Nashville musician's new album channels life in the Lehigh Valley

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A Nazareth native turned Nashville musician is stepping into introspective new territory with the release of an album rooted in improvisation and memories of the Lehigh Valley.

Dominic Billett’s new full-length record “Truer is the Valley, the River, the Pale Sky,” comes out Friday.

It's a bold departure from his past musical endeavors that strips down the concept to improv piano and a touch of synth to evoke a wealth of memories, many of which connect all the way back to his upbringing in the Nazareth area.

For the past few years, Billett has spent time in Nashville working as a producer and musician, carving out time to release his own material, including full-length albums “Two Peach Trees” in 2021 and “Lower” in 2022.

Before that, he had spent time in the Lehigh Valley punk, hard core and metal scenes, inspired by his brother to pick up a bass and play before moving on to drumming.

Bouncing around clubs around the Valley and beyond, he honed his chops with some of the scene’s key players.

“That was pretty formative; learning about not only playing, but community," Billett said.

"A big, big part of that was the community, and just being part of a thing and having somewhere to go and something to do,” Billett said. He said he stills keeps in contact with many folks back home to this day.

After that, Billett headed to Millersville University to study in a music business program, spending breaks working in various projects — including folk-rock outfit Perkasie — recording and touring, building “the most informative, knowledgeable experience in this business” from his own experience.

Over nearly a decade, he’s used that expertise in music production in Nashville, focusing on careful construction and precision, to attain studio perfection.

But “Truer is the Valley, the River, the Pale Sky,” is something different, he said.

A natural progression

“I put out a few records of ‘song songs' — singer-songwriter type stuff, where I’m recording everything, but there are concise formulas to the material,” Billett said.

“And this was an instrumental record. And what it was based off was, at the beginning of the year, I had this practice every day where I would make some coffee, I’d go sit down at the piano in my studio, and wherever my hands fell physically, I would just sort of start making a piece of it.”

There were no parameters — sometimes the practice would produce a few little sections, sometimes not, Billet said. After continuing the work for a while, Billett had built up a wealth of recordings on his phone.

“Once I started to comb back through them, I was thinking in my head, ‘Oh, these could be really cool ideas or structures for songs,’” Billett said.

But after some consideration, he found the experiments warranted existence in their own right.

“There’s these little piano pieces, fully improvised," he said. "So I just started recording them all, one microphone, very basic.

"Some I added some synthesizer stuff, too. I had about 12 or 13 of these things amassed. And it’s long — like over an hourlong record.”

Throughout, the listener can hear tiny nuances, little imperfections, that create a truly natural feel in the piece. Nothing is overly produced; the feeling is raw, and laden with emotion.

An ‘open-ended journey’

With an inspiration derived from ambient artists such as Harold Budd, Billett said he felt a sense of being transported through soundscapes.

“So whenever I listened to these songs that I recorded, I kind of started to have these visions of home, and I started to think about memories of growing up," he said.

"Like going to Jacobsburg Park, or walking down the street from my mom's house in Bushkill, or thinking about where she's from up in the Barnesville area.

"Or where my dad's from, closer to Hazleton/Jim Thorpe. And there's just, like, all this sort of wooded imagery in my brain while I was listening to it."

The music also channeled memories of childhood, pets and other parts of the past, stirring up “a deep longing for home,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s just this really, really funny, open-ended journey, that there’s so many great things along the way, and I don’t stop and think about them enough,” Billett said.

“And this one sort of hand a really strong pulling to home, and the origins of it all.”

The result is simple yet deep, featuring somber soundtracks punched through with bright bits of hope. It’s contemplative without being overbearing, thoughtful without demanding the listener think way one or the other.

Sparse but warm arrangements paint a vivid field throughout the album, creating a sense of empathy with the listener even if they aren’t exactly on the same page.

A soundtrack of the Lehigh Valley

“Truer is the Valley, the River, the Pale Sky” serves as a soundtrack for one’s ventures through the wooded regions of the Lehigh Valley.

According to Billett, that feeling comes from the improvisation — the sense he could start, stop, cut, add and do whatever the moment called for.

“I just want it to be as natural as possible,” he said — a departure from his normal, precision-based studio work.

Strangely enough, Billett said, the connection to the Lehigh Valley didn’t quite solidify itself until after the project’s completion.

“But once that idea started to formulate in my head, I couldn’t escape that vision,” Billett said.

He said the tracks evoked “early memories of walking through wooded areas in Pennsylvania,” the little imperfections of nature, music and, ultimately, life itself.

He said his hope is that those once-simple exercises can bring about shared experiences for listeners, to share an experience and connect with one another on an ethereal level.

“That's all I can ask for, for any music I release, or anything I'm a part of," Billet said. "And if people want to feel connected to whatever it is, they can just listen to it and have their own experience.

"And when those experiences align, that's awesome, but if not, totally cool, too. I just want people to feel something — that's always fun."

“Truer is the Valley, the River, the Pale Sky" is available via music streaming platforms including Apple Music on Nov. 22, 2024.