Nationally touring blues artist Brandon Santini says he wrote a ton of songs during the pandemic downtime, all intended for a new album to be released later this year.
The Springfield resident via Memphis and his home state of North Carolina said the sonics of those songs will continue the rockin' style of his 2019 award-winning album "The Longshot."
“A little more blues rock, there's going to be more harmonica again, but I still will be able to feature my great musicians that I get to play with,” said Santini via Zoom from his home in Springfield.
The award for “The Longshot” was for Best Contemporary Blues album by the Blues Blast Magazine. Despite the splintering of blues music into sub-genres during the 2010's, Santini said traditionalists still exert their influence. But his path is to move the genre forward.
“However, a lot of those traditionalist can see that with these new songs, it's still very rooted in the simple rhythmic forms of a lot of blues. I'm heavily influenced by the Mississippi hill country blues. So, this is kind of a melting pot of a lot of different influences. And, you know, there's been no pressure to write the songs, no deadline over the last year. So, I was able to not force anything out and just be able to take my time to make sure I’m giving the songs the attention they need,” said Santini.
When asked to name the best or favorite song he’s written, he paused to first acknowledge that choosing a favorite song is akin to choosing a favorite child. But he did offer up “One More Day” from “The Longshot” album, a song he says evokes strong emotions from fans when he performs live.
“I have people coming up who are terminally ill … I remember one lady came out, she had not gone out of the house in months and months. She wanted to make it out to our show. And that was really touching. So, I think that song is my favorite and it's also a very personal song to me yet very simple lyrically, said Santini.
When that load gets heavy
And the sky turns dark
Your feet must carry
Long distance to far
- “One More Day” by Brandon Santini
“Kind of like a rat chasing its tail around with drug addiction that I was I was dealing with back in my 20s,” said Santini. “We all deal with problems, whether it's depression, anxiety, overeating, alcohol, drug addiction, we've all had things in our past. And unfortunately, a lot of people didn't make it through those hard times and didn't realize the amount of love that surrounded them.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in their lives thinking they're at a dead-end road. But my theory on that is the people who were around me, when I was in that sort of mentality A long time ago, those people pulled me out of that and showed me that they do Love me and whoever or whatever you pray to, it's very important to just keep asking them to help you through just one more day.”
You got to stand up and fight in the face of evil
You got to stand up for yourself.
- “One More Day” by Brandon Santini
A tough time that was also helped by music.
“Music is very therapeutic for a musician. Being able to dive into playing music full time and to be headfirst into that is very much a privilege that even at some points in our careers, we forget that it's a privilege. It's not only an honor, it's a privilege for us to be able to do it. So, the moments that I realized that it is a privilege help me through all of that and still do with whatever it is going on,” said Santini.
Brandon Santini plays Jazz UpFront in downtown Bloomington on Saturday night.
