Bookshelf Symphony

Hey everyone! Happy Hump Day!

I’m so excited to bring you all a different kind of tour post from me, I couldn’t help but freak out about this.

The Bookshelf Symphony Tour, where we get to talk about an album by a composer who has written songs about books, how freakin’ fantastic is that?!

The song I got was definitely Scifi so that made my little space heart happy, but, it was even more intriguing because I hadn’t read this book and well, now I definitely want to!

We got to pick three questions to ask the composer, but, before we get to my questions, we’re going to sail through the Album information, and after my information, we will take a look at our most glorious composer, woo!!!

HERE WE GOOOOOOOO

Album Information

The Bookshelf Symphony Orchestra by Austin Farmer
Released: August 17, 2019

Album Blurb

The Bookshelf Symphony Orchestra is an instrumental concept album created for readers and writers. Over the course of 2 years, Austin Farmer teamed up with brothers Addam and Heath Farmer to help produce, co- arrange, and mix/master the album, bringing over a decade of experience in the music industry to the project. Every song is titled after the novel it was inspired by and couldn’t have been created without those stories. Austin’s previous songs have been featured on Nickelodeon, CBS, Fox Sports, and a national Sprint TV campaign with indie rock bands Island Apollo and The Bolts. Musical influences on this album include songs from many of the instrumental playlists he’d listen to while writing fiction, including Two Steps From Hell, Bear McCreary, and Joe Hisaishi.

His short story “Beethoven’s Baton” is featured in Baker Street Irregulars, co-edited by Michael A. Ventrella and NYT Bestselling Author Jonathan Maberry.

Album Links

Spotify | Amazon

Interview Time!

1. What elements of ‘The Fold’ inspired this song? I definitely feel the sci-fi vibe but was Peter or anything/anyone else the main source of inspiration for this song?

I’m glad you felt the sci-fi vibes on this! The Fold by Peter Clines (published by Penguin Random House) is such a thrilling novel. It’s fast-paced, hard to stop reading, and adds an entirely unique twist to the genre. His audiobooks are also best-sellers, and I highly recommend the audiobook to The Fold!

Without giving away any spoilers, I wanted to underscore a moment in Act 3 of the novel that is filled with so much tension, your mind starts spinning. I wanted the arrangement of the song to translate what is happening in this scene as well, so when you listen to the song, you can hear sound effects leading into the last movement, where we added a dense layer of backwards-swelling synths to highlight this.

2. What drew you to use The Fold?

I was drawn to use The Fold in The Bookshelf Symphony Orchestra for a number of reasons, mainly because this novel is so freaking cool. I though this would be a perfect fit because I wanted to challenge myself to recreate moments of the 3rd act of the novel into a synth-driven orchestral piece. It definitely was a challenge; I wanted to find the right balance between building up the tension in the structure of the song without it feeling repetitive. I wanted it to feel relatively welcoming in the beginning of the song, and then suddenly the theme/melody you hear changes from a major key to a minor key.

Also, Peter Clines is a very generous author who gives back to the writing community through different writing events—he has an awesome blog about writing you should check out. I actually discovered most of the novels featured on the album through my favorite bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy Books.

3. Which composer would you want to write a soundtrack for your life?

Oh wow, that’s a good question! I would love to have Thomas Bergersen, Bear McCreary, Klaus Badelt, and/or Joe Hisaishi write a soundtrack to my life. Their music contains so many different emotions. I’m going to have to pull up their music right now and pretend that they wrote the official soundtrack to my life. Actually, if I could pick one song right now to officially be the song on the soundtrack, I would pick “Reprise” from the Spirited Away soundtrack. 🙂

Check out Peter Clines’s website (@peterclines): https://www.peterclines.com

Pick up a copy of The Fold from Penguin Random House (@penguinrandom): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240300/the-fold-by-peter-clines/

About the Composer

austin-farmer

Austin Farmer is a musician, writer, and filmmaker from Southern California. His music has been featured on Nickelodeon, Fox Sports, and a national Sprint commercial. His short story “Beethoven’s Baton” is featured in Baker Street Irregulars Volume 1 (co-edited by Michael A. Ventrella and NYT Bestselling Author Jonathan Maberry).

Composer Links

Website | Twitter

FUN FACTS:

– I attended the Y’ALL (@Yallwest) West Writing Convention in 2018 a few years back and attended a

“WRITING MUSIC, WRITING ABOUT MUSIC” panel. I asked a few authors if putting music out like this would be a good idea, and they suggested to go for it and put it out. I think they said to let them know if I ever did. That panel helped me get the courage to put out this music. I always wanted to find a way to thank them or Yallwest for that.

Storytellers On Tour https://storytellersontour.online

The Bookshelf Symphony Orchestra Blog Tour April 13th-17th

– A lot of these songs were inspired by novels that I discovered because of Mysterious Galaxy

Books (@Mystgalaxybooks) in San Diego. A lot of these authors had book signings, and I discovered a lot of these novels from those signings or different writing events, including the author of “Truthwitch” (Susan Dennard), “The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding” (Alex Bracken), “The Fold” (Peter Cines), and more (about 9 of them).

– Social Media helped me put out this music. I originally put the demos out on Twitter and tagged the authors, and their support helped give me the courage to put this out as an album, too.

– My uncle played with The Beach Boys for about 12 years as their live bassist.

– I am the singer of a Rush Tribute band.

– My Band Island Apollo reached 2 million plays for our single “Hold It Down” on Spotify.