Bartley Returns to Music Scene with ‘Majestic’
After six years, Sean Bartley, the neighborhood barista and coffee roaster who dabbled in music with the release of albums in the past, is back.
“I decided to write another album,” he says, smiling.
Bartley calls his genre “electronic music.” He isn’t as concerned with a specific label for his art as some musicians have been in the past.
“I jump all over the place, that’s what different about me is like, I’ll do all sorts of — you know how there’s different kinds of electronic music? And people get all uptight about it. I just write music, so…”
Bartley’s new album, entitled ‘Majestic,’ was slated for self-release in February, however some problems with the production has pushed it back to sometime in March, Bartley says.
His last album, Control The Chaos, a collaboration with former American Idol contestant Cody Sheldon, surpassed his expectations.
“The album was a really big success, way more than I anticipated.”
Bartley says the music on Majestic is different.
“It is more down tempo, lo-fi electronica, I guess is how I would describe it. It’s not, like, upbeat, like techno house music necessarily.”
Bartley has a home studio but he says that he is considering using an outside studio for the mastering.
“I do all my own writing, all my own production, but mastering and post-production, I did on my old album, I mastered everything myself, but I wasn’t completely happy with that part of it, so I might outsource the mastering of it this time.”
Bartley says that his tracks are playable live, but that he doesn’t have any plans to perform.
Bartley says his wife, Samantha, inspired his return to music and provided encouragement.
“My wife was a pretty big inspiration, to be perfectly honest, on writing music again and in general. There was so much going on in my life in the last couple years. A lot of life stuff, but most importantly, I just completely lost inspiration to write music.”
Bartley says that he can’t pinpoint exactly why he lost touch with the scene.
“The last album was a huge success. I was playing a lot of shows back then, I was having a good time. Everything was good, but then, I guess it was just a long term case of writer’s block.”
“I dabbled in music, I never really, like, stopped writing music, but I never was like, ‘I’m gonna make something, and it’s gonna be released, and I’m gonna give it to people!'”
Bartley says after writing the first track, he was inspired to write more.
“Usually people [who] write their own music don’t always like it. I wrote the song and then I ended up sending it– reconnection with my old music friends, and sent it off and they were like, ‘Dude!’ — it sounded majestic.
The equipment Bartley uses on Majestic include synthesizers (hardware and virtual).
Bartley says he’s actually sampled his stove.
“It’s a true story. I took a microphone, and I just smacked a wooden spoon on my stove and it made, like, a clanky noise, and I was able to pitch that around and use it as a percussion instrument in one of my songs. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.”
When the album is released, Bartley says it will be available “everywhere.”
“You can stream it on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, whatever. It should be available on all digital platforms,” he says.
“The main thing I found out through this entire situation is, that, like, I would say if you have a passion — if you do music, or art, and you go through a dry spell — it doesn’t mean it’s over,” Bartley says, “Never count it out. Especially if you’re really passionate about something, whether it be coffee roasting, or music, or like art or dancing or competing in a paddleton tournament or whatever it is that you do, right? Never count out inspiration because inspiration usually wins. And I felt it again, and it started to happen and I couldn’t really say no.”
Michael Westendorf is the chairman and executive editor of Chemical City Paper. As Executive Editor, he leads the City Paper’s news coverage and editorial team.