Time to Start Sharing My Story

Debut album out now!

8 years ago, I started writing music as a way of processing what I was going through at the time. It was an excruciatingly painful season. I felt like I was losing everything.

Up to this point, this is all I’ve shared publicly about that season, just vagaries. And the music I’ve released up to this point has also been a bit vague. Mostly that was because I needed the time to let the process come full circle and to heal. It was also (and still is) because I didn’t want to pigeonhole my art. But now, with the release of this album - and in particular the song called Prodigal - I want you, my fans, to know just a little bit more, at the very least that the season and experiences to which I’ve been vaguely referring were those when I was a pastor and worship leader in the evangelical church.

This new album is only about 1/3 of the catalogue of music that I wrote during that season, specifically the songs written after I had managed to get out and move back home to Scranton, Pennsylvania. It’s the songs written during the time I was trying to rebuild my life (hence the title). It’s a kind of sequel to the core music that remains unreleased (though I do perform it at my shows) and which I hope to release someday as my second album.

I can honestly say that I never intended to build an artist career out of this music when I was writing it. It was like journal entries for me. It just came out as a matter of necessity. I had no idea if it was good and, frankly, didn’t care. And now that I have started to build a career around it, I still don’t care if it ever succeeds commercially. I only care that I made something honest.

Some music is meant to numb pain; some music is meant to express it. While mine is beautiful, sleep-inducing, relaxing, and all kinds of other nice and well-meant things people have said about it, I think of it as the latter. Not everyone has experienced abuse and betrayal but we’ve all experienced pain. The first step toward healing is letting that pain speak no matter how ugly it is.

I hope that in this new album, you will find a whole mixture of things: sadness, compassion, confusion, peace, anger, hope, and, yes, beauty and relaxation.

About the Album

A few interesting details…

• Though billed as a “neoclassical” album, which assumes it’s all instrumental, there are actually 3 songs on this album with lyrics and singing, betraying the influence of Americana/folk music on my creativity.

• 3 of the 11 tracks have been released already as singles (All Beginnings Are Hard, I Thought I Knew, Shiver). HOWEVER, these versions are newly-recorded and along with 3 other songs (All You Ever Wanted, Prodigal, Each To His Own Light) were recorded and filmed live, in studio, with a string trio and synthesist/percussionist.

• The other tracks were recorded later. They feature ambient vocals from Mystic Joy and my own Crumar Mojo organ and function as a kind of narrator to the story of the album.

Tracklist:

1. Prologue

2. All Beginnings Are Hard

3. Measure by Measure

4. All You Ever Wanted

5. Fits and Starts

6. I Thought I Knew

7. Prodigal

8. Marie

9. Shiver

10. Epilogue

11. Each To His Own Light

Credits:

All songs composed and arranged by Zach Sprowls
Piano, organ, synth, vocals: Zach Sprowls
Violin: Charles Gleason
Viola: Inga Liu
Cello: Lourdes de la Peña
Synth and percussion: David A. Molina
Ambient vocals: Mystic Joy
Live tracks recorded by Andy Clarke and Joe Boldizar at Retro City Studios, Philadelphia PA
Produced and mixed by David A. Molina / Additional mixing by Zach Sprowls
Mastered by Clyde Rosencrance of Republic Audio Studios
Cover design: Tony Susi / Cover image: Brian Jones

And after listening, get tickets to the very unique album release show in November! More info here:

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