Phoenix Rising: The Emperor’s Ascension – My Journey to a Deeper Sound
As I sit here tonight at about 10 minutes to midnight, December 17, 2024 – I find myself thinking a lot about my ambition, and what drives me to what I do. I have been working on my new album seriously now for the past four months, and within the last month – I have decided to scrap the majority of the songs that I had been working on years prior. A lot of you do not know this, but the album’s title has changed at least twice before I got serious and announced a release date. The first title was called Peace from Within. I had a mock cover made, but that title really did not fit too well with the direction that I am going in now. The artwork for Peace from Within and Intimacy had been created with Canva, and I have seen several Grammy members using these templates, and I do not want anything I do to mirror anyone else’s. The second title was called Intimacy, and there had even been music created for the title song, which is hot. I am keeping the song – but have ditched those titles for Phoenix Rising: The Emperor’s Ascension. One of my favorite books is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and he has said over and over again that the plan can change, just not your definite major purpose. My plan has changed multiple times, but the outcome, meaning the self-imposed deadlines, will remain the same. I have to hold myself accountable for that.
The new album Phoenix Rising: The Emperor’s Ascension
This album deals with a lot of things that have come up for me personally over the last several years since the release of Erogenous Zone in 2019. With writing the new album, I have found that a lot of my songs had been surface level, I am much more of a deeper person than that. Songs like Love Out Loud, and Inside Out, those were deeply personal – I want to continue on that trend. As you know I write a lot about what is going on in my life – but I do not feel that those songs were truly deeply authentic to who I am as a person, a Black Gay Man, as The Emperor of House Music, about being in love and falling in love, having love turn sour, and then finding love again. On this project it is like telling the story of my life right now.
Love and Loss
The falling in love, falling out of love, falling in love again and then denying it, confessing it, and praying he feels the same. I have about twenty songs and four interludes that I plan to put on the album, it may be more. But what sets the tone for the album is a voicemail from Mystery Man. I have decided to create a short video for that interlude which will be out next week Monday, the 23rd of December.
The album, like I said, will be stories that best describe me on my journey through life, coming out story, falling in love, falling out of love, and finding love and denying that love, and then the confession of a crush and that you hope that the guy feels the same way about you and dealing with or understanding their fear. There are also some career-themed songs, betrayal of a best friend, and socially conscious songs on the album. It is definitely a multi-genre album. I had done this prior with house and R&B music and ballads, but never something of this magnitude. I have a lot that I want to say, some honest, raw emotional shit.
I can hear my Aunt Deborah now, “Wow, Martone, do you really have to tell everything?” Well, the truth of the matter is this project is not everything. Some of what I have written, like I have said before, will most likely end up in a memoir. I find myself having mini-breakthroughs or thoughts of self-actualization.
Uplifting and Rejuvenating
This is not going to be a downer album—I know that for sure. My purpose is to uplift myself and others through this project. I definitely have something to prove, but it’s more about proving something to myself rather than anyone else. I want to sing my heart out and dance my ass off. It’s been far too long since I last stepped inside a dance studio to rehearse, and I’m determined to give it everything I have. When singing, I have been working with a great vocal coach by the name of Christopher, and I truly appreciate the way that he instructs and allows me to give myself permission to make mistakes. When he said that to me, it was so freeing – I felt as if it unlocked something inside of me that had been hidden from myself and the world, and because I have been on this emotional rollercoaster for the past month, it is certainly going to make for some great recording sessions – even with all of the frustrations that come along with it.
A lot has changed since I last recorded my full-length project. I was working a full-time job in healthcare, and I was not making as much money as I do now by working for myself. I found myself at previous recording sessions being cost-conscious with the engineers, and watching the clock, rushing through songs, which in turn did not allow those songs to be as good as they could have been. Those matters do not concern me now. I am back home in Detroit, where I belong, and things are looking great.
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