William Fitzsimmons : "It's Not True"

Often times in music it takes a few listens to truly "get" the meaning of a song. Often times in music it takes a few listens of an entire album to even decide if you like it or not. Upon first listen, you may think it's too slow or too moody, but then that record will be on one rainy day and it will be perfect; the best record you've ever heard.

I first heard William Fitzsimmons in about 2006 while at The Harry Fox Agency. My life was a lot different then. I was struggling to pay rent, working in a very "socially active" business, and at time sleeping a bit too much due to the hangover from the night before. I was listening to a lot of hip hop, funk, and eclectic music at the time; basically immersing myself in the genres of music that I found myself surrounded by at shows and at the office. My previous job was at Intrigue Music, and I was still deep into those artists' music.  Patrick Watson made me love uniqueness and songwriting, James Brown made me love the intricacies of what truly makes a song, and Braille made me love hip hop beats and lyrics on a conscious level, which was a breath of fresh air from the 50 Cent and Eminem tracks that smeared the radio. Basically, I was surrounded by really cool music, and William Fitzsimmons stepped into my life. A slow, moody, and somewhat depressing message in each song had me confused. I knew I liked something about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I ended up downloading his first two records online, "Goodnight," and "Until We Are Ghosts." To be honest, I didn't like them at first. It was almost too moody. Of course everyone likes a little sad song from time to time, just to know that they're not alone in whatever they're going through, but this was actually making me sad. The lyrics and vocal tone were so melancholy that I found myself listening with a pouty lip and a trance like stare. I kept listening though, which was the interesting part. It's not like I'm glutton for pain or self punishment, but something in his music wouldn't allow me to move away from it. Then, it hit me.

Sometimes pain is beautiful. Sometimes hearing someone sing about loss, love, heartache, or death can be a beautiful thing; knowing that there are other people out there that have felt the same exact thing as you. William Fitzsimmons is a walking, breathing, strumming therapist who tells you about his life so he can make you feel better about yours. His lyrics are absolutely untouchable; 100% untouchable and completely honest. His live shows are riddled with his jokes about how "these are all sad songs," etc, however...people are there to see you, William. We KNOW that these are sad songs, which is why we're here to watch you sing them. We WANT you to sing them.

We're all in this together and William Fitzsimmons is here to steer us through. Check out the below live version of "It's Not True," which is the opening track off of "Goodnight," his 1st record. This performance is from "Deep Rock Drive," a cool interactive online music setting where users can ask questions directly to the artist, but there's nobody actually in the room except the artist. 

No flashy falsettos, no crazy loops or electronics, and no huge vocal changes; just a dude telling you about his life, with an awesome beard.

"Everyday is another chance to bury my regret.
"Everyday is another chance to make it but I can't."

Cheers,