Pope finds space online
Ron Pope is a musician on the rise looking to follow the paths of internet stars like Jay Brannan and Colby Cali.
Pope said he’s hoping his music brings an honesty to an industry that currently seems only concerned with commercial, quick-fix success as it struggles to keep up with the digital age.
The singer’s lyrics contain powerful imagery of the natural world, bringing a heightened sense of sensuality and soul to the songs he creates. The New York-based performer has a cult internet following thanks to the song A Drop in the Ocean and an amazing falsetto.
It’s about maintaining hope in a hopeless situation. I do use a great deal of imagery from nature. I love to describe scenes where people can close their eyes and feel like they’re sitting right next to me, seeing what I see, he told Sydney Star Observer.
The falsetto part of the bridge happened because I reached an emotional point where there were no more words to say -” I just had to explode.
After telling someone who doesn’t love you that they remind you of heaven, I thought, -˜Well, I could scream or cry-¦ let’s try screaming, because crying doesn’t really work in songs,’ but I’m not much of a screamer, so out came the falsetto.
Pope recently released his album Daylight on iTunes, which has already had many downloads. The process of recording this debut was unconventional as he cut the whole record in one day, making for a more raw final product.
While his music is becoming noteworthy and highly played, recent forums have also praised Pope’s songwriting ability.
As a songwriter, I often find myself describing things as I see them, so perhaps my themes are repeated because that’s just the nature of my life. I’m always writing songs about love and relationships from a pretty conventional perspective, he said.
The changing seasons and the dichotomies between love and loss, travel and home, loving New York City but being from the South, all shape my music time and time again.
I don’t feel like I’m ever trying to do anything fancy. I think a lot of writers fall into using cliches and silly lines when they’re trying to write as someone who they aren’t.
I personally think that most of my music is centred around themes that are pretty universal so I’d imagine that most people get it. If you’re doing it right, the kind of songs that I write shouldn’t feel like they’re about the experience of being a man or a woman. It should be about what it’s like to be a human being -” it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, gay, straight, tall or a breakdancer.
While still figuring out how he’d like to shape his career, Pope hopes to share his music with as many people as possible and by all means necessary.
Right now, I’m swimming in uncharted waters, because through the internet I’ve managed to become more popular than I’d ever imagined without a label and with very limited touring, he said.
At this point, every next step I take feels like my first. It’s all very exciting and mildly horrifying. In the end, I just want to get my music out there to everyone.
info: For more details go to www.myspace.com/ronpopeny or check out his songs on iTunes.
