Spotted: Alex Travers – Parasitoid

Spotted: Alex Travers – Parasitoid

Today I’m introducing you to Alex Travers, an American composer and violin player living in Asheville, North Caroline. For me, who gets sent tons of piano music it’s not strange to hear an entire album with only the piano. This time, however, I got sent an entire album with only violin. To me, that’s impressive! But what do I know about classical music, really?

Alex was classical schooled but recently started playing different kinds of music with his violin; including jazz and indie music.

This small box with wire on it is my bread and butter. 

Tell us something about your track Parasitoid!
The only instrument on the track (or the entire album for that matter) is my violin going through a loop pedal with a harmonizer and amp. Pretty Simple. So much plucking. The original performance time of the track was close to 10 minutes as every loop had to be built from scratch one note at a time, which made the studio session feel very meditative. The great thing about being a street performer is you always get to work on material in public and see what reaction it gets out of people. Something about this harmony would just catch peoples interest on the street. 

The track is part of my album Chrysalis which was released a few days ago (8/19/2019). I wrote the album for my niece (named Neko) back when she was just a few months old. (She’s turning one in September). As I saw my niece grow throughout her first year of life, she always seemed so small, simple, functional, but always progressing. So that made me think of small functional living creatures like bugs and insects that paved out the imagery for most of the music. 

Thank you for sending me this Alex! I am truly impressed with your work!

For more information, please check out these following links:
Facebook / Website / Spotify