Interview: Conner Eko Talks About His Debut Single/Video "SINK"
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“At its heart, “SINK” is a song about someone who feels completely lost and depressed like he may drift away or sink into nothingness (aka that’s me), but instead out of cosmic randomness finds his soulmate and is saved by “sinking into her arms” (that being my wife, Nancy)”
We're blown away by your single/video "SINK", which is your debut release. Tell us about your creative process for the song's development and what inspired your lyrics from a songwriting perspective.
Thank you! I actually co-wrote some of "SINK" with one of my good friends from high school, Dan Ross. Him and I used to jam and try to write songs back in high school and in the early years after high school, but haven't attempted to co-write in quite a long time. He lives on the east coast, and I'm in California, so we hopped on a Zoom and he said he had a chord progression on the guitar that he was digging and I also liked it too. I was at my piano and he taught me the chord progression so we kind of jammed on Zoom a bit, then I came up with a melody and some lyrics on the spot and recorded the idea.
After that initial Zoom writing session, I took the song into my DAW (fancy producer acronym for recording software) and started playing around with some sounds and synths. Dan hopped on another Zoom with me and I played him some of the synths I was liking to go with it and had some fun just toying around. I remember coming up with the bass line super quick and then felt like it had a cool groove. Later that night, after our Zoom session, I stayed up and just sang over it improvisationally with whatever came out. Much of the final lyrics and melody just kind of came out naturally and solidified that evening.
Dan and I had another Zoom session and I played him what I came up with and he really liked it. I shared with him the lyrics I had written so far and he gave some great feedback about parts he liked and other parts that he thought could be improved with some ideas he had. Dan is really into space and astronomy, and knowing that I am also a PhD astrophysics student thought it would be cool to put some cosmic themes into the song.
At its heart, "SINK" is a song about someone who feels completely lost and depressed like he may drift away or sink into nothingness (aka that's me), but instead out of cosmic randomness finds his soulmate and is saved by "sinking into her arms" (that being my wife, Nancy). It has a lot of ocean, water, swimming, drowning, out at sea themes, but also those cosmic themes we came up with too (e.g. cosmic impacts/randomness, we collide (like planets forming), push and pull (like gravity/forces)).
Shortly, after the song was mostly developed, I got busy with other things and then got a bad concussion. My whole life changed like slamming on the brakes of a car. I found I couldn't do many things I used to, but the one thing I could do that didn't give me too many post-concussion symptoms was playing my piano, songwriting, and singing. In fact, the singing and songwriter was also a force of healing for this time and the accident, which caused me to have to take a leave of absence from my PhD program, gave me time to rethink life and what I wanted out of it, as well as the time to finish "SINK".
I contacted a good friend of mine in southern California, Xavier Delgado, guitarist of indie punk rock band, Corre Diablo, and he laid down the lead and rhythm guitars that shine in the intros, interludes, and throughout the song. Lastly, I sent the song out to mixing and mastering engineer, Mario Borgatta (credits on Foster the People, Muse, Bastille, biffy cylro, etc.), and then it was done!
You filmed the music video using your iPhone 12 Pro; how long did the video take to film and edit, and do you plan on self-directing your future visuals?
This was many months in the making. When I released "SINK" in August 2021, I was still suffering and recovering from my concussion with post-concussion syndrome. One of the many triggers that still gives me bad concussion symptoms, such as severe migraines, vertigo, nausea, etc. is too much screen time. I'm making big improvements as of today, but back in August it was a lot worse, and on top of that I had to have surgery on July 30 for another health issue unrelated to my concussion that made me anemic causing my post-concussion syndrome to be even worse. This surgery also left me bed ridden for several weeks and erased a lot of the concussion recovery progress I was making in the months leading up to it.
The week before the release date of "SINK", and just a few days before my surgery, I had a photoshoot with the amazingly talented former Hollywood celebrity photographer, Jean-Joel Lawrence of Serenity Lawrence Studios in Vallejo, CA. I had some ideas for the "SINK" music video in my head and one of them was to actually be swimming in some body of water to quite literally match some of the lyrics. Joel's studio is right down the road from Vallejo's Glen Cove Waterpark that borders the Carquinez Strait. I had brought an iPhone tripod with me to the photoshoot in case there was an opportunity to take some video of the photoshoot that may be useful for something and after the shoot felt inspired and spontaneous and went to the waterpark.
Completely by myself with no external speakers to the play the song to lip sync to, I set up the tripod and sang the song in different areas of the waterpark and the last shot I did wearing the same clothes from the photoshoot (you can see the same outfit in my press photos) I jumped into the water and swam out and back singing the song and crawled out of the water for the bridge part. It was absolutely disgusting, slimey, and I got cuts on my feet from the rocks. It was in the middle of a weekday and people were out walking and hiking staring at me. They probably thought I was nuts--some guy by himself singing dramatically while crawling out of the water! LOL! This also probably wasn't wise since I had surgery in two days and was still suffering from my post-concussion pretty bad, but I couldn't help myself.
My wife has a lot of good ideas that many times inspire some of my creative choices and after I told her some of my ideas for the video in addition to my worries of physically actually being able to execute them, she suggested that I just lay on the couch and sing it for the video. Since I didn't have capacity to finish the video how I really wanted to do for the release before surgery or after, when I got home from swim in the Carquinez Strait, I set up my iPhone on the tripod to look down on me while I relaxed with my Imitrex migraine medicine and lip synced to the entire "SINK" song. I released this as a lyric video with the song on release day since that was a lot easier to do than my original ideas.
