Cody Fry Shares New Album “Pictures of Mountains”: Streaming
Back in January 2021, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Cody Fry released his sixth studio album “Pictures of Mountains”.
It is his first album in four years, except Christmas album “Christmas Music: The Complete Collection”. The album comprises 12-track, produced by Chad Copelin, Cody Fry and John Fields.
The album is inspired by his French trip. Cody Fry said, “'Pictures of Mountains' is a song about what's lost when we replace reality with a digital replica. It's inspired by my 2019 trip to the French alps and the terrible photos I took on my phone.”
After the release of the album, he released “Eleanor Rigby” and “Underground” with a symphony orchestra.
“Eleanor Rigby” is nominated for 2022 Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals.
He said of “Eleanor Rigby”, “I've always loved this song, but during the pandemic, the refrain of 'ah, look at all the lonely people' just kept coming to mind. Creating this arrangement was like musical therapy, especially with the help of nearly 400 of my fans singing in the choir and, of course, a real orchestra.”
He continued, “When a session is structured in this way, it doesn't leave much room for error, but luckily the musicians were incredible, and everything turned out better than I could have imagined. It was a stressful, nerve-wracking, joyful, rewarding experience. I hope I get to continue making more music like this.”
Also, his 2017 track “I Hear A Symphony” went viral in 2021 on TikTok. The song appeared on the 2017 album “Flying”.
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Cody Fry explained track-by-track for the album.
“Take You There”
“Guys, it's killing fried from social media here in my living room with all of my real plants. As I've gotten older, I've realized it's getting harder to just do something for no reason just because I want to and love it. Like people are counting on me and time is valuable and to do something without a purpose feels just like wasting time, but it's exhausting. I looked up one day and realized that I don't really sing in the car anymore, which is something I used to do all the time. Like, I can't, I can't sing just for no reason. And that's so sad. Because at the root of what I choose to do is the fact that I love it and it brings me joy. When I was young, I would just be singing and scatting and playing guitar and piano and like you could not get me to shut up. There was no one streaming my music. There was no one buying it. There was no audiences, but it didn't matter because I loved it. And that's why I wrote it. It's a reminder to me to just take time to do things for no reason.”
“Photograph”
“So I was thinking a lot about memory and how strange it is. Like, I can still remember from like seventh grade biology, all the bones in the body humerus radius, all the carpals, metacarpals phalanges, but I really have no memory of the first time I saw my wife and I don't need phalanges, but I really wish I had that memory of my wife. And so I was thinking about that and that was what inspired me to write photograph.
And another unique thing about photograph is it's a song that I wrote with a super specific video image in my mind, as I was writing it I was like, seeing story beats and like certain very specific images of what I wanted the music video to be, like, never thinking that I would actually get to make the video and then crispy Rudy and Dakota Tao came along and brought it to life beyond my wildest dreams, and it remains probably the thing I'm most proud of the ever been a part of making. I just, I love the way it came out.
You know, it's so strange with songs like photograph, it seems like it's just something for me that is kind of a strange thing that wouldn't stream very well or whatever you want to say about that. But all of a sudden, the way that you guys have embraced it and listen to it watched it, it's just it's such as encouragement to me. So thanks for taking this weird song about memory and letting me keep doing what I do.”
“London”
“I thought that I was gonna hit distribute on the record. And then this song came out and I was like, well just hold off on that for a minute. I want to get the song on the record, and I'm glad I did.
London is one of the few songs on the record that I wrote during the pandemic. And it's, I mean, it's really just an ode to a city that is one of my favorite places on the planet. I think a question I get a lot during these times like Oh, Cody, what do you miss most about? Life pre pandemic? And the answer to that is so easy to travel. I love traveling. I love the feeling of going to a new place and seeing all the people that live there and going, Wow, there's so many people here, and they're all living their lives and I've never even been here before and it just is such a humbling thing to put yourself in that context of the whole world and where you fit in. And I just love that feeling and I miss traveling and it's been such a mind opener for me all the traveling I've gotten to do around the US around the world. And that's why I wrote London until they're probably reading design a little bit too much.”
