Samuel B. Lupowitz

https://samuelblupowitz.bandcamp.com

Samuel B. LupowitzPiano-driven rock ’n’ soul for your thoughts, feelings, and theatrical leanings. Ben Folds backed by The Band.No Man Is an Island, released 10 September 20211. A Dream2. No Man Is an Island3. Social Disconnect / Malcolm's Knife4. That Was You5. Table Flip!6. A Better Time7. Make You Afraid8. Dancing on the Ocean Floor9. No Sleep10. A Promised LandLike many of the musical endeavors I’ve thrown myself headlong into over the past few years, I blame Harry Nichols for this album.Back in the early stages of Covid quarantine in the spring of 2020, my friend and bandmate Harry mentioned that he had been enjoying listening back to my 2012 solo album, Songs to Make You Wealthier and More Attractive. I had also recently returned to Harry’s record from the same year, Love en Route, as a balm for my Coronavirus anxiety, and I made the casual but calculated suggestion that we write song-for-song responses to each other’s 2012 albums.So I did. See? Totally Harry’s fault.Harry’s deliciously catchy Love en Route is a loose concept album about “love in its varied forms ... stripped of all fairy tale misconceptions.” Romantic partners, inspirational figures, important places, ourselves. Harry was in his early 20s when he wrote those songs. Nearly a decade on, during such a tumultuous time in the United States and the world, I couldn’t help but think about how much more complicated the idea of love seems, even as I’d settled into marriage, career, and a general sense of self-actualization I’d chased for much of the previous ten years. How do we show love in a time when one false move opens us up to sickness, oppression, or destruction? Is it enough to simply “love one another,” to be kind and generous as a general rule, or does truly caring for each other require a larger struggle, to protect ourselves from those who would dominate without consent?These ideas weighed on me as I wrote this batch of personal and political songs. I recorded them holed up alone in my new home studio, calling in remote contributions from friends and artists I admired, only able to play in a room with other musicians toward the very end of the process, after the vaccines began to roll out. Throughout the album, I pay tribute to Harry’s songs thematically, often structurally, sometimes lyrically, and even (on at least one occasion) musically.As the months of the pandemic rolled on, as I felt my hard-won sense of self tested by the loneliness and the uncertainty and the violence, I kept coming back to the paradox of the deeply isolating time we were all experiencing. No matter how alone we might feel — and no matter how much we may want to be strong, independent individuals — we are all connected. Through our shared communities, through the planet we live on, through the culture and history that shaped all of us, whether we understand it or even choose to acknowledge it... no one is an island.And if you don’t like my thoughts on the matter, well, blame Harry Nichols.Samuel B. LupowitzIthaca, NYJuly 2021

City: Ithaca

State: New York

Country: USA (US)

Currency : USD

Platform: Bandcamp

Technologies used: Fastly CDN