days. I just haven’t researched it enough to know if that would be true in my case.

BT: Thank you for the interview, Marc! Best of luck with the release next month.

PS: If you go to Marcenfroy.com you can hear some nice clips from the new album!!!