New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Wrabel has toured tirelessly over the past decade, earning legions of dedicated fans by bringing his "knife-to-the-heart" (Idolator) songwriting and heavenly vocal chops to venues around the world, often with nothing more than a piano. Next Friday (May 15), he will recapture the magic he conjures up during his live performances when he drops the fittingly titled 'piano' collection (on his own Big Gay Records).
The acoustic project will let at-home listeners experience the moving balladry and emotional depth of "one of Hollywood's finest songwriters for a decade" (American Songwriter) in a raw, bare-bones sonic setting. He also hopes its intimate nature will allow his audience to feel connected and comforted during the current uncertainty taking place in the world.
Out today, Wrabel has dropped a recording of his original arrangement for the song "Mean It", which was released earlier this year as a dance bop collaboration with Cash Cash.
'piano' is comprised of new tracks (the pleading choral "somebody new" and the longtime live fan favorite "jupiter"), recordings of original versions written by Wrabel that became collaborative dance smashes (the aforementioned "mean it", and "too close" -- recorded with Louis the Child), and stripped versions of his tracks "love to love u", "the real thing", and "flickers" off his 'one of those happy people' EP (named one of the "Best LGBTQ Albums of 2019" by Billboard).
The collection also includes the original demo of the first single off Wrabel's debut album, "hurts like hell", a song he debuted live on NBC's TODAY back in February.
"This is such a difficult time for the world. It really breaks my heart. It sounds so cliché, but I truly believe in the healing, connecting power of music -- of song and melody and lyric," said Wrabel of the project and the timing of its release. "That's why I wanted to put this out now, as soon as I could -- to share these songs and stories."
In addition to his solo work, over the past year Wrabel has been a part of releases/breakouts by
Louis Tomlinson ("Don't Let It Break Your Heart" - co-writer), Jai Wolf ("Moon Rider" - collab & co-writer), and
Celeste ("
Strange" - co-writer) as well served as a co-writer on ten of the sixteen tracks on Kesha's acclaimed latest album 'High Road' and a featured artist on two ("BFF" and "Resentment", the latter he performed earlier in the year with Kesha on The Late Late Show With
James Corden). He also had a high-profile 25-date string of appearances last summer on the European leg of P!nk's Beautiful Trauma World Tour where they performed their collaboration "90 Days" off the pop superstar's latest album 'Hurts 2B Human'.
'piano' EP Track Listing
"hurts like hell - piano version"
"somebody new"
"mean it - piano version"
"love to love u - piano version"
"too close - piano version"
"the real thing - piano version"
"jupiter (live at the troubadour)"
"flickers (live at the troubadour)"
