Cody Fry chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about his new album “The Symphony Sessions” and being an artist in the digital age.
How did the Symphony sessions come about?
Well with the success of my song “I Hear A Symphony” on TikTok, which, as the name would suggest, has a lot of orchestral elements, it really gave me the confidence to pursue this type of music that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but didn’t think it could be commercially successful. However, the success through TikTok kind of proved that wrong and it was so exciting to me because this is kind of the music that I had always wanted to do, but just shoved it as the last couple of tracks on my albums and tried to figure out ways to do it without sacrificing the more commercially viable songs, or so I thought.
So, as “I Hear A Symphony” was blowing up, I thought ‘oh man this is super cool.’ I wanted to deliver more music like this to these new fans and so that’s how I came up with The Symphony Sessions. I just called my orchestra contractor and said, “Hey man, book me the biggest orchestra you can fit into this studio called Oceanway in downtown Nashville, and we’re going to do a whole day in the studio.
We’re going to record a bunch of songs and we’re going to film a bunch of songs at the end of the day as well,” and it’s just it was one of those bucket list projects for me where I’ve always wanted to do something like this and I was so excited to finally be able to make it happen.
What inspires your music and songwriting?
It’s a broad question, but I’ll answer it like this. I love film music and pop music and singer-songwriter music; I love it all. And so, I think when you listen to my music you’ll be able to hear influences from all of those different areas. I listen to artists like John Williams and Thomas Newman and Hans Zimmer, but I also love Madison Cunningham and Bon Iver.
I just love so many different types of music, I want to combine them all into this thing and use the orchestra to give it that really cinematic vibe.
What do your plans for the future include?
That’s a great question. I’m going to get this The Symphony Sessions out, and then honestly, I think I just want to do more of that. I had such a good time putting it together. The Symphony Sessions was a quick album in the sense of using some old songs, bringing life into them, doing a cover, so I’d love to do an album where I have the full resources of the orchestra to put into it.
Other than that, I’d also love to be bringing in artists that I love to do this kind of treatment to their songs. You know we did “Sailboat” with Ben Rector, which was such a joy, and I would love to be able to bring in other artists so I could let them experience the way playing this music with an orchestra feels. I think it’s really really special.
How does it feel to be an artist in the digital age?
Well, honestly man, I love it. I think there’s never been a better time to be in the music industry. It seems like there are just no rules and everybody is just sort of like doing whatever they want, and I love that.
I mean it’s so cool that if you make a type of music that maybe wouldn’t have been successful you know a while back, you can find an audience on Spotify. Or you know, it’s like there’s all these different options for you to develop your artistry without the need to use any sort of formal business elements, managers, labels that sort of thing. It’s so exciting. I feel like it’s just such a cool time.
What is your advice for young and aspiring artists?
Oh man, I love this question. So, two pieces of advice. Number one, no one is coming to help you. That is what I would say to young artists. I spent a lot of time waiting for someone to show up and just be like, “wow you’re amazing here’s $1,000,000,” and that is just not going to happen. So, stop waiting for it, just start doing it yourself. Figure everything out. Figure out where your royalties are coming from so you can go get them, figure out how to get your music up, figure out how to do album artwork, figure out everything you need to do and just do it. As I said, there are no gatekeepers, so just do it and stop waiting for someone to come in and help you out. Just do it yourself.
And then I think the second piece of advice would be to find what makes you unique and figure out how to put that into music. I spent a lot of time earlier in my career kind of pursuing the same path that someone else had pursued, and it wasn’t until I just sort of embraced who I was musically, and as a person, and just started to make that music; that’s when things really took off.
So I would say spend some time getting to know yourself and what you actually like, instead of thinking, “oh I want to be like this person.” Figure out what is it that you do that no one else can do, and then figure out the way to put that into a product form, like music.
What does the word success mean to you?
Man, I love this. So, success in art for me is defined by this question, “does it make me feel something?” and if the answer is yes, then that is a success. Because I think the reason that we turn to art is to be able to feel emotions in a new way, and in a way that’s hard to express otherwise. Whether it be a painting or a movie or music, “does it make me feel something?” And if it does, that is a success.
And the emotion doesn’t always have to be deep sadness or eternal joy, it could be ‘I wanna dance right now,’ that is a feeling also. So for me, I always try to create something. If it makes me feel something then I hope it will make someone else feel something, and so that’s always what I’m aiming at. I don’t get it every time, but that’s what success looks like for me, is just being able to make somebody feel something.
What would you like to tell our readers about ‘The Symphony Sessions’?
Oh man, hard question. I guess I’ll answer it this way… I love orchestras so much and I am worried about orchestras. I see the civic and city orchestras are going out of business or going through really hard times, and I look at kids who are studying music in school. Let’s say you’re a flute player in school and you love playing the flute but you don’t see that instrument represented in any of the music you actually listen to in the present day.
You may love music of the past, classical music, but in terms of being able to work and find inspiration for the things that are happening right now, there’s just not that much. So I want The Symphony Sessions to be a part of reinvigorating the orchestral discipline. Let’s use the orchestra in a way that feels like it’s usable right now. Where you know kids can turn on music and hear the instruments they learn in school being played.
I want to be a part of giving kids that inspiration to keep studying music and to give music teachers and band teachers someone who’s not dead or 100 years old who’s making orchestra music that people like. That’s what I want this project to be a part of, and that’s what I want my legacy right now to be, as part of that re-invigoration of the orchestra and orchestral instruments.
To learn more about Cody Fry, check out his website, and follow him on Instagram.
