William Fitzsimmons latest album, “The Sparrow and The Crow” is an album of great character that promotes the consistent tear and the heartache of longing that we’ve come to expect from him but business is far from usual on this album. I was able to catch up with William and he had this to say about the album….
The record starts with basically a continuation or a building from the last - What prompted your choice to re-imagine the song?
I don’t think the idea came to reprise “Afterall” from the last record until after most of the new record was written and in preparation for recording. Because of the logical link between the story of “Goodnight” and the story of the new one, I felt it was only appropriate to link them musically as well. Probably the biggest reason, though, was I felt there was perhaps nothing more relevant to the story of my own divorce than the story of my parents divorce; something I’ve always looked on as having a pretty significant impact on most of my life. I think I just wanted to make the connection clear.
The Sparrow and The Crow - Are you comparing relationships of the heart to the flight or actions of birds? What’s the concept of the album?
I’ve always thought symbolism was a wonderful literary tool for getting across meanings in a more substantive and tactful way. I think it allows one to be concise and pointed in meaning, without sacrificing clarity for an aesthetic sake. The main idea for the record title came on a drive I was taking out in the country here in Illinois. I noticed a couple birds flying together against a strong wind and suddenly, one of the two turned and flew away, leaving the other one alone. For some reason it just seemed rather poignant and explanatory to everything I had gone through in the last couple years. I don’t know, maybe I was just really tired. But for whatever reason, it hit me pretty hard. I spent a lot of time soon thereafter looking into the historical and myth-related meanings of certain birds, and came upon a couple (the sparrow and crow) that seemed to fit the nature of the story I was trying to detail. Specifically, the sparrow is my former wife and I am meant to be the crow. And as I’ve committed myself to be honest in the process of telling such a serious story, I can say that the album is the tale of my failed marriage and the process of trying to start life over again.
The last 2 records deal with such heavy themes, and this definitely does… but it seems slightly “sunnier” was that intentional?
Yeah, it definitely was. Look the danger in making music that deals with this kind of stuff is that you can get so self-involved and introspective that all your doing is crying into a microphone. I wanted to avoid that at all costs; not only because it would be boring as hell, but also because it wouldn’t really help anybody. Dark stuff is dark. I don’t believe anybody really needs a reminder of that. What I wanted to do was to be as honest as possible with these songs, and perhaps the most honest sentiment I’ve found so far is that life is full of ambivalence, conflicting emotions, pain in the middle of a happy day, and joy following tragedy. We never seem to really experience life on only one pole, it’s always a back and forth. So is there a lot of pain in the record? Absolutely, because it’s the truth. And is there a lot of hope in the record? Absolutely, because that’s the truth too.
Your choice to use actual drums vs. programming, what prompted the choice? At times the music starts really stripped down (guitar and vocal) and then the chorus explodes with sound (vocals, BG vocals, piano, accordion maybe?, drums .. full band) Was there a different approach while recording this album versus previous sessions?
You know it’s funny, in that as wonderful as home recording is - and I still love it and will certainly go back to it from time to time - one of it’s primary weaknesses is that it never really allows you to explore every possible option in the search of finding the sound you most want to create. Now don’t be mistaken, I am terribly proud of the work I did on the first two albums and I always will be. But getting to work in a studio, with a producer and a host of other musicians, allowed me to focus my energy on making the best album I possibly could. Whereas before I think it’d be more accurate to say my goal was to create ‘the best music i could, given the limitations I was facing.” As far as the drums and other instrumentation, I started to feel that because of the intimacy of the songs/lyrics, using anything outside of “real” or organic instruments would risk making them sound too distant, cold, or smooth. The songs needed to sound as authentic as they could, or else I don’t think the record would have made sense. And I say with pride that I feel I was able to get the sound these specific songs were calling for.
I’m not sure who’s backing you up vocally (her voice is gorgeous) her voice shows up a lot more in your songs on this record. Is she there to give potential perspective in song.. or to echo response? Did you write the tracks with that kind of thinking in mind or was it studio magic?
The female presence on “Sparrow” was an absolute necessity and one I knew I had to have to give the lyrics their proper place and meaning. Even before most of the songs were written I knew there would have to be a definitely female element. I’ve listened to a lot of records in my time that have been very one-sided about a subject, and I didn’t want to fall into that trap. What the female voice does, at least for me, is to let the story be told from both sides, instead of trying to force a specific response from the listener. There were two wonderful artists who sang on the record, Priscilla Ahn and Caitlin Crosby, both friends and brilliantly talented singers. They both brought so much to the songs and helped make the record what it is.
Yeah, I was making that face too. Please leave your thoughts on the interview and if you’ve heard the album, what you think. When was the last time you heard that much honesty in an interview? This album is definitely worth a listen or 20. It’s available at eMusic, iTunes and his website. Click the album cover to check out his site.
The Sparrow and The Crow - William Fitzsimmons
The comedic genius of The Human Giant comes back to TV just when we need it. Because lets be honest - Knight Rider!?!?!? 
Starting in January Andy Zipf presents “Pfriends on Pfilm”, a forty-five minute multi-media presentation of songs, and story all projected onto a screen that coincides with the music. Zipf is a long time road warrior and plays venues from concert halls to living room. His greatest strength as an artist is to connect with an audience. When I heard and saw (via Youtube) the possibilities of this tour, I got giddy. So I caught up with Andy via email with some questions and I thought you’d want to see. 
