Today, after four years dedicated to the creation process , Jennifer Thomas has released her epic new album, “Oceans.” This album, recorded at the prestigious Abbey Road Studios, showcases Thomas’s remarkable talent as both a composer and pianist. “Oceans” stands out for its daring emotional depth and the ambitious scale of its production, reflecting Thomas’s meticulous attention to every detail throughout the creative process.
NB: First of all, congratulations. This is an absolutely STUNNING album! How did the concept of Oceans first come about?
JT: Aw thank you so much for saying that! Oceans began as a small EP idea, and then eventually turned into a massive 71 minute full album. I started writing it during the pandemic, with the idea that I would write about my favorite nature inspiration (the ocean), but as I was nearing completing the first 6 tracks, I just knew I wasn’t finished and my heart had more to say and to write.
As I was writing this, I was also experiencing a dark time in my life (as we all were during the pandemic), but mine was also compounded with dealing with intense anxiety and the “dark night of the soul”. Music was an escape for me – where sometimes it felt like sitting down at my piano was the only place I could go to get away from reality. Not only would I create these stories and ideas in my head, but it was also how I processed what I was going through. A lot of the pieces on this album are truly my soundtracks for what I was experiencing.
NB: Do you remember the first and last songs you composed for this album?
JT: The first song was “The Lighthouse”, followed by the title track “Oceans”. As you listen to the album, you’ll hear my writing style with these first couple of songs are kind of similar with how I created the instrumentation and piano FX, but as you get towards the end of the album my style takes a shift and things definitely get more epic. The final track I wrote was written after I thought I had finished the album, which was “You Carried Me Home”. It’s a vocal track that I actually sing on – and it is my healing song. That song is a thank you note to everyone who saw me through a difficult time. It felt like the bookend that the album needed.
NB: Layering musical instruments is a big part of the storytelling on the tracks. Tell us more about that choice.
JT: I have layered my instruments before, but never like this. This was a whole notch beyond, and while it created a challenging sonic space to mix the music in, it also stylistically provided this very interesting soundscape for the music.
Take “The Lighthouse” for example. This song starts out with a simple 4 note pattern in the piano that is layered with several piano FX layers as well. These layered FX are also piano, but they make use of the piano in inventive ways – like strumming the piano strings, some notes are felted (felt put in between the hammers and strings), and some are brushed strokes on piano strings. It created this percussive sound that resembled an acoustic guitar, but in reality was all coming from a piano. On top of this, is my real traditional piano layer, and then later on in the song beyond this, I also have sometimes 2 or 3 piano hands going on simultaneously.
This all felt so appropriate given the theme to the album as well – since there are also so many layers in the ocean; five layers to be exact. And the deepest layer (more deep than the height of Mt Everest) there is also still life down there thriving in these depths. We as humans are multi-layered and even in our deepest and darkest parts, we still have life too.
NB: In some of these songs with multiple piano parts, how do you choose which part to play in live performances?
JT: Oiye, good question. I actually just did my first performance of a few of the songs from the new album, and that was definitely a challenge to figure out. It’s also why I haven’t finished editing the piano sheet music books, because I’m still trying to figure out how to consolidate the parts down to a single line for other players.
But to answer you, I try to choose what’s doable for two hands, and the rest I build into the backing tracks. It’s literally just not possible for me to play all of the parts live in concert. But at this point in my career and writing style, I no longer care much for shooting for only what’s doable. I say go for what you want, and then figure it out later.
NB: You collaborate with many incredible musicians on this album, including your producer Glen Gabriel. Alexa Ray also lends her voice to a few of the tracks. You both have collaborated a few times now. What are some of the things you love about working with Alexa?
JT: The people I collaborated with on this album was my favorite part, and Alexa was definitely such a joy. Can I just rave about her for a moment? She is not only crazy talented, but she is so dedicated to her craft and one of the most professional artists I’ve worked with. She does things until they are absolutely right, and goes above and beyond with every single track. And her voice! She has this ability to morph her vocals into any style almost as if it’s an instrument that she also plays around with to see what unique creations she can get out of it. I’m continually amazed at her ingenuity and I have no doubt she will just continue to rise in the epic music world with what she is doing. I feel so excited and honored to feature her on two of the tracks on this album.
NB: You also had a chance to use your own voice on “Something Just Like This” and “You Carried Me Home.” Does it feel any different to share your singing as opposed to playing the piano or violin?
JT: So I just first want to point out how incredibly nervous I am to share my voice like this, and there is a story behind this. First of all, I actually had never intended to actually sing on either of these songs. I did sing the demos, but with the plan that I would eventually have a featured artist sing these songs. It was my co-producer, Glen Gabriel, who changed my mind on this.
He made a trip to Seattle from Sweden to come work on Oceans with me during 2022, and it was during this trip that he and I were out in my studio and I told him I had written a final song for the album and had recorded all of the demo vocals and wanted to play it for him. After he listened, he looked at me and said, “You have to sing this. Nobody else can sing this. It has to be you.” I looked at him and said, “You’re joking, right?”.
But the story behind this song was that I had actually been having some throat issues for about a year prior, and had even seen an ENT doctor and he found nothing to be wrong with me. I could not figure out why I was constantly having throat irritation. A therapist friend of mine introduced me to the body chakras, which I had no knowledge of prior to this. After learning that the throat chakra had to do with speaking one’s truth and using one’s own voice, I started trying to put this into practice in my daily life. I know it’s sounds crazy, but as I started becoming more authentic to myself, my throat irritation lessened. And in moments when I felt stress or inauthenticity coming out, the irritation would return. For me, singing on this song was not only because Glen encouraged me to sing on it, but it was truly me overcoming things in my life and “speaking my truth” and “Using my voice”, quite literally through singing on this song.
