For his tenth launch, Denison Witmer tapped the appreciable expertise of longtime pal Sufjan Stevens. Although the 2 have been collaborating since 2003, Something At All (Asthmatic Kitty) marks the primary time they’ve labored collectively this carefully on a full challenge, with Stevens producing, arranging, engineering and taking part in numerous devices. As you would possibly anticipate, 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 by his first LP in 5 years.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Focus Ring”
“This track 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 probably 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 regularly say to folks after we’re providing assist, however I feel most of us wrestle to increase that very same generosity inwards. As I labored on all of the lyrics for this document, I stored coming again to this concept of extending generosity each outwards and inwards. This grew to become the theme of the album. A spotlight ring is the a part of a digital camera 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 track after I was solo tenting for an evening at French Creek State Park not removed from my dwelling in Pennsylvania. The melody and lyrics got here to me as I used to be 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 track on it in my camper that night. I grew to become so connected to the sound that we ended up utilizing that little guitar for the principle acoustic tracks.”
3) “A Home With”
“This track began as sort of a joke. I usually stroll round my home taking part in a small classical guitar and making up goofy songs to make my spouse and children chuckle. 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’ve 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 unsure what motivated me to share it with Sufjan, however I feel it was as a result of I knew he’s a fan of concrete nouns and phrases which are fascinating 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 among my favourite songs on the album. Sufjan didn’t like the unique lyrics of the final verse. I bear 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. It is best 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 almost all of us affiliate with erotic love and reframe it in an agape or philia sort of affection. It was vital to me that this track be so simple as doable. For that motive, the lyrics are very plain, and the association is stored to only guitar, piano and voice. It’s vital to keep in mind that our actions have a cumulative impact on our lives—and the identical factor applies to non-action. This track is about being emotionally or spiritually caught and selecting love as a path out. It’s not at all times the straightforward factor to do, however I can’t consider a time when it isn’t the proper factor to do.”
5) “Clockmaker”
“Alongside music, I even have a carpentry enterprise. Mid-COVID, I discovered myself making numerous historic recreation display 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 kind of doorways was for this actually unimaginable older girl named Elizabeth. As I used to be engaged on her door, we received to speaking about parenting, neighborhood, artwork, life targets—all of it. It was such a beautiful dialog that I returned the subsequent day, to not work however to take a seat on her porch and chat together with her. I discovered 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 track on the album. A confession is ‘an announcement setting out important non secular doctrine’—and although I don’t assume I’m essentially making a spiritual assertion on this track, I’m laying out a sort 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 fowl feeder? Why am I bothering to feed the birds? What am I feeling after I take a look at a postcard photograph of Ai Weiwei deliberately dropping an urn from the Han Dynasty? Am I drawn to that picture as a result of it’s severe, reckless, playful or devastating? I’m riddled with the contradictions which are a part of merely present on the planet. I’m largely hopeful and optimistic, although I’ve moments when loathing units in and every little thing feels random and pointless. Although these two sentiments are at odds with one another, I discover each of them equally vital. One varieties a query; the opposite is a solution. The cycle continues endlessly. The optimistic aspect 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 like that songs can tackle completely different meanings to completely different listeners, and I feel the perfect songs are malleable in that method. The ultimate lyrics on this track 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/Typically 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?/ Typically I discover it instantly/Typically I wait and wait and wait/Move by me, I say/Misplaced in my head all day.’”
8) “Shade I’ll By no means See”
“This one is a sort of mashup of the Greek proverb ‘A society grows nice when outdated males plant timber whose shade they know they shall by no means sit in’ and the kids’s guide by Eric Carle known as The Tiny Seed. It was initially a really mellow, rolling acoustic-guitar-driven track—which you’ll hear as a demo on my Instagram—however Sufjan wished to take it in a extra playful and orchestrated route.”
9) “Gradual Movement Snow”
“I initially wrote this track as a part of a song-a-day challenge I recorded in January 2020 and launched on Bandcamp underneath the title Uncle Denny. I at all times imagined this track 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 area.”
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 ‘Gradual Movement Snow’ leaves a contemplative area the place ‘Brother’s Keeper’ might sit, quick and candy, with a message about care. Despite the fact that the track will not be about Sufjan instantly, it seems like an ode to our friendship—within the sense that we’ve been there for one another in several methods over our lengthy friendship.”
