Where you come from and who you learn from can have a significant impact on who you become. So when Stephen Arnold, a Greenfield native who now lives in Washington, D.C., set out to compose his third album, he wanted to dedicate it to the mentors who taught him about music and tennis, guiding him on the journey to who he is today.
Arnold, along with his band, Sea Change, released their third album, “The Hitting Wall,” in July. The album includes 14 tracks, spanning an hour and three minutes, with Arnold reflecting on growing up in Greenfield, the lessons he learned and his journey to jazz — which he noted was different from the route most people take.
“It’s been a long, strange trip for sure,” Arnold said. “I think that the journey a lot of people take to jazz, in the age of pre-professional after-school activities and camps, has become somewhat homogenized. Once I finished college and started trying to be a musician full time, I began to learn how unique my musical experience had been.”
Arnold learned to play the piano at the Artspace Community Arts Center from Phyllis Kirkpatrick and learned to play the bass from Dave Chalfant at the Academy at Charlemont, where he graduated in 2013. Both the academy and Artspace featured smaller groups of students, and while there were recitals, Arnold said they felt like low-pressure environments for him to learn and build community.
“The Hitting Wall” is dedicated to his teachers, including Art Carrington, who was his first mentor and taught him to play tennis long before he developed an interest in music.
“These were the skills that I could use, that I could lean on when I needed help,” Arnold said. “It’s a tribute to how much I’ve been able to learn from these folks and the stuff they’ve taught me.”
Arnold said he was incredibly proud of the composition of the album, particularly the song “Re: Vision,” which he described as “pretty tricky, but sounds rather natural.” He added that another favorite on the album is “Memories of My Precocious Youth.”
“There’s a trumpet player on the album, Brandon Woody. I’ve played with him a few times and I just love the way that he can communicate the intensity of emotion,” Arnold said. “I started to figure out ways to utilize that skill of his. I think the way the band grows — because it starts out just trumpet and piano, and then when the band comes in, it just becomes this whole cathartic thing.”
He noted that throughout composing the album, he wanted to tell the story of someone who was struggling but realized they already possessed the tools necessary to become successful.
“The theme was to learn to trust myself, depend on myself, and realize that the tools I could learn to use had been there for years,” Arnold said. “People had been showing me all these great things and they believed in me.”
The first track on the album, from which the project gets its name, was inspired by Arnold’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he left Washington and returned home to Greenfield. Arnold explained that he had been struggling and would go to the local hitting wall every afternoon to hit tennis balls.
“One day I went out to the wall and I just started sobbing,” Arnold recalled. “I don’t know what it was. I realized I was working through more stuff than just trying to hit a ball against a wall.”
Arnold said that music has always been a part of his life. While he may not have always envisioned becoming a jazz musician, the genre was always around and was frequently played by his dad when Arnold was a kid.
He noted that he attended George Washington University with the original intention of studying to be a classical pianist. However, after attending a jazz jam session and being inspired by the enthusiastic response teachers had to his improvisation, he decided to pivot to jazz.
“I’m very lucky that I’ve met these remarkable people who were so friendly and saw not necessarily that I had an aptitude but I needed something from from music, and encouraged my digging deeper,” Arnold said.
He said he hopes the album inspires people to be true to themselves, recognize that they can always develop skills to overcome obstacles and embrace the uniqueness of their own situations.
The band is planning an album release show on Sept. 19 at Takoma Station in Washington, D.C. Arnold said that while he has a steady following in D.C., he would love to build a larger network in Franklin County and bring his music to listeners back home. Because he still has family living in Greenfield, Arnold noted he would love to take “working vacations” where he can visit relatives while still playing music.
The Hitting Wall is available to stream or buy on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music or Bandcamp.
