For his tenth launch, Denison Witmer tapped the appreciable abilities of longtime buddy Sufjan Stevens. Although the 2 have been collaborating since 2003, Something At All (Asthmatic Kitty) marks the primary time they’ve labored collectively this intently on a full challenge, with Stevens producing, arranging, engineering and enjoying numerous devices. As you would possibly count on, the album seamlessly unites Witmer’s poetic, folk-inspired singer/songwriter aesthetic with Stevens’ wealthy, offbeat soundscapes.
Now residing in Lancaster, Pa., the place he juggles music and carpentry, Witmer walked us via his first LP in 5 years.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Focus Ring”
“This tune was initially known as ‘Something At All’ whereas the album was going to be known as Focus Ring. However in some unspecified time in the future, Sufjan and I felt like flipping the titles made essentially the most sense. Because the title monitor, it units the tone of the album. ‘If there’s something in any respect I can do for you’ is a phrase we frequently say to individuals once we’re providing assist, however I believe most of us battle to increase that very same generosity inwards. As I labored on all of the lyrics for this file, I saved coming again to this concept of extending generosity each outwards and inwards. This turned the theme of the album. A spotlight ring is the a part of a digicam that you simply twist to focus a picture. It felt like a superb metaphor for the album—determining what a part of my life’s picture requires focus, zooming in on that, and making sense of it nevertheless I might lyrically.”
2) “Older And Free”
“I wrote this tune after I was solo tenting for an evening at French Creek State Park not removed from my house in Pennsylvania. The melody and lyrics got here to me as I used to be mountain climbing the Lenape Path again to my campsite. I’ve a little-kid-size classical guitar that goes with me most locations, and I wrote the tune on it in my camper that night. I turned so connected to the sound that we ended up utilizing that little guitar for the principle acoustic tracks.”
3) “A Home With”
“This tune began as form of a joke. I usually stroll round my home enjoying a small classical guitar and making up goofy songs to make my spouse and children snort. I used to be watching the birds on our feeder and naming them as I noticed them. Then I went from room to room naming the crops we have now in our windowsills. I recorded an iPhone voice memo and forgot about it—a part of that demo is now on my Instagram web page. I’m undecided what motivated me to share it with Sufjan, however I believe it was as a result of I knew he’s a fan of concrete nouns and phrases which might be attention-grabbing phonetically. He ended up selecting this from the batch of demos I offered to him. I’m glad he did, as a result of it ended up being one in every of my favourite songs on the album. Sufjan didn’t like the unique lyrics of the final verse. I keep in mind him saying, ‘Within the first two verses, you’re telling us what you’re doing and the way it fills your coronary heart, however you by no means inform us why. You need to attempt to reply that query for your self.’ I rewrote the ending, and it was at that second that issues clicked into place for me.”
4) “Making Love”
“I wished to take a phrase that the majority of us affiliate with erotic love and reframe it in an agape or philia kind of affection. It was essential to me that this tune be so simple as attainable. For that cause, the lyrics are very plain, and the association is saved to only guitar, piano and voice. It’s essential to do not forget that our actions have a cumulative impact on our lives—and the identical factor applies to non-action. This tune is about being emotionally or spiritually caught and selecting love as a path out. It’s not all the time the simple factor to do, however I can’t consider a time when it isn’t the fitting factor to do.”
5) “Clockmaker”
“Alongside music, I even have a carpentry enterprise. Mid-COVID, I discovered myself making quite a lot of historic recreation display screen doorways. I’d construct one for a neighbor, then another person would see it, need one, and that cycle repeated into about six new prospects round my metropolis. A type of doorways was for this actually unbelievable older girl named Elizabeth. As I used to be engaged on her door, we acquired to speaking about parenting, neighborhood, artwork, life objectives—all of it. It was such a stunning dialog that I returned the subsequent day, to not work however to sit down on her porch and chat together with her. I realized that she had a profession being a clockmaker. We bonded over working with our palms, problem-solving and the kind of perception repetition brings.”
6) “Confessions”
“That is my favourite tune on the album. A confession is ‘an announcement setting out important spiritual doctrine’—and although I don’t assume I’m essentially making a non secular assertion on this tune, I’m laying out a form of doctrine for myself: What am I doing with my time, and what does it imply? What am I feeling after I take a look at my chook feeder? Why am I bothering to feed the birds? What am I feeling after I take a look at a postcard picture of Ai Weiwei deliberately dropping an urn from the Han Dynasty? Am I drawn to that picture as a result of it’s critical, reckless, playful or devastating? I’m riddled with the contradictions which might be a part of merely current on this planet. I’m principally hopeful and optimistic, although I’ve moments when loathing units in and every thing feels random and pointless. Although these two sentiments are at odds with one another, I discover each of them equally essential. One varieties a query; the opposite is a solution. The cycle continues endlessly. The optimistic facet of me finds this to be encouraging.”
7) “Misplaced In My Head”
“I wrote this in a spot of contemplation and hopeful change—however the first time Sufjan heard it, he requested me if it was about melancholy. I really like that songs can tackle totally different meanings to totally different listeners, and I believe the perfect songs are malleable in that method. The ultimate lyrics on this tune reinforce the entire theme of the album: ‘I don’t know if I ought to begin forcing it/Perhaps it’s greatest to let it lay/More often than not my life is joyful/Generally it hurts within the worst method/I don’t know if I ought to go search for it/That factor I dropped alongside the best way?/ Generally I discover it straight away/Generally I wait and wait and wait/Go via me, I say/Misplaced in my head all day.’”
8) “Shade I’ll By no means See”
“This one is a form of mashup of the Greek proverb ‘A society grows nice when previous males plant timber whose shade they know they shall by no means sit in’ and the kids’s e-book by Eric Carle known as The Tiny Seed. It was initially a really mellow, rolling acoustic-guitar-driven tune—which you’ll be able to hear as a demo on my Instagram—however Sufjan wished to take it in a extra playful and orchestrated path.”
9) “Sluggish Movement Snow”
“I initially wrote this tune as a part of a song-a-day challenge I recorded in January 2020 and launched on Bandcamp below the identify Uncle Denny. I all the time imagined this tune as a giant, lush, meditative soundscape, and I knew Sufjan might assist me make that occur. This one didn’t require a lot apart from setting a tone and exploring the house.”
10) “Brother’s Keeper”
“We deliberately put this on the finish of the album as a result of it seems like a benediction. The lengthy outro of ‘Sluggish Movement Snow’ leaves a contemplative house the place ‘Brother’s Keeper’ might sit, quick and candy, with a message about care. Regardless that the tune isn’t about Sufjan instantly, it seems like an ode to our friendship—within the sense that we’ve been there for one another in numerous methods over our lengthy friendship.”
