Brendan Scott Friel – Summer Moons
Hello Our Basement,
“All In,” taken from my new album, Summer Moons, is all about the beauty of naivety and how we all helplessly fall victim to this mysterious force of attraction.
There is something really wonderful about that – it’s a great equalizer. No matter your intelligence, race, religion, or background, there will be people you meet, who for reasons beyond your control, just seem to call to you.
This can be looked upon with dread and incertitude or celebrated and seen as an opportunity for adventure.
I wrote Summer Moons in the afterglow of some major exciting life events. I had married the woman I love, we had bought and fixed up a small home together, I was working with one of my favourite producers… So many things I had been chasing came together rather suddenly and after the initial excitement, there was this odd calm and almost sadness.
For some reason, I thought that everything would change when I achieved these goals, but life kept moving – seasons turned over like they always did, bills came in and got paid, anticipation of holidays, of spring, on and on things went.
In the process of analyzing this, I learned the feeling had a name: The Hedonic Treadmill – the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness, despite major positive or negative events in our lives.
Extreme emotions live side-by-side in the songs that make up Summer Moons, as if these stories could be happening to the same person over many different summers in their life.
The theme of duality is key to this record. I would love for you to feel encouraged to be present and mindful of every moment, good or bad, as you listen. It is important to allow yourself to feel the lows while understanding they are prerequisites for the highs to come and vice versa.
Cheers,
Brendan Scott Friel