winter is a single released by Andy Quan last Friday—his first track featuring his own piano recording. Once again, Andy continues to impress his listeners by reaching new personal milestones like recording his own piano composition.
For someone like me who have never composed music, creating your own composition just sounds daunting (mainly because you’re unsure exactly where to start). So, bravo Andy for accomplishing this!
The story behind this track is that Andy wrote this song during a rainy winter day, but when I listened to it, I hear something else. Here in Canada, a rainy winter day usually means wet, slushy snow. It’s a bit mucky and you feel a bit icky. Maybe winters in Australia have different imagery (I only visited before in the spring).
Firstly, because I went in knowing that Andy recorded his own piano composition for this track, my ears just naturally tuned out the other parts of the song. I’m not sure why. It felt very peaceful and calming, but also those soft notes felt powerful somehow, like a strong gust of wind on a winter day.
When I listen analytically to songs, my brain just naturally separates all the different sounds. That’s probably why I can actually hear whispers while walking through a crowded area.
Then, the second time around, I felt mesmerized by the gentle strings placed over the drums. The way the strings interweaved with the piano was beautiful.
For the third time, I started to hear the song as a whole and began visualizing a story with the emotion Andy captured in his track. I thought of someone discovering snow for the first time. Someone who was waking up to a winter wonderland; perhaps strolling through the white fluff in awe and excitement, picking up chunks of snow and staring at it with eyes full of wonder.
It’s pretty neat that I had a different experience each time I listened to the track. Perhaps if you take this approach when listening, you’ll appreciate winter the way I do.
Add winter to your playlist and enjoy the sleepy, chill vibes. I can’t wait to hear more tracks with piano by Andy.