Occam's Rose Deliver A Huge and Theatrical Record

An album release from Occam's Rose brings out an intense and almost theatrical soundscape that blends some of the best elements of alternative rock, folk, pop, and indie rock, among others, all into one album that really has a particular way of breeding honesty and wrapping itself around you and keeping you right where it wants to.

The Call It Fate album has this immense and almost vast undertone throughout its course, giving it a bit of a cinematic backbone a lot of the time. Again, this record encompasses a wide range of genres, but despite its diversity and structure, it has a beautifully cohesive approach where songs feel so interconnected at times that it seems almost like a concept record.

The record starts with one of its most intense and driving songs called 'The Ship Is Sinking", and this single doesn't hold much back in the way of bringing out some of the heavier aspects that the record produces.

It comes in with a heavy rock riff that is widespread, vibrant, and edgy.

This breaks down into verses that are super intricate, and part of that brilliant intricacy is attributed to the drumming.

The drummer on this track and the whole album, of course, is brilliant. It doesn't just drive the songs, but it also adds a certain kind of liveliness to them so that they feel almost alive and breathing.

The way the drums are performed enables songs to have calms before the storms and let those climactic sections feel massive.

Now, of course, the whole band follows suit, but there are a lot of aspects to this record that feel almost like a live performance. It's almost like some of these songs were recorded live-on-the-floor, and everyone involved was feeding off of each other's energies the entire time.

Again, this is one of the heavier feeling tracks and breeds an alternative rock soundscape, but also gives you some amazing staples that you will hear throughout the record.

Having said that, this is not an album you just check out a few songs from. This is an album you listen to all the way through, from beginning to end.

There are no two songs that are really alike. Again, plenty of diversity and eclectic songwriting styles, soundscapes, textures, and approaches, but part of the album as a whole.

When you listen to the record from start to finish, you get the full experience, and that, I think, is what it's meant for.

The second track in line is called "Drunk on Heartache", which is a song that produces much more of a theatrical feel and aesthetic.

There's heavy-handed piano, beautiful vocals that just soar and have this great sort of reverb effect on them that makes them feel like you're in the room with the band.

A lot of these songs do have the ability to put you in the moment, and I feel like that's really important.

You end up paying a lot of attention to the lyrics, and at times, they can be quite detailed, always tell stories, and can come from very personal points of view.

Like I said at the start, there's a lot of honesty that is spewed forth throughout this record, and it's awesome to sort of soak all of that up.

Songs like "Pillow" are great examples of a track where you're paying a lot of attention to those lyrics.

This has a very particular Rhythm to it that sort of horse trots along almost like a Spanish classical song, right, and it does feature some great acoustic guitar work that comes through colorful and lets the song feel as emotional as it was meant to.

There is definitely a good amount of acoustic-based songs throughout the record, and those songs end up having quite an impact as the record unfolds.

Others blend the rock element with the pop, theatrical undertones, and acoustic instrumentation.

This is another reason you want to listen to this record in full.

Listening to a few tracks will not give you the full spectrum of what the full album has to offer.

This is quite an escape. It's almost like reading a book, and when it's all over, you have to reacclimate yourself again.

You have to snap yourself back into reality and remember where you were and what you were doing.

I love stuff like that. Records that take you on a journey.

This is an album that takes you on an amazing journey through all these different layers of songwriter, folk, theatrical songwriting, alternative rock, and more.

One of the strongest attributes of this entire thing is, of course, those intense and beautifully performed vocals.

The vocalist sings, at times, with an almost operatic approach, and that's really something to take in.

This is also part of the theatrical underbelly that the record provides.

This was a beautifully constructed and well-woven record with a lot of attention to detail, but never losing its character or personality the entire time.

This is the thing you end up holding on to the most.

Don't just take my word for it, though; listen to the record.

While you do that, check out the interview we conducted with the band below so you can find out more about where the record came from and what might be happening next for the band.

Remember where you heard this first.

Buzz Slayers: Where did this album come from?

