5 Songs I Love w/ The Earth & All Within

We sat down with The Earth & All Within after the release of his stellar new tune 'I Never Liked You (Anyway...)', to discuss what influences shaped his unique sound. Be sure to check out the single at the bottom and follow his on socials!

American Idiot - Green Day

This seems like an obvious place to start. When I first saw this music video premiere on MTV in 2004, the only thing I could think to myself was "I wanna do...that." It was so fresh, loud, and compelling; like a shot of adrenaline coming in just at the right time to capture the mood of the counterculture of the post-9/11 world. The Earth & All Within to me is something like the long lost bastard child of The American Idiot and Whatsername, coming at a time when we're all looking for something a little more authentic, nostalgic, and universal.

Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst

Holst's Planets suite was my first experience seeing the Philadelphia Orchestra perform live and was the inspiration behind the idea of using a string section to glue this album together. I would argue that this is also one of the earliest examples we have of a "concept album" with Holst using the astrological and mythical qualities assigned to each planet to inspire the mood of their respective movement in the suite. And of course we have a direct line of influence through John Williams heavily drawing from this into his Star Wars compositions which helped me kind of...connect the dots to envision what could come next.

When Your Mind's Made Up - Glen Hansard

I first saw the film Once during the pandemic after going through the breakup that would inspire me to start writing my own songs and it completely destroyed me hahah. There's something about the way that Glen composes music and lyrics that feels conversational and almost freeform which helped shift my perspective on songwriting and arrangement. This song in particular builds from a lonely acoustic guitar in 5/4 time to a bridge just bursting with emotion all around a fairly simple chord progression. That structuring really helped me build the framework of a lot of the songs on this record.

Welcome To Jurassic Park - John Williams

Listening to film scores from Williams and Howard Shore was my introduction into orchestral music and I think this piece is simply one of the most incredible examples of musical storytelling in film history. It moves from feeling romantic and subtle to adventurous and powerful and is just overall awe-inspiring. His influence helped me to direct the emotional weight of each of the songs and the overall flow of the album so that it feels like something from a film or even musical theater production.

You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC

It's easy to write off AC/DC for writing simple, formulaic songs that get overplayed to death. However, if you go back and listen to this album with fresh ears and put yourself in the mindset that at one point...none of these songs existed, there's a lot to appreciate in terms of songwriting, arrangement, and musicianship. For I Never Liked You (Anyway...), I wanted to write the simplest, most straightforward fun rock song I could imagine and I think that's part of its charm. 

I Never Liked You (Anyway...) - The Earth & All Within