News - Classic

Next Friday, January 24th Wayfarer Records recording artist Dashmesh will be releasing his first solo album as a Wayfarer entitled Biomimesis. Recently, Dashmesh told us a little bit more about the story behind the creation of Biomimesis.

Biomimesis is Greek for “Biomimicry” which is an emerging scientific discipline that is actually quite ancient. It is an interdisciplinary field that has vast implications, one of which is its ability to create harmony between technology and nature. Biomimicry’s guiding rule is understanding Nature as a model and mentor for personal, technological and social development. The major purpose for this project is to celebrate this direction and raise people’s awareness as to its inestimable value in solving the increasingly complex problems that we face.

This album is a call to remember our collective Indigenous heritage from which our relationship to nature is inseparable from the way we broadly perceive, act and organize. It is inspired by the understanding that we share a kinship with the entire web of life and what we do to the web we do to ourselves. In that way it’s not just pointing us towards a more ecologically holistic future but encouraging the re-integration of the wisdom from our ancestral past.

Be sure and mark your calendar for this amazing release and you can pre-save a copy of Biomimesis HERE. You can also get an advanced listen to this fantastic new release as part of Wayfarer Records Wednesdays FREE Listening Parties on BandCamp. You can RSVP HERE

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This week the popular radio network New Age Notes Radio announced the nominees for this year’s New Age Notes Radio Music Awards and we are blown away to announce that Wayfarer artists received an amazing THIRTEEN nominations in various categories. Wayfarers Michelle Qureshi, Christopher Caouette, Billy Denk and Richard Theisen all received nominations with Billy receiving a whopping seven nominations for his chart-topping album Meditations of the Cosmos!

You can check out the Full List of Nominations HERE

Congratulations to All of the nominees and good luck to all of the contestants and creators of this amazing music!!

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Wayfarer’s own ambassador of chill ELEON is kicking off 2025 with style. His new single View From Above featuring Jeff Pearce is currently being featured on a number of popular radio shows and Now, we are excited to announce not one but, two releases coming this February. First, is a brand-new single entitled Love Everlasting that is part of our Valentine’s Day series of releases. The second is the rerelease of his highly popular album Cerulean that we are now very happy to have as a Wayfarer Records release.

Love Everlasting release worldwide on February 11th with Cerulean releasing a few days earlier on February 7th as part of Wayfarer’s New Release Fridays. Keep checking back to WayfarerMusicGroup.com for the latest news, music and more from ELEON and all of your favorite Wayfarers.

#wearethewayfarers #wayfarerrecords #wayfarermusicgroup #musiccollective #independentmusic #indendentartists #eleon #chill #newmusic #valentinesmusic #romancemusic 

This week’s NACC Chill Chart released today and Wayfarer’s own Dieter Spears has climbed from #10 to the # 8 position with his album Late Day Summer Breeze! Music from Late Day Summer Breeze has recently been featured on a number of top radio programs including numerous songs on the legendary Echoes radio program. It was also selected as one of Cyclical Magazine‘s Top 12 Releases for the month of November.

CONGRATULATIONS DIETER FROM ALL OF THE WAYFARERS!!!! TAKE IT TO THE TOP!!!

You can help support Dieter by picking up your own copy of Late Day Summer Breeze HERE or from your favorite digital outlet. Also, Check out his YouTube Videos Here!

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Grammy ® Award-winning Wayfarer Richard Theisen is back and has a brand-new release coming at the end of January to set up the season of romance. Richard has brought us an EP of his most beloved piano features with orchestration combined together to kick off the Valentine’s season entitled A Breathtaking Collection of Romantic Melodies. A Breathtaking Collection of Romantic Melodies features enchanting arrangements including selections from his Wayfarer release Oceanova.

A Breathtaking Collection of Romantic Melodies releases worldwide on January 31st as part of a series of Wayfarer releases for the holiday of love. Be sure and mark your calendars for this beautiful release and you can pre-save your own copy HERE

For more information on Richard Theisen check out his artist page here at WayfarerMusicGroup.com

#wearethewayfarers #wayfarermusicgroup #wayfarerrecords #grammywinner #richardtheisen #valentinesmusic #romanticmusic #pianomusic #musiccollective #independentmusic #independentartists

Wayfarer Records’ Featured Artist of the Month Billy Denk is kicking off his release week with style! This Friday marks the release of his highly anticipated second Wayfarer release entitled Beneath the Peaceful Sky. The album is the follow up to his chart-topping Meditations of the Cosmos and like that album, top music critic Jonathan Widran got an advance listen and we are so glad that he did. Jonathan has released an incredible review of Beneath the Peaceful Sky that truly captures the spirit of this fabulous project.

