Listen to the first track from his Four Stories EP
By Kate Butler @butler2
Over the past two years Dillon Anthony has been working on his soon to be released Four Stories EP, a multi-instrumental folk record which blends poetic lyrics with collaborations from musicians local and abroad.
Exposed to music at a very young age, Anthony has taken his love of music throughout his career, studying audio engineering and recently as a student of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Anthony is known to many as a utility musician, playing a multitude of instruments such as guitar, accordion and pedal steel to name a few.
“I’ve played in other bands before, usually as the side man, playing guitar or pedal steel and I was curious if I could write my own songs. It began out of an exercise in a way of, ‘Can I do this?’,” said Anthony. “Out of that exercise I realized I wanted to write story songs which were all kind of connected. I always enjoyed writing short stories and it’s what I felt most comfortable doing. That’s where the Four Stories EP originated from.”
Although all songs are written and arranged by Anthony, he envisioned it being a collaborative project with many of his musician friends helping out to create the final product. The credit list reads as a who’s who of Fredericton musicians including several who have very successful album releases of their own.
“All the songs are stories which have different characters involved and I had a lot of talented friends willing to work with me, to help me with my idea. I had some of the music composition completed and kind of wracked my brain of who I knew and would best suit each song, style or instrument.”
The EP creates vivid imagery. Each song which can standalone, but also each of the songs can be connected with the right interpretation.
“Each song has a very basic surface story to it, all of them not from a specific time or place. In my head I guess I was picturing pioneer kind of days,” he said. “Then there is a deeper meaning to each song which I will leave up to the listener to interrupt and decide what they think they mean. All of the songs do connect as a series of four storied, hence the album name.”
The first single, The Fox, is a collaboration with Fredericton musician Cedric Noel. With a long music history together, Anthony and Noel created a tune which blends their harmonious voices and skills as songwriters to create what has become my favourite song on the EP. The song follows the life of a young fox and his trials and tribulations from young to old.
“It was a pretty fluid process, we have known each other awhile and Dillon had most of the song idea drafted out,” said Noel. “We added the melody together one day while sitting in Officer’s Square. I’m pretty obsessed with melodies and not only ones that are repetitive but ones that are memorable, so I think I naturally brought that to the The Fox.”
You can check out the first single The Fox from Anthony’s upcoming Four Stories EP which is set to be released July 7, 2015.
As for more music to come, Anthony already has his thoughts centered on what his next album might sound like.
“There is definitely more music to come,” he said, “but I think it will be more straightforward folk tunes and not as conceptually deep as this EP is.”
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