I am not a professionally trained singer, but I did take some lessons before recording the final vocals to make sure I was getting vowels correct, and learning to breathe better. And I have to say I’m very proud of how it turned out. I truly hope it’s received well and that the song touches many lives, because that’s my biggest hope is that it heals others too.
NB: “Just a Teardrop in the Ocean” is such a beautiful and emotional track. I remember reading that Kelly Clarkson had written some very personal music and had to stop herself from going to a certain emotional place over time when performing them, while other artists seem to find the experience incredibly cathartic. When you write something that’s very vulnerable, what does it feel like for you to play those songs?
JT: That’s interesting that you bring that up about Kelly Clarkson, because I recently watched the Ed Sheeren documentary on Disney Plus, where he mentioned this as well. His wife was going through cancer, and he wrote so much of his recent album during that time and the first time he performed it on stage he broke down in tears. He actually apologized to the audience, saying he felt it was very “unprofessional” of him to cry during a performance and backstage afterwards he was quite upset with himself when he realized he had written songs that he’d need to perform thousands of times. And that’s when he said, “I just have to let the songs go and let them fly where they need to fly. I got my cry out.” (I’m paraphrasing what he said). I can really relate to what he said – the first few times are the hardest, but after that, you just have to let the songs fly where they need to fly.
“Just a Teardrop in the Ocean” is my sad song on the album, and I literally sat at my piano one dark night composing that piece with tissues all over the place. I recorded it onto my phone and was just going to delete it. I hated it. Any time I would listen to it, it was too hard and would bring up so many raw emotions of what I was going through at that time. It took me over a year to finally decide to record it, and even then I did so reluctantly. I told Glen, “Here is this song…I hate it. But I probably need to record it, so here it is. But I actually can hardly listen to it.”
He took it and created the most lovely orchestration on it – which is just strings and a little bit of synth and some bass hits every now and then. It felt like he took this heart wrenching song (and experience) of mine, came down and sat next to me at the piano and played a duet with me. He said “This is one of the most beautiful songs you’ve written, I hope you like what I did with it and can someday listen to it and love it.” Yeah, I cried my eyes out. And when we were recording this one at Abbey Road Studios, I was crying, my husband was down in the studio trying to film the musicians and he was bawling, and it was just an emotional mess all over the place, haha. So thank you, I’m so glad you also loved it and felt the raw emotion in it as well.
NB: The album is mostly original material, but you weave a few other melodies in there as well. What were some of the changes that you were excited about to connect them together?
JT: Great ear! So yes, the “Metamorphosis Suite” I & II is based on Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto. The 1st movement of the suite (“Transformation”) also has my own original music weaved in and out of the Rachmaninoff themes, and the 2nd movement of the suite I took the beautiful 2nd movement melody and added an epic choir section where they sing about the transformation of the butterfly (‘Fly to the sky, little butterfly!”).
One of my favorite aspects about working with Glen Gabriel is that he is a film composer. I love throwing classical music at him that he’s not largely familiar with, because it allows him to come up with ideas that are so fresh and so not what you would typically hear with these pieces. He also did that with “Rise of the Phoenix” on my album The Fire Within, as that piece is one where I incorporated Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” into it. He did that with the Metamorphosis Suite as well, and I have to say, for not knowing the Rach 2nd Piano Concerto, he nailed the orchestral parts as if he wrote it himself. He’s brilliant.
I also arranged “Mermaids” (Hans Zimmer / Eric Whitacre), as well as “Something Just Like This” (Coldplay / The Chainsmokers) and those were so fun as well. The Coldplay one was actually quite challenging as getting the orchestration and electronic elements just right was pretty hard – but in the end it just turned out amazing.
NB: How do you feel “Oceans” differs from your previous work?
JT: Oh gosh, it’s hard to convey. I truly am so proud of this work, and can honestly say it’s the best writing I’ve ever done, both technically and stylistically. I think something magical happens when you write from your own experiences and put your vulnerability on the line. The music just hits differently. While I’m proud of all the music I’ve put out, this one is very, very special to me.
NB: Can you share any memorable moments from the recording sessions of “Oceans”?
JT: Ah, well other than the crying-fest that happened during “Just a Teardrop in the Ocean”, I don’t know – the entire 2 days at Abbey Road was just magical. To hear the music you’ve worked so hard on for 3 years actually be played by the musicians – who also put their entire emotions into it as well – it’s just surreal. I’ll never forget it.
Another incredible experience this time recording at Abbey Road, was that my mixing engineer, Brian Vibberts also came and he was the recording engineer for the sessions as well. I had to get clearance with Abbey Road to bring my own engineer, and obviously he has so many credentials (including 8 Grammy awards) that it was obviously no problem. I’m so glad he came, because that in itself was a memorable experience. Brian, Glen, and I have been a little team for years starting with Winter Symphony in 2015, and so to all be there in person together at Abbey Road in 2023 recording Oceans was an experience I’ll never forget.
NB: What has the “Oceans” project taught you as a musician and a human?
JT: Patience. Patience to get through the hard times, patience to write the music that needs to be written and in the time/space it needs to be written and not rushed. It took me 4 long years to complete Oceans, and there were so many times I felt like the process was going so slow. But in the end, it was all the way it needed to happen. I wouldn’t have been ready to release this album any sooner because I had to go through my own healing process to get here too.
Buy “Oceans” now from jenniferthomasmusic.com