Jonathan notes early in the review “All at once, soothing, intricate, soulful expansive and rhythmically eclectic, Denk’s second Wayfarer Music Group album Beneath the Peaceful Sky is, to say the least, epic and awe-inspiring as both a singular release and as a creative extension of those grand previous works.”

Jonathan’s review just keeps getting better from there and there are some amazing insights from Billy as well. You can check out this amazing full review HERE and be sure to check out Jonathan’s site JWVibe.com for more fabulous reviews from Wayfarers and more.

Beneath the Peaceful Sky releases worldwide this Friday and be sure to RSVP now for our FREE Listening Party happening this Wednesday on BandCamp HERE

#wearethewayfarers #wayfarermusicgroup #wayfarerrecords #billydenk #jonathanwidran @jwvibe #beneaththepeacefulsky #listeningparty #musicreview #musiccritic

Greetings Creatives, Music Lovers and Fellow Dwellers of this big rock we call The Earth. It has been quite a while since last I jumped on the interwebs and spewed forth some nuggets of experience. Life has been wondrously hectic in a sort of beautiful way since fate dealt a life change and I found myself in the captain’s chair of the Starship Wayfarer or, is that NCC-2024? I digress. Anyhoo, its good to be back in the rambling seat safely situated behind my keyboard whilst listening to all of you fine folk on this fancy streaming radio thingy.

Since arriving on this scene in early 2019, my life has been one big adventure after another. The best part is this is after having a tremendously successful music career prior to. I moved to Boca in 2017, retired from the industry and set my feet firmly in the sand never to make music professionally again. Yes, I know how cliché that sounds moving to Boca but, I had no idea that I was about to meet the most talented and supportive people of my rapidly approaching forty years as a professional musician and that this would set me on a path of realizing the true benefit of encouragement in our twisted industry.

Let us first address the elephant in the room. What in the actual Hell were any of us thinking about when we decided to keep going in the music industry in this day and age? We know we all ask ourselves this regularly. There are serious challenges out there and for those of us who know the “joy” of AARP eligibility, bad hips and forgetting to take a denture out, all of that applies sadly to said author of this article, the challenges out there are extra frustrating. They are frustrating because we remember when it was not this tough. We thought we had it made and were all making money. Here is my question though. Do you remember having genuine encouragement under the old ways? Or was it easier because you “felt” encouragement masked by your so-called success of the moment? Yes, I know. That was two questions.

Here is where I am going with that. Some of you know and some of you don’t but, I was a professional touring/recording bassist in Nashville for twenty years. From crowds of 80,000 to 8 and over 100 artists to my name, I’ve seen it all firsthand and most of it was not pretty. We know this industry isn’t easy but, what gets done to artists every day sometimes teeters on being criminal.  From the level of absurdity in the name of “supporting an artist” by some of the professional organizations to the vast amounts of just total and complete disrespect, this industry can 100% suck at times which is one of the primary reasons I imposed my personal, however short-lived retirement in 2017.

On top of the fact that there are some truly vile individuals on this planet, we have the nonstop joy of the societal demonetization of the overall worth of what we do. Granted, this is not everyone out there but, the issue now becomes the dealing with the realization that we have now had an entire generation of humans that do not value the artistry of music like it once did. It’s not their fault though. They were raised on streaming services, free music downloads and virtually anything accessible online that you want to hear or see. So, what continues to compel us to do this? The answer. At the end of the day, we are still Creatives.

Those of you who have read my ramblings have heard this before but, it bears repeating and I’ll tailor it so that it fits today’s lesson. The First Step to finding encouragement in this industry is to remember why we got into all of this to begin with. You must ask yourself the question “Why did I want to make music in the beginning?” Once you do that then it is imperative that you make a concerted effort to genuinely REMEMBER. Break it down, analyze it. Do whatever process you think might help you remember but, the most important thing is to DO IT!

Step Two: Lose yourself in REMEMBERING that feeling! Find that THING and get lost in the nostalgia of it all. What do I mean? Think of the music that inspired it and then actually go relisten or if it were a particular instrument that you once played and you still have it, break it out and REMEMBER! These aren’t just a distraction from the evils of modern-day music, this is something bigger. These are the initial steps in rekindling that love affair that you’ve not realized that you’ve forgotten about that got you into this mess to begin with.

