The Fire Within
Energy! Flair! Drama! This spectacular piano lover's creation lifts you up and pushes you higher and then finishes strong. The music gives you power and features a compelling collection of songs using the keys of the grand piano, often with a violin, often with a whole section of masterful and strong strings, a full orchestra, a choir, how can one person wield so much power? The sensations build and grow, this is a classical masterpiece that would fit nicely in the perfect New Age music collection as well as the traditional sound of a tuxedo for your ears. The strings you hear on this album are all real, not from the synthesizer, and you can certainly feel it. This is the power of classical music.
Jennifer Thomas began playing the piano and violin at the age of five, she is an independent American composer, pianist, violinist, concert performer, and recording artist. Her genre of music includes Classical, Crossover, and New Age, she is known for writing and performing piano-centered orchestral music from classical music to classical music crossover and cinematic orchestral. The Fire Within is Thomas's sixth album. 2007 saw her debut in the classical crossover market with Key of Sea, which has a 10 Year Special Edition. Her other titles include The Lullaby Album, Vols 1 & 2 (2009), Illumination (2012) and Winter Symphony (2015).
The Fire Within starts with a duel, a duet. This is life and death, a relentless pulse, building and layering, building some more, pause, and then building again with sweeping strings bringing it down on us, then around and up, and then again and again. "The Fire Within" (5:21) has a video that alternates between the concert hall and the stark wilderness of a desert, featuring the two rivals, Jennifer Thomas and Kimberly Starkey AKA The Rogue Pianist, trading thunderbolts on their keyboards. With all the facial expressions and makeup from an operatic other world. This is a tale of rivalry, competition, passion and ambition. It starts by pretending to be just two keyboard divas and by the end the pianos appear to be on fire, all rosy-pretty with flames, followed by embers brightly snapping. I am assured that no pianos were harmed to make this epic spectacle, just clever cinematics and tricks of the screen.
The next song begins with a subtle piano played with a light touch, joined by a singing violin, and eventually the duet is supported by a team of master musicians, all sad and emotional, comforting us all as if after coming through a terrible night with new strength. "Awakening" (5:00) has the vision, power and control of an epic film for your ears. This song is all about growing hope. Thoughtful and delightful, "Girl in the Mirror" (3:49) sounds to me like an examined life lived building towards hope, precious moments, a flute joins the piano. Strong and cinematic, "Rise of the Phoenix" (4:04) pulls you up, you can feel the power, from the empty ashes after a complete loss, this song is a bright light, a new fire to forge a steel foundation. A piano blended with the glittering edge provided by a full orchestra, carefully arranged and defined, with joyful passages between the crashing thematic episodes. Quietly building, like a heartbeat at the start of a marathon, "Ascension" (4:26) brings tension, intrigue, precision, always steadily increasing in power, piano and violin with brilliant shadows skillfully supporting the passion, in turn building to gigantic heights on wings provided by the orchestra and the voice of a choir. This is a sad song that provides great hope. Quiet with a confident glow, "Soaring" (5:30) takes us up in heavenly wings, the piano sparkles with arpeggiated trills, joined by the choral wisdom of the angels. The arc begins with a colorul glow then carefully with amazing airspeed rises higher and higher, until it crests, with a nice dramatic big gong just for that perfect moment, while the angels proceed with endless precision. This song guides us with careful wings to a great elevation.
A thoughtful and affirming love song, "Because of You" (4:15) builds on a simple melody that casts spectacular shadows, a satisfying and simple piano blending with soaring strings, thankful affirming and confident. The orchestra brings in the piano to start things off, but quickly there is a pulsing funky groove that can get you off your seat, which is unusual for classical music. "Believer" (4:12) written by Imagine Dragons has a bright rhythm that catches you by surprise and thrills like a Broadway original, a tale we can all understand, featuring that rhythm that brings me back again and again, this is my favorite song, after the title song with its operatic drama. The choir adds a whole new level of stimulation. A haunting and persistent solo piano starts and the wise orchestral sound builds and gathers, time never stops. Han Zimmer’s "Time" (4:38) keeps weaving the piano with the strings, the choir strengthens the emotional charge, and the handclap accents at the end provides a steady inertia, gliding as the tune fades to the solo piano. Flowing and bubbling, a strong dazzling light, if you want it, "Glorious" (3:46) and proud, this is the perfect conclusion for our listening adventure.
