DOOMSDAY ROMANTIC: Between Pressures

Doomsday Romantic

Between Pressures

© 2002 Resort City Promotions, Ltd

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"Art pop:" a mix of tasteful guitar rock with pop hooks and creative lyrics

tracks

1 Daybreak
2 Slightly Me
3 Debut
4 Yesterday
5 Intoxication
6 Between Pressures
7 The Red Room
8 Choking Hazard
9 Blue
10 What About You
11 One Thing
12 Roll Your Eyes

notes

Doomsday Romantic is not a full band at this time, but actually just me--Bryan Frazier. I've only been a songwriter for two years. Before that, I played guitar for a band called Tarrytown. I'd like to say it was the time of my life, but I'd be lying. I picked up the guitar about six years ago and started learning Nirvana tunes and grew my hair out. At that time, things were much more simple. I was twenty years old and in college. I knew what I liked about music and that was about it. After living out of state for a couple of years with Tarrytown, I moved home with a guitar and no songs of my own.

I don't remember when I actually sat down and thought about lyrics or chord patterns, but I do remember playing with a new freedom. A freedom that was all my own - a new fast paced thought process that was really clicking. After recording a few demos, I was discovered by a new label out of Hot Springs, Arkansas, my home town. They gave me a modest budget to record my first solo effort Between Pressures. The songs on Pressures are a group of older songs, but they weren't the first twelve songs I ever wrote. Currently, I possess over fifty tunes, most of which are finished only in my head. The tracks on Pressures just seem to work together. I wouldn't call it a concept album, but a work of art that has several levels to discover.

I currently teach art at the high school level and studied it in college as well. Ironically, the art work on the cover and layout were the most difficult to conceive, and I have been doing art my whole life. The difficult part was not creating it physically, but having to decide on a dozen ideas that I felt all worked. Without the help of a few trustworthy friends I would still be pondering it. The art work, I feel, plays a large part in discovering the record for what it is intended, as well as discovering the artist. I titled the record Between Pressures because of the everyday struggles I faced in making the record. Plus, it had a good ring to it. The artwork is a mixed media collage made of book pages torn out of an old compressed air data text book from the thirties. I've been doing pieces like these for quite some time now, using similar books. When I saw the book, I immediately made the connection between the title of the record and the illustrations about compressing air and all the marvelous text and charts that look great thrown together. I sat down and created both the cover and the back cover in less than a couple of hours. The inside pieces were done later. I chose the color red primarily because it's my favorite, but also because it fits the idea of a "doomsday romantic" being someone who is hopeless in finding romance to be the bittersweet highlight of their day, and always holding their heart on their shoulder. I wanted to encapsulate everything for the project in one take so I could totally start fresh on the next project which is already in its early stages.

As a songwriter, I consider myself to be a pop song writer. However, I don't write for the average pop listener. The tracks on this record were written over a two year period so the subject matter varies from childhood memories to current relationship situations. I tried not to put any lyrical cliches' on the record like "baby" or "I love you" or "please be mine". Lyrics like "your crying eyes, like an orange peel on fire" and "as I blur my eyes your fuzzy limbs catch light" are examples of expressing normal feelings in a more artistic or creative way.

As listeners, we currently possess genre's like "pop rock" and "art rock". Why not have "art pop". We had "pop art" in the sixties. Why do most artistic rock bands seem so dark and mysterious? Andy Worhol said, "The best part about being famous is knowing all the people you read about in the big magazines, so its like reading about people you know all the time". I wonder why you don't read about as many famous artists as you do musicians. I've only been a songwriter for two years but I've been an artist and a fan of music for as long as I can remember, and I would love to read about my favorite artists and my favorite bands in the same big magazine.

I hope that you will enjoy my work in its' entirety and that it will have a positive influence on a small part of your life.

reviews

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  • Wonderfully up-lifting and inspirational...
    author: Maddy

    I truly adore your music! You're voice, along with the guitar, is great - so clear and strong. It's the kind of music I can listen to over and over and not get sick of hearing. :) I'd just like to say well done and you are definetly on your way to bigger and better things. Maddy

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