Occam's Rose is an eclectic project from the outset. The creative foundation is the collaboration of Anastasia Rose and Peter Rein Hirschhorn -- we are both classically-trained multi-instrumentalists also with backgrounds in composition and scoring. We wrote this album in response to many of the ups and downs of life the last several years. The title of the album is threaded through each song, sometimes in irony or satire and others as a joyful cliche. Each song tells a story and they all have different origins and meanings as unique as their instrumentation. I (Anastasia) am also a music therapist and mental health counselor so some of my writing process is a cathartic coping strategy for processing difficult topics such as suicide, ableism, and involuntary hospitalization/institutionalization. In other words, we cannot succinctly describe where this album came from aside from the joys and tragedies of living in this world.

Buzz Slayers: So may great approaches on this release! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

Peter and I both have similar and different influences. I am influenced by artists who write meaningful and powerful lyrics such as Florence + the Machine, Regina Spektor, Death Cab For Cutie, and Elliott Smith. Peter is influenced by artists like Rise Against, AFI, and Sleep Token. We also have backgrounds as classically-trained musicians so we are also influenced by classical music like Ravel, Debussy, and even Bach. 

Buzz Slayers: How did this start for you as a band?

When we began collaborating, I was performing regularly in several projects, but my solo project began taking off in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the capacity limits in restaurants, bars, and venues. Many of these locations began hiring solo artists or duos so they could keep their legacies of live music without sacrificing limited space for paying customers. Peter and I had worked and performed together in other capacities so I invited him to begin accompanying me and then we collaborated on our first single, "Losing Sleep", and decided that we would like to pursue a more official partnership. This was only the beginning, though, and we even went on our first tour just months after forming our project. It began as a duo, but now we perform as other iterations with a core electric band of 4 people (adding a bassist and another drummer) and as large as 8 people to cover many of the auxiliary parts on our original songs. 

We also perform as a pseudo cover band to help monetarily support our original art.

Buzz Slayers: Are you guys performing live right now? Any touring in support of this release?

I am completing a Doctorate and I am expecting to be done at the beginning of October. We have a few brewery gigs here and there, but after that first week of October, we will be hitting the ground running again. We have a birthday show in the works (Peter's and my birthdays are 10 days apart in December), a horn-heavy collaborative show in February, and hopefully a tour out to my Doctoral hooding ceremony in May of next year! We also aim to be back in the studio in the next year as well. We have a festival we have been selected for and others we have applied to, but have not heard about yet. We hope to do some additional touring in support of the album, but also to play alongside our amazing friends at tours across the U.S. and Canada!

Buzz Slayers: Did you guys record this in a home studio setup, or did you go to a big studio for this?

We went to the Blasting Room in Fort Collins. If anyone is not familiar with this studio, they are actually known for their punk and alternative music because it is owned by Bill Stevenson who is associated with the Descendents, Black Flag, ALL, and other projects. That studio has recorded, mixed, and/or mastered albums from many greats such as Rise Against, NOFX, Streetlight Manifesto, and As I Lay Dying. Since it is basically in our backyard (and also the town where Peter and I met going to school at Colorado State University), we decided this was an excellent option for our album. We had also recorded an EP there before this album and I had recorded there with another project so we were familiar with the Blasting Room and felt there was no better option. Our engineer was Chris Beeble who also played bass on the record. Jason Livermore mastered our album. Both of whom (and the rest of the Blasting Room staff) have earned a Latin Grammy. 

Buzz Slayers: Now that this is out, what's next for the band? 

Oh so many things! We already have concepts for a dual EP that we would like to release for an upcoming Halloween and the general theme for another full-length album. We write when we have something to say and the world has given us a lot of inspiration in both good and bad ways. We are also planning regular shows including a birthday show in December alongside our friends in Addie Tonic and Seiren then a horn-heavy Valentine's Day show with our friends Brittany Bridgewater and the Sparks. We plan to embark on another tour next spring out to my Doctoral hooding ceremony in Indiana in May (Purdue -- go Boilermakers!) and possibly a summer tour including the LunaFest feature we have been selected for in Longmont, Colorado in June.

Buzz Slayers: Is it just you and Peter on these songs? What are you each performing?

