To The Unknown is a double album! Sides A+B have the vocal versions, and side C+D are the instrumentals.
CDs are available now (as of September 24, 2021) and vinyl records will ship in mid/late November 2021 (due to vinyl manufacturing delays). All CD and Vinyl orders will also receive a digital copy of both the vocal and instrumental versions via emailed download links.
From a combination of scorching life events, social transformation, pandemic lockdown, and personal epiphany, David Franz has emerged, like a snake too big for its skin, from behind the producer’s console to the front of the stage. Years of unlocking the creative genius of other artists as a co-writer, producer and record label head has led to the evolution and development of his own artist persona.
Modern production with a core of soul and blues have always been at the core of his timeless productions, and for his own sound he drifts with the spirit of the desert in its dry air, conjuring energies from both outlaws and shamans. Full of self-examination, self-help, and self-harm, David’s debut album “To The Unknown” puts us all to task to question our own self-talk, bias, and self-determination. It’s a testament that personal growth is necessary for the greater good, and that growth is not at all easy. A confessional at its root, the album is a tale of cactus and catharsis, mirrors and mirages, and the power we all have to change our inner narrative, face our fear, and get out of our own way. By exposing his crooked journey to the light of day, David gives the rest of us permission to do the same. To set free truths locked deep inside. To find ourselves through the process of getting lost.
Filled with raw honesty and self-exploration, his debut offering can’t come at a better time for a world struggling with personal and social transformation. “To The Unknown” forces us as listeners to question our own biases. To confront our own demons and determination. To embrace the critical role personal growth plays in pursuit of the greater good. The pain and relatability of this human journey does not dilute, but rather enhances, the moods and visions evoked by the songs. He finds the universal in the particular, and this carefully-wrought album can be seen as a meditation on personal transformation.
The sound is definitively California desert rock, but not the heavier vibes of the low desert sound like QOTSA and their ménage. Instead it’s born in the high desert, and Joshua Tree National Park provides the iconic landscape for David’s sonic vision quest. Imagine if Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Dan Aeurbach (The Black Keys) took peyote and wrote songs with Daniel Lanois as the producer.
It is not an accident that the album cover is searingly, almost hallucinating red. The influence of this time in the desert can be clearly heard in the album, sometimes through psychedelic almost shamanic currents, sometimes with clear notes of outlaw and rebellion. Throughout the album David uses his impressive aural palette to create a music vocabulary that arrives in the brain almost visually, with a clear-eyed intensity of purpose and a powerful, sometimes dark story to tell. Love and life and longing are all here; self-pity is not. There is no room for self-pity in the crucible of the desert. Yet for the mindful observer, desert winds can reveal hidden treasures in the dust, or themselves be reflected back in the mirror-like heat shimmers.
“To The Unknown” by David Franz
$10.00 – $50.00
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Description
To The Unknown is a double album! Sides A+B have the vocal versions, and side C+D are the instrumentals.
CDs are available now (as of September 24, 2021) and vinyl records will ship in mid/late November 2021 (due to vinyl manufacturing delays). All CD and Vinyl orders will also receive a digital copy of both the vocal and instrumental versions via emailed download links.
From a combination of scorching life events, social transformation, pandemic lockdown, and personal epiphany, David Franz has emerged, like a snake too big for its skin, from behind the producer’s console to the front of the stage. Years of unlocking the creative genius of other artists as a co-writer, producer and record label head has led to the evolution and development of his own artist persona.
Modern production with a core of soul and blues have always been at the core of his timeless productions, and for his own sound he drifts with the spirit of the desert in its dry air, conjuring energies from both outlaws and shamans. Full of self-examination, self-help, and self-harm, David’s debut album “To The Unknown” puts us all to task to question our own self-talk, bias, and self-determination. It’s a testament that personal growth is necessary for the greater good, and that growth is not at all easy. A confessional at its root, the album is a tale of cactus and catharsis, mirrors and mirages, and the power we all have to change our inner narrative, face our fear, and get out of our own way. By exposing his crooked journey to the light of day, David gives the rest of us permission to do the same. To set free truths locked deep inside. To find ourselves through the process of getting lost.
Filled with raw honesty and self-exploration, his debut offering can’t come at a better time for a world struggling with personal and social transformation. “To The Unknown” forces us as listeners to question our own biases. To confront our own demons and determination. To embrace the critical role personal growth plays in pursuit of the greater good. The pain and relatability of this human journey does not dilute, but rather enhances, the moods and visions evoked by the songs. He finds the universal in the particular, and this carefully-wrought album can be seen as a meditation on personal transformation.
The sound is definitively California desert rock, but not the heavier vibes of the low desert sound like QOTSA and their ménage. Instead it’s born in the high desert, and Joshua Tree National Park provides the iconic landscape for David’s sonic vision quest. Imagine if Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Dan Aeurbach (The Black Keys) took peyote and wrote songs with Daniel Lanois as the producer.
It is not an accident that the album cover is searingly, almost hallucinating red. The influence of this time in the desert can be clearly heard in the album, sometimes through psychedelic almost shamanic currents, sometimes with clear notes of outlaw and rebellion. Throughout the album David uses his impressive aural palette to create a music vocabulary that arrives in the brain almost visually, with a clear-eyed intensity of purpose and a powerful, sometimes dark story to tell. Love and life and longing are all here; self-pity is not. There is no room for self-pity in the crucible of the desert. Yet for the mindful observer, desert winds can reveal hidden treasures in the dust, or themselves be reflected back in the mirror-like heat shimmers.
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Additional information
CD, Vinyl, Digital
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