While Melbourne’s long bursts of lockdowns (the world’s longest as it turned out) were frustrating a great many people, Gideon Frankel, creative director, music producer and co-founder of Dare Music, used the solitary time to focus on the introspective and imaginative work required for writing and composing music. “Having that time was immensely productive and inspiring. This period, that could have been the most isolated and disconnected, became a peak of connection and creative relationship building.” Gideon produced a passion project of epic proportions, a collection “of slightly cooky original compositions played with expressive flute lead; a mix of pure imagination plus various things that I find inspiring and that have a sense of the unexpected and a bittersweet vibe.”
The project he called, If I Had a Hi-Fi (the very curious might notice that it’s a palindrome), brought together musicians from all over the world, to create an album called The Dryad, which has been produced in vinyl. It took eighteen months to complete.
It also combines everything that Frankel loves, “emotive and oddly haunting melodies that contain unexpected narrative twists and savoury harmonies all floating on gentle Latin-inspired grooves”. Vintage electric pianos lent him their ability to inspire. “Somehow when I sit at these keyboards I tap into a mysterious well of melodic and harmonic inspiration. It’s like an author who gets inspired by tapping away on a vintage typewriter which has a particularly distinct character or a writer who uses a special fountain pen with unique heirloom paper to enter a ‘zone’ when writing,” he explains. A jazz flute contributed its “spiritual and mystical quality”. “To me it channels mythological energies (Pan, dryads, nymphs and the Pied-Piper). This wasn’t something I had explicitly in mind when writing, arranging and producing this record but it’s a vibe that I feel when I hear it and it continues to captivate me.” And the classic vinyl LP record with an A and B side and captivating artwork speaks to audiophiles and jazz enthusiasts.
Listen to The Dryad:
The Stable: The Dryad was produced during an extraordinary time. How did that make it easier? Or harder?
Gideon Frankel: The entire design of the project is the result of the challenge of the constraints we faced during lockdown. I was fortunate to have a very well-equipped home studio and lots of fantastic equipment and instruments. But having the kids’ home schooling to do plus no work routine or going into the studio meant that I had to develop a creative schedule and a way of writing and producing that could be done in parcels. In the beginning, I found that quite challenging. Eventually, I developed a way of working that was really well-suited to the online world. It’s a lot easier to fit in and build a project over time even though you need to keep track of where you at when everyone doesn’t have to be present at the same time.
There is a different creative ethic that comes of it. It’s well-known that you tend to develop a group consensus when people are in the same room and brainstorming together. You tend to coalesce and go in the direction of the person with the dominant personality or idea. When you let people explore their own independent universe without interruption from anyone else, then you can get some really original ideas and people can vibe off a more finished idea.
The other benefit of working remotely is being forced look outside your known or local networks. That’s an exciting palette to explore – to have flavours and sounds and influences that a very different from those of your local environment. I find that exciting and stimulating and maybe because I grew up in era where that wasn’t possible.
The Stable: Who made up the “palette” for The Dryad?
GF: I composed, arranged and produced The Dryad in Melbourne with the lead melodic voice of a flute performed by the expressive and soulful Jamichael Frazier in Los Angeles and intricate vibraphone magic from Gianluca Manfredonia in Rome. Additional players came from places as far flung as Macedonia and Sweden; percussion was performed by the talented Venezuelan artist, Reinaldo Ocando, plus players from Argentina and Spain. I provided upright bass and keys along with players from Italy, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela. Mixed with love and skill by Brazilian sound engineer, Bernado Goys in São Paulo. And I commissioned the artwork from one of my favourite fine artists, Patrick Moran from Austin, Texas.
It’s been a genuinely rewarding and enjoyable experience and a creative success that I am proud of. The mind boggles at the astronomical number of virtual miles travelled by the gigabytes of sonic data as they whirled around the globe and combined to form this new creation. What a wonderful creative journey (both internal and external) and a story of connection and collaboration between people who would normally never have been able to make music and art together. I hope it is as enjoyable to listen to as it was to make.
The Stable: Why is project work important?
GF: Project work is vital because that’s the time without any inhibitions and limitations when you can explore creative ideas and you can bring those ideas and techniques back to your commissioned work. And it works the opposite way. Each commissioned work is a creative exercise. I might have to skill up in a particular genre and I get to hone my craft. I then bring those skills back to my project work.
The Stable: Tell me about you and Dare Music.
I’ve always loved creating music and have an endless fascination for instruments and sounds. For many years my brother, Daniel, and I have run our own successful music production company, Dare Music, which specialises in bespoke soundtracks for screen and high-end advertising. Over the years, we have composed original music for many of the world’s leading brands and worked with some of advertising’s most creative minds.
I have also worked as a musical director in musical theatre productions, I am an EMI published songwriter and have written and produced original music albums from projects as diverse as collaborations with fringe cabaret crooner, Mikelangelo, to a Jamaican funk album with the godfather of Memphis Soul, the late-great Willie Mitchell through Tommy Boy Records, New York.
My brother and I have also built our own state-of-the-art recording studio and assembled a drool-worthy collection of rare and collectible instruments, microphones and recording equipment. These are the three electric pianos that I found so inspiring for the composition and sound of this record.
[And if vinyl is your thing, you can purchase a copy of the Vinyl LP here using the code, thestable, for a 15% discount.]