Finally, at least for today and I cannot stress this one enough, go find likeminded individuals and share these experiences and stories. This is an absolute must and could be a challenge. Trust me, I get it. There are reasons I prefer the shadows. I am one of the most extroverted introverts out there but, I know this is something I have to do to ensure my own creative survival. I implore you to do the same for your own sake.

I’ll give you a beautiful example of this. Here at Wayfarer, we are not a traditional business model for a “record label”. What we actually are is a music collective and we support one another to achieve our goals. That’s all awesome but, what’s even better is that this has become a family of people doing exactly what I’ve been talking about. This crew is constantly online in our personal chats talking about anything under the sun, sharing music, telling stories, promoting each other and generally lifting each other up to be something very special. THAT is what I am talking about! Because of what we do on a daily basis with some actual positivity flowing, the group is in turn sharing a level of encouragement that I know I’ve never seen in my career, and I’d be willing to bet the other Wayfarers would agree.

There’s a slogan out there that says, “Smiles are Infectious”. You know what? They’re right and so is spreading joy however you muster it. You can choose to be a bitter old musician bitching about how the industry used to be or you can dust yourself off and be a positive beacon for someone. My calling is to be the latter and what makes me the most excited is that I am surrounded by individuals who feel the same and that my fellow examples of humanity is the foundation of the Art of Encouragement.

Until next time…

Blessed Grooves,

SO’S

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Creating music is a deeply personal and creative process, and for me, it starts with exploring sounds in Ableton Live, a versatile digital audio workstation. Ableton’s intuitive interface and powerful tools allow me to approach music-making with a sense of play and experimentation. I typically begin by designing unique sounds, often starting from scratch or heavily modifying presets to make them my own. This could involve tweaking oscillators, filters, and modulation settings to craft the textures and timbres that resonate with the mood or vibe I’m aiming for. Ableton’s flexibility lets me layer, manipulate, and arrange these sounds seamlessly, giving me an open canvas for sonic exploration.

A significant part of my sound design process involves using plugins by Arturia, known for their emulations of classic analog synthesizers and creative sound-shaping tools. Arturia’s suite of instruments, such as the OP-Xa V or the Jup-8 V, allows me to tap into rich, analog-style tones that can be customized to fit my musical vision. I experiment with these plugins to create pads, leads, and basslines, often layering multiple instances to build complex and evolving textures. Arturia’s intuitive interfaces make it easy to experiment with parameters, and their sound quality consistently inspires new ideas, providing a bridge between the vintage and modern worlds of sound. In addition, I experiment with granular synthesis using Arturia tools, as well as using Ableton devices and other third-party plugins, by manipulating tiny audio fragments, or grains, to create evolving textures, dynamic soundscapes, and unexpected timbres.

Beyond the digital domain, I incorporate my guitar into the process, which serves as both a traditional instrument and a tool for triggering innovative ideas. Sometimes, I create real guitar loops, recording phrases, riffs, or chord progressions that serve as the foundation for a track. Using Ableton’s built-in tools, I might warp, slice, or process these loops to transform them into something entirely new. This allows me to add organic warmth and a human touch to my compositions, blending the tactile nature of playing guitar with the precision and flexibility of digital production.

At other times, I use my guitar to trigger MIDI patches, bridging the gap between analog performance and digital sound design. Using the plugin MIDI Guitar II, I can play the guitar while simultaneously triggering synthesizer sounds or virtual instruments. This method enables me to approach synthesis from a guitarist’s perspective, adding unique articulations and expressions that might not come naturally through a keyboard or MIDI controller. By combining the familiar feel of the guitar with the limitless possibilities of MIDI, I can push my creativity into unexpected territories.

In addition, to sound itself, I often draw inspiration from literary references by translating the emotions, imagery, and narratives of stories into evocative musical themes.

Ultimately, my process revolves around the idea of experimentation – letting the tools, sounds, and ideas guide the direction of the music. Whether I’m building a track from a crafted Arturia patch, a manipulated guitar loop, or a MIDI-triggered melody, each element contributes to the overall texture and narrative. Ableton Live serves as the glue that binds these components together, providing flexibility to arrange, edit, and refine my ideas into a cohesive piece. Through this interplay of analog and digital, organic and synthetic, I continually discover new ways to express my musical vision.

#wearethewayfarers #wayfarermusicgroup #wayfarerstudio #wayfarerrecords #billydenk #musiccollective #independentmusic #independentartists #musiceducation #musicblog #behindthemusic #sounddesign #synthesis #songdevelopment