Jeremy dePrisco
The COVID-19 pandemic threw everyone a curveball, no matter who you were. For Jeremy dePrisco, it hit just as he had made ‘The Leap’ - focusing on his creative work and casting aside his day job. It’s a jump many artists are terrified to make, and some find they can’t sustain it, even without a global shutdown. Yet dePrisco found he was ready to roll with the punches having recently been uprooted two years ago by a move to Philadelphia. The move had meant not only adjusting to a new job, city, and home, but dePrisco also had to close down his production studio in central Pennsylvania.
DePrisco learned to play the bass when he was 12, and soon picked up learning music by ear to play songs with his father on the guitar. It fostered a love of classical music, which dePrisco joined community orchestras in both high school and college to play. He also discovered a love of classic and progressive rock, and has played in several bands.
In 2010, already in a folk duo with his wife and a jazz band on the side, dePrisco began his foray into experimental electronic music. “I went to this electric music conference and found that there were a lot of other people making similar music, for fun or on a professional level. I went every year and started to put more time into the more abstract stuff. It became more about audio production, sonic exploration, sampling - a little more focus on the technology side.”
Since the pandemic began, dePrisco has found new experiments to investigate, including the addition of visual elements to his music performances. “When I perform electronic music, it’s pretty boring to stare at someone making noise on a computer ... After my most recent move I invested a lot of time into video editing, touch designer, online streaming - to the point where I can now help other people with it.” His involvement in Nomadic Soundsters has allowed dePrisco to continue this experimentation, working with other composers and a movement artist in his group. “What fascinates me [about our work in Nomadic Soundsters] is the combination of visual and musical ideas, trying to explore that.”
Yet although the Soundsters are all working in collaborative groups, dePrisco hits the nail on the head concerning the nostalgia felt for pre-COVID times and the excitement artists have for when everything goes back to ‘normal:’ “The thing I miss most about making music with other people is being in the same room. Being able to jam. That interaction - you just can’t replace it online. You can try to, but the technology starts to get in the way.”
The Soundsters have had the opportunity to talk with several inspiring artists who have been creating throughout the pandemic, and the question comes up almost every time: how can artists better transcend the screen? How can we connect at the same level we did in person? How can we foster this new artistic environment? After all these discussions with incredible artists, there’s an inclination to agree with dePrisco’s take on the matter: “Maybe you can’t replace [being in the same room], maybe it’s better trying to find something else to pull out of the [virtual] collaborative experience to make it more interesting for everybody.”
Keep up with dePrisco’s ongoing musical explorations at jeremydeprisco.net
Written by: Sammy Gerraty
