How John Ferrara Found a New Voice in “A Catalyst for Change”

John Ferrara announced a new solo album in July, and ever since, we’ve been excited to hear it. Today, he’s released another sneak peek of it with a new single, “A Catalyst for Change,” along with a stunning music video.

The track is another jaw-dropping piece of music from both technical and compositional standpoints, but it is a departure from Ferrara’s previous work in one aspect: it’s in a major key. Ferrara also wrote “A Catalyst for Change” and the rest of the music on the upcoming Skinned Knees and Make Believe (available September 6th) in Costa Rica near Corcovado National Park. As such, he included the sounds of his environment, from the sounds of the jungle to the waves of the ocean.

We reached out to Ferrara to get the inside story of his new work. Skinned Knees and Make Believe is available for pre-order on Bandcamp. He’ll be on tour with solo dates and performances with Mono Means One throughout the fall, so see below for his itinerary.

This song sounds like a joyous stream of consciousness. Did it come out that way when you were writing it?

In a way, I think all of my songs are developed through a process of stream of consciousness, mixed with refinement along the way. However, this song for whatever reason felt like it wanted more scene changes than usual. I’ve learned to be quite comfortable with using my imagination before putting my fingers on the bass to really try to hear what wants to come out without judgment. This one, for some reason, really wanted to bounce around, but regardless, I really enjoy playing it and listening to it in my head!

How did writing in a major key affect your sense of chord progressions as opposed to an overall minor tonality?

It is always weird for me to write in a major key because most of my stuff, maybe 90% of it, starts from minor! That being said, I didn’t find the process all too different because the main idea is always following an idea to its end. It’s like when an author is creating characters and then imagining how they would talk and act in a way that would naturally construct a story. I just do my best to take the riffs that I come up with and see where they actually want to go.

How are you thinking about the song’s form as you’re writing? Is it from a classical form standpoint or are you thinking more about the overall arc?

Typically, when I’m pulling from classical or baroque music, I’m thinking of melodic and harmonic movements within a section, rather than an overall song form. When writing this song I tried to think in terms of balance and contrast. There are infinite ways to do this, but that’s why I really tried to rely on my imagination to choose the right path. I encapsulated song ideas into “A” section, “B” Section and so on. I did some experimenting with jumping the sections around to see what ordering them differently would do. I did have a bit of an arc in mind with a solo section dipping down and then ramping up back into the main theme, but the rest of the song was eyeballed along the way.

This whole song is pretty advanced, but what is the most difficult passage for you?

Oh man, if I had to choose i’d say THE WHOLE SONG!!! The slap part is tough for me because I don’t practice slapping as much as I used to, focusing mainly on tapping these days so I definitely have to keep my chops up for my upcoming tour. Getting the melody to pop in the hooky “chorus” section (you know, the part that sounds like it’s the theme to an early 90’s sitcom that never happened) was tough too, especially in the one where I add the harmonies. Working out the coordination and articulation to get to the point where it was delivering the idea properly took a while!

What kind of bird is that at the end of the song?

I believe that is Costa Rica’s national bird, the Clay Covered Thrust. They are the most musical birds in the world, though I could say that about a lot of the birds down there. That being said, there were a few circumstances where I was recording a song and it was going great and then a Macaw just blurted out their Gilbert Godfrey-esque call and I had to start over. But then other moments sat in the mix perfectly like that moment.

How did you record it?

I went out to the middle of the jungle with a battery-powered amp, an iRig, and a Zoom recorder to capture the ambient noise. I did three full takes, picked the best one, cleaned it up in Logic, and then sent it to my engineer Ian Schreier to mix and master, who did an absolutely beautiful job.

How did recording by Corcovado influence your upcoming album?

I had it in mind for a long time prior to the trip that I was going to record it there. I go there with my girlfriend every year for the month of February and I had accumulated a lot of songs, many of which the ideas were conceived of and developed on my last trip there. I always leave CR with a surplus of ideas due to the naturally meditative nature of being there. The people are calmer and being around all of the diverse wildlife puts in perspective the true, uncomplicated nature of being alive, that we all lose in modern day life. The muse visits all month when I’m there. One of the other songs that will be on the album I titled “Luna’s Song”, Luna being the name of the property caretaker’s dog who I fell in love with. I wrote a song for her right then and there and it actually became my personal favorite of the album though it doesn’t have the technical flair that some would expect in one of my first singles… but who knows maybe it’ll be the next one!