“Wander Anymore/Dunes”
“I don't know very many plants that can do this. Slash dunes. I love dunes. Dunes is the back and the song wander anymore students, and I think it might be my favorite moment of the whole album. I was just sort of bored one day and messing around with that piano progression. And it just sort of bloomed into this whole thing. And I was originally going to use it as a bridge for the song but I felt a little too weird for that. So we decided to just tack it onto the end. Cellos are just like digging in. And French horns are just rushing. It's just so many things that I love all in just like this one little minute of just like a casual fun list. It's proudly because things that is something that not only I will like but that's why I put on the record. I like it. I hope you like.”
“Skipping Stones & Fireflies”
“So in The Lord of the Rings books, there's this character named Tom Bombadil. I love Tom Bombadil. He's sort of this weird character that kind of comes out of nowhere and just happens in one part of the story and never comes back and is never really explained. I was so intrigued. I looked up this character in JRR Tolkien, the author just to see what token would say about this character. And his response was, every fantasy story needs an enigma.
I love that. And so that's where skipping stones and fireflies fits in on the record to me. I feel like every album needs a neighbor. And so this is like a weird song that I just like wrote the lyrics and sort of like a bone that wasn't in the set of music and then I was like, I don't want you to click track. It's gonna be just like free tempo. And I don't know I feel like the wreck is not complete until there's something that really kind of stands out. And is the Enigma like Tom Bonneville.”
“Pictures of Mountains”
“So back in 2019, I found myself in the French Alps, which is a wonderful place to find yourself. And I'm surrounded by the immense beauty of these mountains just like having the best time and then did what any of us probably would do is I was like, well, I need to get some photos or social media, right? So started taking photos of the mountains. And I looked down at my phone, these pictures and look back up. I was like, wow, that is not that. How many things in life have we done that with we've created digital replicas, but they're not equivalent. And so that was kind of the inspiration behind pictures of mountains when I wrote it back in 2019. But then, of course, 2020 came around and the pandemic totally shifted, like kind of the whole way the sun hits for me, FaceTime and zoom calls, and that technology was what allowed me to stay connected with my friends and family and loved ones during such an insane time. So it caused me to be so grateful for it. But then again, also so much even more aware of the shortfalls and how much I miss being with my family face to face and less the way the pandemic has sort of shifted the meaning of pictures of mountains for me.”
“If Only My Heart Could Speak Lyrics”
“You might be thinking, 'Cody, why is there like a weird old timey 1940s jazz song?'
And the truth is, I'm not really sure other than it really sounded fun to make. So I did. There was a phase I went through where I was basically just like writing jazz standards and this song like came out of that phase. There's another arranging texture that I'm obsessed with which is close voicing saxes, but with clarinet as the lead instrument, and it just, it's such a delightful texture. Whenever I hear it, I'm just like, immediately, I'm just wandering the streets of Limerick in Paris, you know, just like, it just takes me there right away. I know. It's a little weird. It's just like, 'hey, Cody, this isn't the 1940s anymore. We don't need this song. But like I need a bit.' So it's on the record, deal with it.”
“Make It”
“So 'Make It' is obviously about the struggle of making it in a hard industry like music industry. And really kind of what I was thinking about when I wrote it is how I bet there are people maybe watching this video right now who looked at me and say, gosh, if I can only get to where he is, then I would have made it.
But what they don't know is that I was looking at the person above me and thinking gosh, if I can only get to where she is that really made it and something that I realized is that I don't think that ever ends. No matter where you are on that ladder. There's always someone above you that you wishing, like oh, if I just had this, then it would all be successful. And what that caused me to realize was that the only person that gets to define what successes for me, is me. And so my encouragement to you with this song, and if you're watching this video is you're the only one who gets to define what success is. Don't worry about other people. Do what you love doing and eventually I swear you're going to make it.”
