Lucky You Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Swifties, get ready - some of your favorite Taylor Swift hits get the classical treatment. On May 23rd “Lucky You”, a new EP featuring Taylor Swift tunes rearranged for strings & harp, will be released. 62 strings collectively make up the collaborative project by harpist singer/songwriter Calvin Arsenia and Kansas City’s favorite chamber-pop trio, Rewound.
Though the album has only four tracks, each extravagant track is a luxuriously dramatic journey that will leave you feeling like a high society queen long after the record’s over - including a decadent mash-up of “Bad Blood” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” arranged by Rewound’s violinist, Carmen Dieker.
“It’s important to capture the feeling of the words without having the lyrics”, Dieker explained after a quick jam with the rest of Rewound and Calvin in between shots for the EP’s cover art. “It can be done dynamically and through the intensity of the accompaniment. The harp also lends itself to bringing a certain je ne sais quoi, with the sweeping glissandos and feelings of tiptoeing.”
Taylor Swift is no stranger to Rewound. Dieker, violist Alyssa Bell, and cellist Ezgi Karakus have explored symphonic arrangements of Swift before, as well as other pop tunes, in a candlelit concert series where they play as The Fountain City Quartet (with the addition of Matthew Bennett on violin). Bell in particular feels she’s been getting an intimate understanding of Swift’s music over the past year. “It makes me appreciate her more as an artist and songwriter. I see how people love her and relate to her songs”.
The soon-to-be-released tracks are each arranged by one of the contributing members of the collaboration. “I love presenting modern pop music in a more ‘hoity toity’ outfit,” Arsenia says, casually resting his arm on his opulently iridescent harp, it’s blueish-purpley reflection glistened in the sunlight that seemed to have peaked out for this very moment. He continued, by explaining these classically arranged instrumentals of pop songs “makes me question how much importance we give to academia and music. Maybe we can just lean into the having-fun part more.” Which makes Rewound the perfect collaborative partners.
They started by picking a Taylor Swift song that resonated with each of them. For Dieker, the “Blood/Trouble” mashup inspiration was found in her past partners. “I could just hear how these songs with similar themes could be sewn together melodically and musically. Her music lends itself to creativity and expansion, but it’s challenging to know just how true I should stay to the original form and melody. I can veer off onto an improvisational path.”
Along with the pressure of adding just the right amount of their own flavor, they also have a story to tell with their instruments. “We have to, or get to, write arrangements to convey the emotional magic that the writer installed into the melody and performance of a piece of music,” Arsenia says, “which comes in part by retaining the original melody to the best of our ability, thinking about the original words and sounds, but also balancing that with bringing the sweetest parts of our instruments.”
Rewound and Arsenia hope to get back into the studio for follow up recordings where they will focus on platforming the work of women and BIPOC songwriters and musicians.
Rewound x Calvin Arsenia release Lucky You in its entirety on May 23, 2023 with the first single Bad Blood/I Knew You Were Trouble on April 11th. For updates follow Rewound and Calvin Arsenia on social media.
@re.wound
@calvinarsenia
Press and Bookings: HouseOfOutlyreProductions@gmail.com
Brandon J. @BrandoJ52