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.

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

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

I’ve been singing, songwriting, playing, releasing albums and supporting music in Seattle since 1994. With the release of my third album I am taking on expanding service to my community and the world.

On April 29, 2009, I’m marking the release of my new CD, Can’t Get Enough, at a special event on the Triple Door main stage. For every CD sold, at the event and elsewhere, I’ll give 25% to PATH: a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing health within reach for people around the world.

I’m asking you to help us do even more—by pledging $1 to PATH for every seat filled at the April 29 show. I first heard about their work while searching online for causes I believe in, and despite their local roots, PATH is a truly global organization. Every day they’re making serious strides in women’s health, better care for children, and solutions for epidemics like AIDS and malaria.

We hope to fill the Triple Door to capacity—300 people!—and are asking 25 select organizations to sponsor PATH through the event. Your pledge of $1 per seat contributes toward a potential total donation of $7,500. We will recognize all sponsors in a national press release and in posters and advertisements for the event.

Your participation can help bring basic health care to the world’s poorest countries. And it also supports a powerful ideal: a way for artists to give back to the community, to be role models for youth, and ignite change in the music industry.

If you or someone you know would like to be a part of this groundbreaking event, please contact me at me@darriuswillrich.com or 206.501.8441.

Thank you

Ok! So let’s get right into it. We are launching the new www.darriuswillrich.com as well as a new album. The long awaited 6 years in the making “Can’t Get Enough”. The production duties on this album were split between two people excluding myself. Derrick Brown aka Vitamin D & Dwight Goodman aka Donyea. Let’s just break it down so you folks know who did what.

The overall sonic quality of the album was Vitamin D’s responsibility. Along with Ken Lee the Mastering guy. Vitamin D did all the mixing at The Woodshed Studios-Seattle, WA. For some reason that didn’t get onto the cd packaging but is on the disc. The songs All That I Want, Hold On To You – Donyea, Whatchagonnado, Can’t Get Enough & Where We Are were Donyea’s productions for the record. Back To You, Get It On, Wild In Me, All The Way Slow, Hold On To You – Vita D, & Desire were Vitamin D’s productions.

The songs I left off Why Fight & Get Down To This Loving are a bit different . Why Fight was my production that Donyea tricked out. So it was produced by both of us. Get Down To This Loving was a beat produced by Jake One and Malay. There is a section of the chorus that was written in later by me, and finessed onto the track by Vitamin D. The strings, and horns were all created by Donyea. So this song has all of us all over it. I wrote all the music and lyrics except for Wild In Me which is a track Vita gave me to write on.

In another blog entry I will go more in detail as to who did what on each song. Stay Tuned!