Rob Hope

Upon the conclusion of Numericoncerto, I could not decide what to do next. I was toying around with the idea of writing a symphony, but couldn’t really pull anything concrete together thematically. I had also toyed with the idea of two smaller projects, one focused on melodic songs, one focused on rock songs. That would have allowed me to release quicker.

Instead, I found I needed an outlet for some of the negative experiences of the last year, in our country and our society and our professional and personal relationships as a whole. And I found myself back in the 18 song album mode, but this time, I stripped away all the orchestral ornamentation, focusing on keyboard instruments, acoustic and electric guitars, and improving my piano composition.

Taking my research into extended chord voicings into account, I challenged myself to expand my harmonic vocabulary and Servings of Sadness is the result. The title comes from an iconic quote from a colleague of mine, “That’s two servings of sadness!” and adequately encompasses the tone I was striving for.

That said, I like how this turned out for the most part. Some of my strongest writing for piano is here, and there are some nuanced variations in the harmonies and chord structures as well as I leveraged what I learned online, sometimes taking specific chord transitions as inspirations, sometimes building whole songs on a single idea such as the use of 6th chords. It seems I always work better when I have at least one fixed conceptual target to drive for.

You can learn more about this album here.

Available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.

When I went to write my 4th album, I gave myself permission to not do another story driven or movie soundtrack style concept. Instead, I chose to compose homages, or odes, to various feelings or concepts or items in my life, allowing the emotional center that is me to drive the music rather than trying to tell a story.

I stripped away a lot of the musical complexity except where it made sense, such as in On A Failure To Dance, which is in the undanceable time signature of 33/8. I also stripped away the need for themes that carried over from song to song, or other connective tissue within the overall album.

The result is a dearly felt, but at times disconnected release that feels stronger overall than the Phoenix Diaries, but at times is almost too simple. That said, there are a lot of gems on this album and I’m happy with how it turned out.

You can learn more about The Odeon here.

Available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.

After the release of the Zombie Chronicles, I felt excited about my development as a composer and the opportunities that digital recording presented me to continue to bring the music in my head to reality. I struggled with what to do next thematically; any “story” I could think of seemed to mirror my previous two concepts too closely. After catching some Harry Potter movies late one night while channel surfing, I chose to concentrate my thoughts on what the life cycle of a Phoenix might look like. While not as fully fleshed out or exciting as other ideas, it gave me basic structure and song titles to work backwards from.

The album has grown on me over the years. It is more experimental and progressive, as I applied more learnings from my research. From song to song, I think the album is stronger, but thematically it definitely suffers from a lack of vision. My desire to maintain my “18 songs pre album” standard also put me in a spot where I felt I may have included or written tracks based on that principle alone.

That said, some of my favorite work writing wise is on this album, including Dawn, How Shall I Save Your Soul and The Calm Before.

You can learn more here about this work.

Available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.