Singled Out: Dominic Fragman's Obsonatus

04-12-2017
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Dominic Fragman scored a viral hit with his one man band cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer". When we learned he just released some new original music we asked him to tell us about the track "Obsonatus". Here is the story:

Obsonatus is the one of three tunes I just releasing. A little over a year ago I began writing for my Solo Trio project where I play guitar, drum set, and sing simultaneously. I got about 20 usable songs out of that writing fit-which I was super pleased with because I had not been writing for several years as I was primarily focused on drumming. Obsonatus is one of the last songs I penned in this phase.

During that time, I was waking up every morning, ignoring all technology and human communicatory attempts and desires. I got straight out of bed, did not eat or drink, and would sit down and begin meditation for at least 30 minutes. While in meditation, lyrics, hooks, melodies, riffs, would come to me. I would keep my phone close by with the voice recorder armed. I often lose many ideas if I don't at least try to document them quickly. They just go, haha. It can be frustrating. After the initial meditation period, I would go directly to the guitar and write with the ideas for a few hours. This flow wasn't just happening during meditation. Ideas manifest frequently and rapidly while driving, showering, sleeping. It's a joyous time, really!

I will say, even in this state, songs and composition still require work to complete and refine. Though, you do get the occasional happy accident where the song basically falls out of your brain and mouth finished-as a gift-like it didn't come from you. I got a few of those during this time. THAT is always exciting! Obsonatus was one of those. The song just started happening out of me. I didn't expect it. I think I may have even been mid improvisation and there it was.

I often sit and improvise with the voice recorder going. I'll recognize something that is song-like material. I find, at this point, the music I am making as an improviser is different from the music I make as a songwriter. I'd like to close that gap eventually. I am excited for a time when I can make songs from the free improvisation. I am very interested to hear how they will sound! However, I also enjoy the difference, for now. That being said, everything I improvise is not meant for my current song structure. When I am improvising, I can usually identify that which would work well for a song. In this case, Obsonatus just went-and I was recording!! So I got it!

I laughed out loud! It is-or was-not like anything I had ever written. As usual, I wasn't sure if it was any good. I played it for some friends and nobody really had much to say or knew what to say. Their response was simply, "You wrote that?" I felt weird about the tune but confident (I guess). So I got it ready for live performance on a gig to see how the audience would receive it. The first night I pulled it out, the crowd hung in there with some interest. By the end of the tune, people were singing-or yelling-the chorus! Ah ahhhhh, Ah ahhhh, Ah ahhhh, Ah ahh, Ah ahh, Ah ahh. It was rad!!

When I began collaborating with producer, Raul del Moral, upon hearing Obsonatus, he immediately wanted to work with the tune. He kept saying, "Man, this is a hit, this his a hit, this a Vevo video, man!" Ha! So, we went in. Myself, Raul, and Ryan Cullen produced and recorded Obsonatus and the other tunes in this set: Fall In and Show Me. We worked at Raul's studio in Washington, DC and Ryan's studio Annapolis Audio Lab in Annapolis, MD.

As for the meaning of the tune, I do enjoy a bit of subtlety-though I don't know that is achieved here. I'll just say that I often write songs of awareness and the current human condition. This song is one of those songs. Looking forward to setting it loose and getting more stuff out!! I release music on Spotify, iTunes, FaceBook, and YouTube. Find the things there!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the new music right here!

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