Features : Ed Keiser, Indie Pop-Rock Composer, Transforms and Inspires in New Single, “You Are Not Alone”

“Music can change our perceptions of our world, uplift us, and even sometimes, change our lives,” Ed Keiser, Indie-Pop- Rock composer shares. Ed’s journey into music includes playing keys and guitar for years. But more recently, after learning advanced recording, mixing and mastering using Logic Pro, he realized that his first love was more for composing and producing music than only performing. As Ed points out, composing is an emotional process, and when writing his new single, “You Are Not Alone,” it literally changed his perception and outlook on life.

During a difficult period, Ed shared he felt incredibly lonely and sad. And that was when he began to write the first verse of “You Are Not Alone”, or as he calls it “Act 1 of a 3 Act play”. Over the course of a few hours, the music and lyrics poured from his heart as he composed the entire song.

Ed elaborated on how transformative the creation process was for him, that enabled him to rise above his internal shadows, as reflected in the second verse (“Act Two”). The lyrics, “Look at what you do not see, for what is unseen ever will be,” reflect our tendency as humans to get so buried in the physicality of the “here and now” that we forget there is much more beyond the tangibles that we do not understand. Ed noted that this second verse will inevitably resonate in different ways for each listener, but for him it helped re-focus his mindset to be hopeful.

In the third verse (“Act Three”), loneliness and sadness is overcome for a better future. In just a day Ed found healing, and renewed hope through writing the song. The verse reminisces about better times of two people in love, like care-free spirits frolicking in the sunlight of a meadow in Yosemite Park together with a feeling of the certainty of a brighter future.

From a notably quick-written composition, the next stage was building the song into its final iteration, which in contrast, took years. Ed felt that the song called for finding the most talented, pro musicians (you may recognize them from their performances) to fully express the emotions he felt writing it. As vocals are the heart of the song, Ed collaborated with four different vocalists that culminated in over 71 individually recorded vocal tracks, bringing a harmonic, immersive feeling to the story. Then came bass and drums for groove, and keys to complete the feel of the sound, all at different times, from different parts of the world, and from genres spanning Metal, Indie, Pop, Rock, and Jazz. Ed said he loved hearing each of his collaborators' interpretations and unique contributions to the song, which were shaped by how he explained its meaning. “Opening the recorded track files from these pro musicians containing their interpretations of my composition, was with the same excitement for me as opening presents! All of the 6 musicians performing on this song produced truly amazing performances. I even had a tear in my eye when I first heard the beautiful interpretation performed on the piano”. After Ed completed audio mixing and mastering in Logic Pro, he utilized Artificial Intelligence systems to create the music video associated with the song, that is also available on his YouTube and TikTok channels.

From composing, to performing, to working with other musicians, consolidating and editing, mixing, mastering, and publishing, Ed shares how fortunate he feels to have had the opportunity to express himself working with such amazing musicians, and by leveraging today’s advanced audio and video technologies. Ed also revealed he will release a re-mixed version of another one of his songs, “Foreign Land”, to all streaming platforms in early 2025, together with a music video. “Foreign Land” aligns with the overarching theme of “You Are Not Alone”: the love between life-long partners and their intimate conversations experiencing life’s challenges.

Final Sentiments from Ed Keiser:

“My hope is that this song offers hope to those facing difficult emotional and financial times. It breaks my heart that 13.5% of the U.S. population (47.4 million people) experience food insecurity. For this reason, 100% of earnings from “You Are Not Alone” and the forthcoming “Foreign Land” songs will be donated to “Support + Feed” and to “Feeding America”.

Lastly, Ed would like to thank his lovely wife Paty for her love and inspiration! And to so many other amazing people who inspired the development of this song, especially, Jamie Hoover, Mike and Robbin Weber, Frudua, Raffaella Camaggi, Pedro Luna!

Also, special thanks to Apple for producing such amazing products that made it possible for me to produce, record, mix, master and publish this song using Logic Pro, on my iMac and MacBook Pro M3.

Listen to “You Are Not Alone”

Spotify  l Apple Music l Amazon Music

Watch video of “You Are Not Alone”

YouTube

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