The protagonist of today: Traveler CS. "Adam" is his new album.
Our protagonist today is the American composer and pianist Cameron Fitzpatrick aka Traveler CS. He recently released his new album "Adam" via Blue Spiral Records. In our interview, he will tell us something about it.
There is always difficulty, even when pursuing something you're extremely passionate about. You've got to manage your expectations, which I'm particularly unable to do.
How and when is your passion for music born and who inspired you to become a musician?
I was lucky enough to have professional musicians and music store owners as parents. I honestly never had much choice about being a musician! They got me into music at age 4. After that, my first great inspiration as a child was the band Rush, the Canadian progressive rock band. Since then, I have drifted toward the modern classical/electronic realm as a solo composer.
Was it easy to follow this passion for you, or did you have difficulty? If yes, which ones?
There is always difficulty, even when pursuing something you're extremely passionate about. You've got to manage your expectations, which I'm particularly unable to do. But, even through great frustration, the choice to stop making music never really appeared to be a choice.
Inspiration is fleeting, for me, though it arrives often. I think music that other people have made is the greatest inspiration for me.
What is inspiration or inspirational to you? How do you live an inspired life?
Inspiration is fleeting, for me, though it arrives often. I think music that other people have made is the greatest inspiration for me. When I get excited about someone else's work, I want to go and create myself. Because of that, listen to music that inspires me is extremely important to living an inspired life. It is also important to take breaks, and get space between yourself and your goals for a moment.
How could you describe your way of composing?
I write by improvising. I will sit at the piano and fiddle around until I have an idea that is half good, and then develop it from there. Often I will have an idea in my head that I am chasing, or one will appear early on in the process. I seldom write with a grand plan in mind, though that has happened more often recently.
What is most challenging about what you do?
The hardest thing about writing music is continuing to write without becoming stagnant or jaded, I think. I get frustrated by trends and want to be different and individual, which sometimes leads to being too hard to categorize from a marketing perspective. I believe it is important to differentiate yourself, though.
What are your reference musicians?
For my Traveler CS work, I often find myself referencing artists like Paddy Mulcahy, the greats like Nils Frahm and Lambert of course, as well as friends like BP Moore and Christopher Dicker.
Creativity is expression, I think. It is also just really fun! It makes me extremely happy and proud to see an idea of mine take final form.
Recently your new work "Adam" came out, can you tell us a bit about it?
"Adam" is an album that focuses on blending my electronic and classical sides more cohesively. I've enjoyed tracking multiple piano tracks, treating them like sequences in an electronic song, writing less for strings and more for piano and synthesizers. Conceptually, the album has two main ideas: at one level, it is following vague narrative of a nameless person as they live out their life, from birth to death, and the experiences they have that have that are somewhat universal. At another level, those experiences are like this individuals personal mythology, and I wanted to relate that to our cultures' shared mythological ideas on a sort of collective consciousness level.
What is creativity to you? And: what is your creative process?
Creativity is expression, I think. It is also just really fun! It makes me extremely happy and proud to see an idea of mine take final form. My creative process is usually fairly lonely as I sit in my studio and plink away, but I like to involve my friends either as players or asking for input on songwriting/composing and mixing, as I record/engineer/produce and mix all of my own music.
What do you think about today's music scene?
I think today's music scene is awesome! There is so much music being made and it is so easy to get it out there that anyone who says music today isn't as good as it used to be is truly just not looking or paying attention. Something for everyone is just at your fingertips. The potential for discovery in the age of digital music is astounding. The streaming giants could do better by their musicians, of course, but that is a different conversation.
What are your goals/dreams for the future?
I hope to continue to make music! I would love to release more albums on vinyl (Adam is available on vinyl at Blue Spiral Record's webstore!) and experiment more with different styles.
Who is the artist?
Traveler CS is the brainchild of Cameron Fitzpatrick, an American musician, composer, and producer from North Carolina. Cameron Fitzpatrick has been active in the music scene from a young age, starting in his early teens. His roots are classical, including piano, violin, and classical vocal training, all of which began when he was a young boy. He began writing in several progressive rock bands, performing all along the eastern United States coast. In Traveler, he is returning to his classical influences while maintaining his progressive desire for experimentation and incorporating vintage and modern synthesizers, percussion, and soundscapes. He released his debut full length, Janus, on Sonder House Records, and self released an EP titled Halcyon in February of 2020. His second full length, Adam, is on Blue Spiral Records in 2021.