This series of blogs (1-14) chronicle my thoughts, whims and history of every song on my newest album “Can’t Get Enough” which took six years to make. I was thrilled to work closely with musical geniuses to make this album a reality. Super producer/engineer/mix artist Vitamin D masterfully led us and was in charge of the overall sonic quality, production and mixing of the album. Music superman and multi-instrumentalist Donyea Goodman’s production skills are featured on over half the tracks on the album. Jake One and Malay contributed as well.

Hold On To You – Donyea’s

Hold On To You

I did the first version of this on REASON. Real simple, just keys, bass and drums. I think in trio a lot. The rest of the details come later or are the job of a producer. Funny he did the album version on REASON as well. Donyea Goodman has an uncanny knack for the little details instrumentally and arrangement wise. That’s why he is my go to guy for making my songs into productions. He was trying to stay true to what I gave him and fill in a gang of blanks I left. His version is not a radical departure from what I gave him. It is a radical building on what I gave him. He never ceases to amaze. There is an instrumental break in both versions on the album. I think we meant for there to be a piano solo in each or one of them. We opted for adding more vocals for sake of moving into the mix phase faster given we had a mix date booked and no way to get a hold of a great recording opportunity for a real piano in 24hrs. Lyrically this is one of my most favorite songs to date. The music came first years ago. I wonder if I have my notes to this one but I know the “Without you my heart would be broken so I’ll Hold On To You” was the break that got the whole rest of the song written. I remember it was a period when some of my best writing was happening between 2pm and 4pm. It was a short period of time but I definitely noticed. The idea for “Can’t Get Enough” got finalized in that same period. Hmm. Weird how things work sometime. There are no other songs I’ve ever written that I can pinpoint to a time of day.

It was Vitamin D’s idea to record vocals in the break and I believe Choklate edited the vocals. FUN!! This song is about how hard it is to stay together. People go through stuff and don’t have words, are afraid to talk it out or are reluctant to face the truth. Upon hindsight when I wrote this song it was me not wanting to face the truth regarding the relationship I was in. Since then this song has come to mean more than what I originally was writing about. I like that about my songs. (even art in general) What it means to you changes over time and over your changing perceptions about your life and life in general. Here is the version of “Hold On To You” that I gave Donyea. I struggled with titling the song “Broken”. Some were disappointed that I went with “Hold On To You”. It was just repeated too much in the song for me not to call it that. The underlying truth though may have lent itself to having the song being called “Broken”. Lyrics like that only come with the perception that something is broken that you would like to fix. Ah fixing things….

Hold On To You

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Terry Bello the creator of called me and said “Darrius you need to come to this year’s summit.” It’s been going on for the last 5 years. After attending this one I am wondering why hadn’t been before. It was amazing having so many soul music heavy hitters there to network with independents. I was put on the “Who’s Next” panel to speak about why I was considered a ‘next’. Great opportunity!!! Thank you Terry Bello. I met music marketing strategists, soul music social network builders, promoters, artists, producers, music managers and press. Real heavy hitters like the writer for Anita Baker’s “I Apologize” Gordon Chambers, A Touch of Jazz producer/artist Vikter Duplaix, and indie soul superman Eric Roberson only to mention a few. I recently did a tour in Australia. I met the promoter responsbile for bringing me on soulcommune.com. The creator of soulcommune.com, Drake Phifer, was at the summit and I shared my story with him. Hopefully I can do a feature on the home page. I gave away 50 albums to people worth giving it to. Kana Muramatsu, a writer who attended had actually translated information for the P-Vine release of “Can’t Get Enough” in Japan!!! Amazing!!! I brought lots of business cards home and am busy reaching out and making follow ups and looking to form long lasting alliances.

Big thanks to International Soul Music Summit creator Terry Bello!!!!

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This series of blogs (1-14) chronicle my thoughts, whims and history of every song on my newest album “Can’t Get Enough” which took six years to make. I was thrilled to work closely with musical geniuses to make this album a reality. Super producer/engineer/mix artist Vitamin D masterfully led us and was in charge of the overall sonic quality, production and mixing of the album. Music superman and multi-instrumentalist Donyea Goodman’s production skills are featured on over half the tracks on the album. Jake One and Malay contributed as well.

All That I Want
This song started out in Propellerheads REASON. Two chords basically. C-11 and Bmaj7. I think I titled it “Too Sexy”. The lyrics came at least two years later. In fact, at this moment I don’t remember the lyric writing process for this song. My songs are usually part autobiographical. This song is about a woman I am in love with from afar. At the same time it is about Creativity herself. If you come to one of our a trio gig here in town you will notice that I will usually place this song in the first set. Not sure why. In concert where there are horns and background and a show planned you won’t hear it. We will work up a big live version I’m sure.

Donyea Goodman also did the album version of this song largely on REASON. After about a year or so Vitamin D and I started tinkering with some of the drum sounds. To this day I am not sure what we changed about them. We definitely left the programming that Donyea did alone. Derrick (Vitamin D) also had me do some additional backing vocals, synth work and solo at the end. At first I was worried that this song didn’t have enough going on (vocally) with (vocally) it but the finished product blew all those worries away.

Lyrics

For so many hours, I searched for you.
So many powers clouded my point of view.
I need a rainbow to guide me to…
Your treasure, my pleasure.