After I started recovering from my surgery, I had the idea to take the footage from the lyric video and combine that with the Glen Cove water footage, but have it be like I'm dreaming in my concussed state how the song made me feel or like it was all a dream. This ended up being perfect as my concussion states have been quite trippy at times and this video idea personified what I've been going through perfectly. Since the song is about "sinking into your lover's arms" to save you, I wanted there to be all kinds of different people hugging so I got stock royalty free footage of many diverse couples embracing each other. The intro has me dreaming of being in space, but then landing on the island and being lost at sea to be later rescued by my love.
The editing of this idea took several months to complete as I needed to watch my screen time with my condition and I could only work on it a little everyday, but I did the best I could and finally finished it in October 2021. I'd love to direct and make future visuals and videos, but would also really love to grow to a point where I can hire or have others work with me on my team to help produce them so I can focus on songwriting, producing, performance, and singing. I'd also love for fans to help make future visuals one day!
Sorry to hear about your accident which caused you post-concussion syndrome and other health issues; how has that situation impacted you as an artist, and do you plan on finishing your PhD once you have recovered?
Thank you. It has been a struggle for sure and this past year I have suffered more health problems than my entire life. Songwriting and singing is what I am most passionate about in my life, however, several years ago I took a break from writing and performing and got so busy with pursuing another passion--science and education. I dearly love science, astronomy, and science education as well, but my top passion is writing and performing music. Being away from this for many years increased my lifelong battle with depression. When I got post-concussion syndrome, the brakes on all the "business of life" stopped to a halt. I found solace and healing in playing and writing music again and a rush of new writing and inspiration hit me.
This has been the biggest silver lining in my struggles with these health issues--it brought me back to music and stronger than ever. I am writing better songs than ever and feel empowered more than ever to never let singing and songwriting go. It is deeply a part of who I am.
Yes, I do plan to finish my PhD once I recover. I still find astronomy and the cosmos inspiring and interesting, and researching it is humbling and rewarding. I think science, although not perfect, is one of the best inventions of the human species and has the power to change the world for the better (or destroy in the wrong hands). It has given us a stage of technological prowess to harness the ability to inadvertently cause planetary change and either the wisdom to intentionally change it for good, or the folly to let our seemingly clever inventions destroy ourselves. I want to work on changing the world through science to save our future, push open new discoveries, and inspire everyone for a better tomorrow.
However, and even more so, I hope to do this through my music! Did you know that Brian May, lead guitarist from Queen, is also a PhD astrophysicist? Me doing music and scientific research and outreach do not have to be mutually exclusive.
What can you tell us about your upcoming single that drops on December 3rd entitled "Christmas Morning Goodbye". Can we expect a music video for that as well?
I grew up celebrating Christmas as a child, but as an adult I don't think much of it anymore. So even though my family still celebrates Christmas, I don't consider myself a "Christmas person", and I definitely do not enjoy putting on Christmas music most of the season. Bah humbug! No, I'm not the Grinch, but I get annoyed when you hear Christmas songs in October and would never think in a million years that I would write a Christmas song.
Then one morning in late September, I woke up early in the morning and went straight to the piano without any coffee and "Christmas Morning Goodbye ' basically wrote itself. I'll blame the concussion, but I actually really love this song. It is not your traditional Christmas song both in its sound and content.
For the song, I synced up with New York City/Nashville based producer, Isaac Sharp. Him and I have been working hard on finishing in time for a December 3, 2021 release date. Isaac has been amazing and has really helped me bring out some of my best vocal performances, as well as helped me grow as an artist. Isaac and I are playing on most instrumentation of the track, with Peter-Michel Natishan of Celerity Sound on drums, Frank Soriano on some of the guitar work, and gospel/jazz singer, Joyce Grant, on background vocals with me. As of writing this interview response, six-time Grammy award winning mixing engineer, Jimmy Hoyson, is mixing the song, and then it's off to Mike Cervantes at Foxboro Studio for mastering! I'm very excited about how the song is going to turn out!
I hope we can make a music video for "Christmas Morning Goodbye", but we're in a time crunch and I still have to watch my screen time. However, necessity and crisis are the mothers of invention and sometimes creativity so we'll see!
With 2022 right around the corner, what are some of your goals musically for the upcoming year?
I have a lot of songs that have poured out of me since dealing with post-concussion syndrome, the pain, increased depression, changes in life, etc. I also have learned a lot about life and what I want out of it. I learned that I cannot ever let my singing and songwriting disappear again from my life--it is at heart who I am and I need to write songs and perform them to survive.
In 2022, I will release new music and hope to do an entire EP, or if we can find funding, an entire album. I plan to also begin to form a backing band and start to play live performances. Since the release of "SINK", I have made some great connections with talented people to work on my creative team and hope to grow it even more moving forward. I want to take my music, songs, and productions to a whole new level and continue to do so for the rest of my life.
In 2023, I will strive to exceed what I've done musically and reinvent myself and will continue this trend for the rest of my life. Our time on this planet is too short and I have a lot of important work to do to share with the world.
Stream and Share “SINK” on Spotify
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