Empowering music is precious, this is powerful. Good music is a good friend to have.
Jennifer Thomas is a full time mother of three young boys, the wife of an ultra-marathon runner, and an amazing classical pianist and violinist soon embarking on her first tour of the Western United States.
RJ: You have a very natural cinematic presence, which comes first, the music or the image or is it something new each time?
JT: I think it greatly depends on the project or the music. With "The Fire Within", I had a very specific topic that I wanted to write about, and so I actually took the approach to this album very differently than my previous albums - in that I spent a great deal of time writing my thoughts out, recalling experiences and writing about those, writing poetry, coming up with appropriate song titles, and creating and ebb & flow to the album with it's topics and themes. And because I was this specific with the planning of this album, it felt much more like film scoring to me in that the scenes were already created and I just needed to score music to them. So in answer to your question, for this particular project, I suppose you could say the imagery came first, and the music followed.
I don't always write this way though. Many times the music just comes to me, and it's only after the fact that I name it, or associate a topic with that particular song. But for The Fire Within, it all was definitely very planned out and crafted much akin to scoring a film.
I don't ever dream about music while I sleep. But I have had several experiences when I have been driving late at night and it is quiet, and my mind will compose music in my head. I've had an entire symphony come to me this way from start to finish. As odd as this may sound, sometimes composing in my head is easier than composing at the piano - as I feel as though I can pause the process, go back, re-do, try new things, add instruments and different colors and timbres; whereas at the piano I am limited to just that instrument and figuring out more of the technicalities of how to translate what is in my head to the piano. In my mind, it is more free and natural. I suppose this is how many of us feel about life in general - we have these ideas and dreams, but executing them in physical form is always more involved and not quite as easy.
RJ: Is there a natural connection between music and mathematics?
JT: As someone who is sorely terrible at math, YES. Haha. And funny enough I remember sitting in various math classes wondering why I needed to know any of that when my love was in music and language arts. I didn't always compose music - for the first 25 years of my music life I was immersed in the Classical world of music as a performer. There is a vast difference in reading music that someone else created, than being the creator. As the creator, you have to dissect its meanings and theories and dig deep into the underworld of how the mathematics and science of music works. I only learned this as I started composing my own music - and realizing that while performing took technical and artistic skill, composing required knowledge and theory as well.
RJ: You were raised by an artist and a musician, what are your thoughts about children and music?
JT: I think that all children should and need to be exposed to music education in some form. It awakens their minds in ways that other things cannot. I was brought up by a mother who was incredibly talented and dedicated to teaching my siblings and I music. We were required to wake up very early before school to practice, and then we went to early morning orchestra rehearsal before school, and then we were also required to practice our instruments after school. I participated in competitions, recitals and adjudications. But passion can't be forced or taught. I found my passion in music when I was 12 years old after watching an old classic movie that really inspired me and propelled me forward in my own music practice. This didn't happen for my siblings, even though we all watched the same film. I think it's deeply personal and affects no two people the same. We all had the same education and training, but the "spark" wasn't there for them as it was in me - hence why I had more drive and ambition to excel at music, whereas they had ambitions to excel elsewhere.
RJ: In more than one of your videos that I have seen so far the piano is out in the wilderness, what are some of the more interesting places you have placed a piano? Or any instrument, violin?
JT: Ah yes, great question! I have placed my piano on a couple of different beaches as well as a rainforest, and I've played my violin on a pirate ship, as well as lit a piano on fire in the middle of a desert. Of all these strange and surreal experiences, my favorite has definitely been the rainforest in my "Carol of the Bells" music video. There was a moment after our crew pushed that beastly heavy piano through mud and unloaded it onto the forest floor where I had some time to myself to play on it without anyone around. It was simply magical. Imagine stumbling across a beautiful instrument like that in the woods. I mean, it would never happen, but imagine it. You just don't hear the sounds of the piano naturally echoing in the middle of a forest like that, and I wondered what the trees though, what the animals felt, how the sound was being absorbed. It was also very quiet in the forest, and the sound of the piano was simply magnificent. I can't even describe it. It was just magical.