All that I want.
All that I need.
I have such a hunger
For you in me.

Over and over, I scratch my head thinking.
How do I get closer?
I so want to be
in your shower. In the throes of your
Creativity. Undress and show me.

All that I want.
All that I need.
Satisfy this hunger
For you in me.

What can I do but be with you?
I know I have choices but u fit me and my
Point of view.
There ain’t a question, no guessin.
It’s so obvious, it’s meant to be us.

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On Wednesday, April 29 I hosted my  ”Can’t Get Enough” album released party and PATH fundraiser event at The Triple Door and it was a blast! I think it’s safe to say it was a great success since there were over 170 people there by 7:30 PM on a Wednesday night! We were also able to generate $800 for PATH in donations plus an additional  25% from my CD sales that night. Definitely not bad for my first fundraiser, either.

Anyway, I wanted to share what one writer from the Seattle’s Fine Arts Examiner had to say about the show in her review…

Darrius Willrich – Triple Door, Seattle April 29

by Heather Lanier

Last night I went with a friend to Darrius Willrich’s cd release show for his newest offering, “Can’t Get Enough” at Seattle’s gorgeous Triple Door. I love the Triple Door, the sound and menu never fail to impress. I do wish they had a little bit of a dance floor somewhere…

Willrich opened the show with “Wild In Me” off of the new cd, and I was immediately really impressed with Gary Smith’s solid and immaculate bass playing. The drummer, Donny Goodman also really caught my attention with his very funky and interesting playing. The rhythm section here was just really good. They settled into the second number after a great alto sax solo by Art Brown.

Willrich calls his sound Sweet Urban Soul, and brings to the table a degree in jazz piano and a rich background in nearly every aspect of making music, from instrumentalist to leader, producer to recording artist. He has excellent backing up there with him, including Thaddeus Turner (Maktub), whose playing has always impressed me. His style is heavily influenced by Stevie Wonder and Prince, with the vocals leaning heavily towards the Stevie Wonder side. It was a solid set of totally original material in classic horn filled R&B style.

The whole horn section, Art Brown, Scott Brown, and Aaron Jenkins looked like they were having a really good time, and there was plenty of room for them. Thaddeus, Gary Smith, and the horn section combined well and the trade offs on lead were smooth and tactful. Darrius’s lyrics are interesting and beyond the normal blandness that can be found. He very rarely sang a straight note, leaning heavily on “outside” scales. With a band that good, and as rich a voice as he has, I would have liked him to play it a little straighter with the vocals.

Midway through the set he had Geoffrey Castle on violin and Bernie Jacobs on flute out there for a couple of songs instead of the horn players, and I was amazed by the blistering violin solo Castle performed.

It was a really solid mix of long-time quality players up there, and they have good, crashing grooves a lot of the time, but there is a real shortage of hooks. Strong soul music is built on hooks, and his lyrics are sweet. The grooves, too, are great but without musical hooks to make the songs catchy and interesting. The slowest numbers were the most powerful, bringing out the strengths in Willrich’s voice and piano playing. His voice has a lot of emotional power when the vocals are more constrained.

I really enjoyed the show, and hope Willrich continues to grow as a songwriter and performer.

http://www.examiner.com/x-7239-Seattle-Fine-Arts-Examiner~y2009m5d1-Darrius-Willrich–Triple-Door

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Critical Sun Recordings and Darrius Willrich are proud to present Darrius’s new album “Can’t Get Enough” and the release party at the Triple Door in Seattle, Wa.

Seattle, WA March 26, 2009/Critical Sun Recordings. Darrius Willrich and Critical Sun Recordings bring you the CD Release and the release party for Darrius’ new album “Can’t Get Enough” on the Main Stage at the Triple Door in Seattle Washington on April 29th, 2009. Twenty five percent of all profits from the album go to PATH, “an international, nonprofit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health.”

Seattle’s soul-singer-songwriter Darrius Willrich drips a sensuous interplay of soul, jazz, and inner city longings. His new album “Can’t Get Enough” comprises a hard-hitting collection of Sweet Urban Soul productions. This full-length album features a visionary blend of live, electronic, programmed and sequenced instrumentation.

Donors have already pledged $1 per seat filled at the release event for “Can’t Get Enough”. With capacity at 300 this could mean a sizable donation to PATH in one event!
Initial donors include…Kevin Thomas of BDYD Entertainment, A Lil’ Mo’ Love Foundation, Royal 1 Productions and Tamara Rashid.

The Triple Door is located on 216 Union Street in downtown Seattle across from the Benaroya Hall featuring world-class entertainment and the award-winning food and wine of Wild Ginger. The show starts at 7:30pm on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009. All ages are welcome. For more information visit their website at www.thetripledoor.net. For tickets dial 206.838.4333.

CD Summary:

Label: Critical Sun Recordings (indie)
Artist: Darrius
CD Title: Can’t Get Enough
UPC: 884501070065 (Audio CD)
SRP: $10.00

More information on Darrius, the new album ‘Can’t Get Enough” and the CD release party is available at www.darriuswillrich.com. Listen to samples of Darrius’ new album, “Can’t Get Enough” by visiting his new website, www.darriuswillrich.com, or his myspace page, www.myspace.com/darriuswillrich

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