Yellow Cocktail Music
An R&B/pop album based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby.
“The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing YELLOW COCKTAIL MUSIC, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. ”
The idea for a Gatsby-themed album came to me when I was in college. I was moving out of my dorm room, and I had already moved all of my instruments back to my parents’ house, but I was feeling particularly inspired one night. I grabbed my laptop and used the (very clunky) keyboard on my laptop to write a melody in GarageBand - a song that would become “West Egg.” The song was from Gatsby’s perspective, the night before he and Daisy reunite for the first time in 5 years. The book was always a favorite of mine, and there was someone in my life that was making me feel very “Gatsby” in that moment.
That was 2012. I released “West Egg” in 2013 as a track on my Homemade EP. My friend Ben Wright and I made the Homemade EP over the summer on a (very outdated and horrible) version of Cubase, but the song really struck a chord with people. It continued to gain traction, and so I re-recorded it for my Reconstructor EP (2015), and again for my Golden Summer EP (2018).
2018 was also the year that a friend of mine and I had the idea to try a Gatsby musical. While it didn’t come to fruition, it re-invigorated me to actually make the project happen.
In January of this year, I sat down to write this Gatsby album. I wrote these songs the way I used to - just a guitar in hand, and a melody - no computers, no AI. I had been used to writing music with beats on Logic, and this album felt like a more organic and classic approach would fit it best.
And I couldn’t have been more right. What started out as 30 song fragments was carefully whittled down to nine essential songs - [Yellow Cocktail Music] - an album crafted lovingly in the style of my favorite R&B/pop artists (Leon Bridges, John Mayer, Frank Sinatra). From there, the songs quickly took on a life of their own.
Talented vocalist friends stepped in to voice for certain characters’ perspectives (Jaxson Deno as Nick, Jessica Coughlin as Daisy, Joseph Settine as George), and I brought in colorful string arrangements and brass ensembles to give the album a timeless flair. The process was so organic and rewarding, and I couldn’t be more excited to share [Yellow Cocktail Music] with you on October 10.
In this age of streaming and AI artists, I wanted to make sure that music lovers would have the chance to hear this album first. [Yellow Cocktail Music] will be released on vinyl + digital exclusively, and won’t hit streaming services until 2026.