Hi all, this is my first blog ever for my website. I'm happy to write about my debut album “Exulansis”. It was released two months ago on January 12 and it is my first release ever. The theme of the album is about a journey to self discovery and clarity.
The idea of making this album started in last summer. I always dream that I wanna do my music with my main band project and as a solo artist. However, at some point, my band project wasn't going anywhere and it kinda gave me a hard time of what I'm gonna do moving forward. After a careful consideration, I've finally decided to prioritize doing solo for a while and go full force with it. Before the album released, I didn't have any clarity of how I manage my music works. I think I have too many songs in my catalog which can actually serve three to five different projects! But, somehow I just kept writing new songs and they got mixed up because I didn't have any clear ideas of what's gonna be my band material and what's gonna be my solo material. In the end, this album is like a revelation to so many things.
I finally decided to start recording this album as my solo album last September. Thanks to my private lesson instructor at Musicians Institute, Amy Gordon. She really encouraged me to record a single to start my music portfolio. The song that we chose back then was “The Dream Is Still Alive”. It's the song that I wrote recently for my Sophomore Recital and I really like the lyrics of the song a lot. During that period, I also wrote “Come Home”, a very personal song to me. I added “Heaven”, “Making Peace With Myself”, and “I Will Be Strong” from my old catalog. These three songs shared the same kinda vibes and messages with the other two. I have five songs already and I might still have few good options from my catalog. It was that moment that made me think : “Wow, this has to be an album! Not an EP!”.
Once I was settled about making this project as an album, I was thinking that I should probably have 10 songs in total. “Lost In You” was a very interesting and daring choice that I made. It's a short solo instrumental piano that I composed five years ago and I initially thought of this song as a “filler track” in the album. “Change of Heart” is another old song from my catalog that I added to the album. By the end of November, I had seven songs and I couldn't find any other songs to be added. “Remember Who You Are” is the new song that I wrote inspired by lines in one of Marvel movies. “The Bird's Song” is another new song that I wrote. The writing of this song is a little unique because at the beginning I had no idea what I wanna say in this song. I just got a crazy idea about having a wisdom quote in French for the chorus. The line that I got was “petit a petit, l'oiseau fait son nid” which means “little by little, the bird builds its nest”. It's a very lovely quote and it settled my decision to write the song about the imagery of a bird surviving rainy days.
Making this album was truly an amazing experience for me. It’s been such a long time since I focused on one specific goal and be super productive. I recorded all the tracks at my home studio and did the post-production by myself. It was really intense! By the end of December, I decided that the album will only have 9 songs. For the album title, I chose the word “Exulansis”. I think that word truly represented me at that moment. If you have listened to the album, I want to thank you for your time listening to it. I hope you enjoyed it! If you haven't listened to it, don't wait any longer! The album is available on all streaming platforms and you can also purchase it from this website.
Thank you all for reading my first blog!
I'll see you on the next one.
-Abhi Ananda-