FREDDIE BOURNE: Vulnerable Commercialism Offers a Deeply Introspective Look at Contemporary Creativity

(ABOVE: image via Facebook, Freddie Bourne)

Freddie Bourne‘s Vulnerable Commercialism is as much of a sermon as it is an EP, with intense tracks bookended by inward-looking soliloquies that give detailed insight into the plight of the “creative type” in 2019.

“The title is kind of a call out to how vulnerable music tends to be overshadowed by more generic subject matter or what is considered in style at the time,” Bourne tells hMAG. I wanted to get people thinking about what the audience truly engages in and question and challenge our preconceived notions and privileges.”

Bourne’s tracks on this EP are deeply personal.

“The writing process is definitely one of the most relaxing while also the most emotionally draining. I’m not one where the lyrics or the melody comes first; it’s usually the idea or concept that’s been on my mind for some time. From there, I write down what my feelings are towards the subject matter and then start finding artists that are in the similar vein of what I think fits,” Bourne tells hMAG. “For this project, I heavily looked into Nirvana’s Unplugged album and live show. I studied the types of songs they were doing and how the emotion and the text stood out in the performance live and in sound. Once I get the idea for a song down, I sing it acapella a decent amount of times and then find a base line of chords that could potentially work. From there, I actually take the stand up comedy approach and try out the new material pretty much immediately and get a vibe of what works and what doesn’t work with the audience. Sometimes, I end up stopping the song midway through and then performing something else. I think that also brings the personable experience to the audience that every song starts somewhere and they get to be a part of that beginning stage.”

 

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A post shared by Freddie Bourne (@freddiebourne) on Jan 8, 2019 at 8:55pm PST

Jersey Bourne and raised, Freddie spends a lot of time these days in and around the Hoosier State.

“The scene in Indiana is definitely different. We are close to Nashville so there is more of an upheaval of country and roots rock music. It’s more impacted my music in terms of what I am writing—being away from family, having more freedom, living in a space where the scene isn’t physically close knit in terms of being of walking distance to see other musicians,” he says. “It’s a culture shock but I would say that I find it very similar to the scene in NYC and Hoboken. People just love doing it and that joy really shines.”

With the release of Vulnerable Commercialism, Bourne will be hitting some venues in the midwest/south this Spring.

“I will be performing out at TJ’s Stockyard Inn in Evansville on April 27th and I will be on tour with my friend E. King beginning in June, stopping in Bowling Green, Savannah, Nashville, and St. Louis.”

Meanwhile, he’ll keep telling it like it is.

“I try to keep to what I wrote to begin with,” says Bourne, of his songwriting style, “because it was the most honest at the time, and I rather that feeling at that time live on rather than try to meet a commercial or critical standard. At the end of the day, I am doing this for myself and not anyone else.”

CLICK HERE for Vulnerable Commercialism…

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