Medford resident Stephen Majewski is a man of many inspirations. After his piano career seemed to be a thing of the past, he was inspired to play again when he heard an instrumental piece by a Celtic jazz and chamber music ensemble called Nightnoise.
“I took some piano lessons as a child but I did not play regularly,” Majewski said. “In 2003, I was inspired to play again after hearing ‘Snow on High Ground.’ I started lessons again for about a year and then continued self-studying with the goal of recording an album.”
Twelve years later, Majewski has recently released his second solo piano album by the age of 45.
His newest album is entitled “Roads.” Majewski describes this harmony as a blend of classical motifs with folk melodies, evoking a plaintive, wistful, peaceful atmosphere.
Majewski has always been motivated to write music by his favorite musician George Winston.
“He’s sort of the father of contemporary solo piano music. He’s the best I’ve ever heard,” Majewski said.
Majewski’s latest source of inspiration was found in a cartoon.
Included in the track list of “Roads” are Majewski’s interpretations of three songs from the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated production of The Hobbit: “Roads,” “Misty Mountains Cold” and “The Greatest Adventure.”
“I’ve always loved The Hobbit cartoon,” Majewski said.
Maury Laws is the composer of all The Hobbit music. Majewski found inspiration in Law’s tune to include melodies of his on his latest album. However, the album itself was not inspired by anything in particular.
“I can’t point to any one thing that inspired me to record another album,” Majewski said. “It just kind of popped into my head about a year ago.”
Majewski recorded his original album, “Tamarac,” in studio, but after doing some research on home recording, he found the prices to be relatively inexpensive compared to his first encounter with recording.
“Being able to record at home is nice,” Majewski said.
However, this made for a very different experience his second time around.
“With ‘Roads,’ I was writing the songs and learning the recording software at the same time,” Majewski said. “Plus, three of the songs are piano arrangements of copyrighted songs, so making sure I had the proper legal clearance was somewhat stressful.”
Majewski is working on getting his latest album on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music and any radio shows such as Echoes that play similar music.
“That’s a lot of work,” Majewski said.
Luckily, he has some worthy knowledge to draw from after much success with his debut solo album. Songs from “Tamarac” have been played on Pandora more than 2.6 million times.
Majewski has endured success, but he still values the fundamentals of sticking to the plan and enjoying the process.
“It takes a lot of persistence to record an album, so there’s a degree of satisfaction when it’s done. Arranging songs for piano is challenging, too, but whether it’s composing or arranging an existing song, the process of starting and then finishing a song is fun,” Majewski said.
Listeners can preview the songs on “Roads” and purchase the physical album or digitally download it at www.stephenmajewski.com. Downloads are also available on iTunes and Amazon.
