William Fitzsimmons
william came into music much in the same way that the von trapp children did: he was utterly forced to. the youngest child of two blind parents, william was surrounded by ominous instruments and brilliant sounds ranging from pianos, classical guitars, recorders, and the family pipe organ which was played as william and his sibling would attempt to find rest for the night. the household record player rotated at a steady 78 rpms, and was constantly spinning classical orchestral and organ works, while being replaced on occasion by the folk music of joni mitchell, bob dylan, james taylor, and other contemporaries of the time. besides those early stylings which formed the base of his melodic sense and love of reflective music, fitzsimmons claims influences ranging from nick drake, elliott smith, iron and wine, sufjan stevens, to aimee mann, patty griffin, ben gibbard, and sun kil moon.
william started his own musical endeavors as a young child with piano lessons, elementary school christmas plays, and recitals, and the eventual studying of the trombone and guitar. while he has played music for most of his life, the process of writing and recording his own work began during his graduate studies and the completion of a master’s degree (he holds an M.A. in mental health counseling). the music itself often seems rather like an attempt to better understand the inner workings of not only himself, but those around him, as his educational and experiential background would predict.
fitzsimmons’ writing is utterly personal, usually electing subject matter that would most often only be heard in the confides of a family therapy session. the effect, however, causes the listener to draw closer, rather than farther away, from the gentle melodies which exhume affectivity and remind us that our lives are filled with both joy and suffering, and that it can be a lovely place to find the two sharing a sometimes amicable living space.
fitzsimmons has a gentle and haunting, yet potent vocal styling which rests beautifully atop harmonically layered vocals, guitar lines, and whatever other instrumentation fits his fancy at the moment (e.g. mandolin, melodica, flute, clarinet, piano, slide guitar, etc…). his affinity for combining such bits, including a good measure of electronica throughout his work, gives the listener a completely fresh take on the neo-folk genre and causes one to get quickly lost in the tunes. he is oft compared to the likes of sam beam (i.e. iron and wine) sufjan stevens, and ben gibbard, to name a few. at the same time, however, fitzsimmons never looses the authenticity of his style or originality of his own voice.
although fitzsimmons has displayed the tendency to elect writing and recording in the stead of live performance, he has recently ventured out and has in a short amount of time played intimate settings to hushed audiences in new york, london, and los angeles. and with the increased exposure yielded by a recent song spot on Grey’s Anatomy, william will be widening the breadth of his performance appearances even more.
in december of 2006 william released his second full-length album, “goodnight,” a 13-song completely self-produced and self-written exposition on the subject of broken family and relationship dissolution. while it includes more ambitious arrangements and instrumentation, it does not move at all away from the intimacy found in his previous work. BOTH ALBUMS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FROM ITUNES!!! Please see the above album cover links. if you prefer HARDCOPY CD FORM, “Goodnight” can be purchased as a CD from the above-labeled album cover link.
