Singer/songwriter Denison Witmer has shared his new single “Focus Ring,” a plaintive ballad on the idea of extending generosity to yourself and others, featuring Sufjan Stevens.
Denison Witmer announced that his new album Anything At All will release on February 14th through Asthmatic Kitty Records. Produced and recorded by Sufjan Stevens, who also performs throughout the album, it’s a new collection of ten vibrant and pensive folk-pop songs that finds the two longtime friends and collaborators working more closely than ever before on a cohesive, elegant creative effort.
“’Anything At All’ is about doubling down on family life and doing everything I can to slow the pace of my life as things around me feel busier than ever before,” said Witmer. “It’s about putting systems in place and committing to the changes needed to make it work. That commitment doesn’t come without its own set of questions, and most of the lyrics on this album deal with trying to find those answers. How do I create a world I want to raise my children in? How do I create a world I want to live in? How do I create community with like-minded people who have similar goals? The title ‘Anything At All’ comes from the phrase we often say to our friends, family, or colleagues when we are extending generosity to them. We say, ‘If there’s anything at all you need or I can do for you, please let me know.’ I think most people (myself included) tend to express that sentiment outwardly, but rarely inwardly. This record finds me comfortably stuck between that inward/outward place. The album was originally going to be called ‘Focus Ring’ and the title track was going to be ‘Anything At All,’ but we ended up switching the two because both Sufjan and I felt like ‘Anything At All’ was a stronger title.”
“This is the first time I’ve engineered and produced an entire album of songs for Denison,” said Sufjan. “We did a lot of it in my studio in the Catskills, which is a homey, informal space, not intimidating at all. So I think the songs capture some of that: the isolated, private, casual nature of upstate New York. We also took our time, worked in blocks between long breaks because of Covid and adult-life stuff. So there was a kind of touch-and-go nature to the process. Nothing feels hurried or immediate. A lot of big changes were happening in our lives and in the world around us, so the songs came to represent a kind of safe haven from all that.”
What do you think of Denison Witmer’s new track, “Focus Ring”?