RJ: How do you keep your energy and creativity up with young children, composing and touring?
JT: I get asked this all of the time, and my answer is continually morphing as I learn and grow as well. But if there is one thing I have learned is that you CAN do it all, but you can't do it all at the same time. I try to block time out for different things so I can try to give each my all. If it's a music day, I want to be able to give it my 100% effort. But if it's a day with my children and family, I want to give them 100% and not be splitting that time with my computer or piano. If I were always trying to "do it all" every single day, everyone would suffer. My music would only get a small percentage of me, my family would only get a percentage of me.
Another thing that I have learned is self-care is very important. If I'm not taking care of myself, eventually that catches up with me and my music and family all suffer because of it. I am someone who loves to go to the gym and get a workout in - it rejuvenates me, it's my "thinking time", also sometimes my listening time if I'm working on music projects (I load them onto my playlist and review them), but most of it all it truly gives me a positive boost in my day that I need. In the past, there have been times when I allowed my busy schedule to over-rule my gym time. But nowadays, I make sure that it is actually a priority on my daily list of things to do; almost as thought it's a part of my work day requirement. I definitely feel a difference when I'm making sure to do that first thing in the morning before I dive into my music work.
I also try to make sure that I eat a pretty healthy diet, though I am a lover of chocolate and so that usually ends up in my life quite a lot too - haha - especially when I am in composing mode. I kid you not, there is a creativity that comes out of me with the aid of something chocolate. Maybe it's the "love hormone" they say that chocolate produces. I don't know. But it works. :) But usually, I do try to make sure I am eating healthy and taking care of myself. One of my "MUST HAVE" performance foods are bananas. I usually feel quite nauseous before I perform on stage, and bananas are not only one of the only foods I can stomach, but they are a perfect performance food because the potassium and sugars in the bananas have a calming effect, but also give me an energy boost. I always require that I have bananas backstage.
RJ: How did you pick your tour destinations?
JT: This is a very interesting question. As this is my first solo tour, I do feel like everything is a big test. Other artists who have toured before can go on past data and know that in such-and-such city they know they can sell a particular number of tickets, or they have a particular number of fans. They know how much merch they can sell, and a number of other things. But for me I have nothing to go off of other than streaming stats. So what we did was actually we spent quite a lot of time reviewing my in-depth streaming data from both Spotify and Pandora. Pandora, in particular, is my largest platform (I get between 1 - 1.4 million streams PER WEEK on Pandora and am in the top 1% of all artists on Pandora), and they are very great in that they provide us artists with some fabulous inside data. So we were able to dive into all of this data and find the cities where my music was being played the most, or had the most "Jennifer Thomas Radio Stations" created, most thumbs-up and more. The data also helps me to know cities where I'm either "over performing" or "underperforming." For example, one city might tell me that I have a large number of people who have my radio station created, but only a small percentage who are actively listening and that would be considered under-performing. In another city, I may have a smaller percentage of radio stations but out of those created I have a rather large percentage who are always actively listening to my music and that would be "over-performing." We took all of this data and planned concerts in the cities where I had the most listeners and where I was "over-performing", with the hopes that these fans would actually make an effort to come see me perform live. So far, I'd say 80% of the cities on the tour have been selling tickets well, but surprisingly there are a few cities where perhaps we misjudged the data and we aren't selling tickets as well as we thought that we would. You just never know! So really, this whole first tour is a big test and learning experience for sure!
P.S. We also are only doing the Western states on this tour - as I don't have time to do the entire country in one tour.
RJ: Thank you for your time, and may you find much success out on the trail, and with everything you do!
The album is available through your favorite outlets in streaming and CD formats.
https://jenniferthomasmusic.com/product/the-fire-within/
https://jenniferthomasmusic.com/
The Jennifer Thomas YouTube Channel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Thomas_(pianist)
Originally posted on June 25, 2019
#JenniferThomas #newage #piano #TickledIvoryMusic #instrumental
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