I've finished demos for my next album called “Ondolindë”. This one has some heavier rock influence, as well as some indie-pop and beautiful ballads. I've decided to take a different approach with this album and record as a live band! Anna Mariko Seymour (Prismia) is playing drums and Seth Paul is on guitar. I will play bass live and overdub keyboards and vocals. I am excited to do an album with more of a real band sound!
Every song on the album is about a character from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien / Christopher Tolkien. The album title is the Quenya (Elvish Latin) name of Gondolin, the hidden city. Ondolindë means “The rock of the music of water”, and I was inspired to write an album to capture that phrase.
Although the album is truthfully about the 1st age of Middle Earth, the lyrics are (hopefully) relatable and applicable to modern life. Most listeners will have no idea that it is a concept album.
The first song is about Fingolfin and his arrival in middle earth “at the rising of the sun”. Fingolfin's son Turgon then finds the hidden valley where he builds Gondolin over hundreds of years. The album progresses in chronological order through the birth of Maeglin, Tour's journey to the sea, the destruction of Gondolin and finally Eärendil's guidance of Eros and the Dúnedain (men) to Númenor at the beginning of the 2nd age.