Anthony D’Amato, ‘Everything Between’ [Exclusive Premiere]

“I don’t care who’s above me / I don’t care who’s below / I don’t care who’s in charge / You don’t even want to know.”

So sings Anthony D’Amato on his latest track, “Everything Between,” an eerily beautiful tune that highlights his profound gift of succinctly proclaiming desperately needed truth with an acoustic guitar. D’Amato is premiering that truth with The Boot; readers can hear the new song below.

""Everything Between" is a song about the little things,” D’Amato tells The Boot. “It feels like we’re programmed to think of life in terms of these big, momentous events, but the reality is that those sorts of things make up an infinitesimally small fraction of our time on this planet.”

As he reminds listeners throughout the song in each verse, D’Amato explains, “Most of life is in between those events. Most of who we are is defined by the incremental growth and change and evolution we experience on a daily basis.”

D’Amato has personally experienced that kind of growth and change in his own life, even in his career. Though he’s had some amazing successes over the last several years, he’s never focused on attaining and pursuing any kind of notoriety at the sake of his music; instead, he tends to lean into the incremental evolution that shapes who he is.

“I’m working hard on being more present and learning to embrace that notion,” he says, “of not being so fixated on the next step that I miss the beauty of where I’m at right now. The narrator of this song doesn’t figure that out until it’s too late.”

“Everything Between” is built around a dynamic progression of instrumentation that grows to a near explosion of tension. “The tune starts off pretty bare bones, but slowly, subtly, it begins to grow,” D’Amato explains. “The whole thing is cyclical, and each time around, it picks up a little more color and nuance. There are no dramatic entrances or abrupt breaks, just a series of small, barely perceptible evolutions that ultimately add up to something big.”

Collaborating with Brooklyn-based artist Quiet Creature, D’Amato sought to create visuals for the track’s lyric video that mirrored the cyclical nature of the song. “She dreamed up this kind of eerie, kind of beautiful swamp scene that reminded me of Louisiana and the kind of children’s storybooks I grew up reading,” D’Amato says.

The new track is featured on D’Amato’s forthcoming EP, the aptly titled Five Songs From New Orleans. Earlier this year, the singer-songwriter found himself house-sitting a home in that city's Garden District, and like any good musician, he brought his guitar and microphone with him.

“[I thought] I might do a little writing and want to record some demos,” he admits, “but things quickly spiraled out of control. I met a whole bunch of incredible musicians who were so generous with their time and talent, and I ended up writing and recording an entire EP with them right in the living room.”

As much as D’Amato and the talents of his band — all of whom are New Orleans musicians — shine on the EP, he also invited the house itself to contribute to the creation of the five songs. Though he initially tried to figure out how to block out the sounds that constantly creep out of any old house, he quickly realized that the recording process needed those sounds.

“All those creaks and cracks and street sounds creeping in were part of the songs,” he recalls. “It was one of the reasons I didn’t try to take these tunes into a studio afterward and re-record them. There was something about the atmosphere of that place that I knew I’d never be able to recreate.”

Five Songs From New Orleans is due out on Nov. 15 through Velvet Elk Records, and D’Amato will celebrate its release with a show in his adopted home of New York City on Nov. 13 at the famed Rockwood Music Hall. Fans can get details on the show and the EP at AnthonyDAmatoMusic.com.

Listen to Anthony D’Amato’s “Everything Between”

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