It is Peter and myself on the majority of the layers, but bass was performed by our engineer, Chris Beeble. On a few songs, our friend Sonia Dominguez sang some back-up vocals. On each, the instrumentation is a little different and it is easier to go one by one to answer these questions. Here is the run-down of each from top to bottom on the album:

The Ship Is Sinking

Anastasia: all vocals, Rhodes keyboard, French horn, lyrics

Peter: guitars, percussion/drums

Chris: bass

Drunk On Heartache

Anastasia: all vocals, keys/piano, lyrics

Peter: guitars, percussion/drums

Chris: bass, tambourine

If I'm Being Honest

Anastasia: lead vocals, classical guitar, French horn, trumpet, lyrics

Peter: percussion/drums

Sonia: back-up vocals

Chris: bass

Forgotten Roads

Anastasia: all vocals, piano

Peter: guitars, percussion/drums, lyrics

Chris: bass, drum machine

Lethal Conviction

Anastasia: all vocals, lyrics

Peter: guitars, percussion/drums, samples, voiceover

Chris: bass, loops of samples, additional samples

Pillow

Anastasia: all vocals, classical guitar, lyrics

Peter: auxiliary percussion, lap percussion

Chris: bass

Her

Anastasia: all vocals, piano/keys, lyrics

Government-Funded Bedlam

Anastasia: lead vocals, lyrics, voiceover, stomping/body percussion

Peter: guitars, drums, auxiliary percussion, sound effects, stomping/body percussion, voiceover

Sonia: back-up vocals, voiceover

Chris: bass, sound effects, stomping/body percussion, voiceover

By Candlelight

Anastasia: all vocals, classical guitar, French horn, piano/keys, lyrics

Let's Start Over Again

Anastasia: all vocals, piano/keys, trumpet, lyrics

Peter: percussion/drums

Chris: bass

Wherever You Are

Anastasia: all vocals, piano/keys, accordion, lyrics

Peter: percussion/drums

Chris: bass, synthesizer

Buzz Slayers: Who's in all your headphones right now?

Well, as a music therapist, I am listening to something different every day -- and often music across numerous genres. A beautiful thing about the work I do is that I am constantly exposed to new music because we use the preferred music of the patients we work with to help them within the therapeutic process. This allows me to come across music I may not have ever heard otherwise. However, music that I regularly find myself circling back to is Florence + the Machine, Regina Spektor, Death Cab For Cutie, Elliott Smith, Glass Animals, Muse, Childish Gambino, Modest Mouse, Ke$ha, Cake, Streetlight Manifesto, and so many more (in no certain order!)

Buzz Slayers: Was writing and recording this record a big undertaking? How long did it take to finish this?

Oh yes, some of these songs had been on previous recordings that I did as a solo artist and also on earlier Occam's Rose EPs. For example, "By Candlelight" was written in circa 2010 and has had several iterations. But as for preparing for this album, since we went to a powerhouse music studio, we had to book about 7 months out because they are very busy. We had a few songs written by that point, but then we spent at least a few hours every week writing and demoing leading up to the studio time. Since we put so many layers into our songs, we still had quite a bit that we wrote on the spot in the studio. A good example is "Government-Funded Bedlam". I had written the lyrics and the blues chord progression and a loose melody. However, when we got to the studio, Peter and Chris advocated for keeping the chord progression but transposing it to be in a better key for some of the guitars and bass. This led me to having to sing higher and rewrite the melody. That song has about a 2 octave + 1/2 step range in the lead vocals so it was a doozy! 

Many artists joke that they have to re-learn their music after going to the studio because so much can change if you allow the process to be fluid -- that was definitely the case for several of our songs. Overall, I would say from concept to finished product (including mixing and mastering), on average the album took a few years. 

Buzz Slayers: Before we go, what would you like to express to fans of the music? 

We write songs with a message. We aim to challenge the status quo and shed light on topics that are difficult, yet important. We also have such an eclectic sound that if you are not a fan of one of our songs, try the next one and see if it changes your opinion. We also very much appreciate you taking the time to listen. We pour so much into these songs and it is an honor to know that there are people who listen to our joys and laments.

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