Music Monday | Tommee Profitt

Hello!

For my last post for this series, I will be talking about Tommee Profitt. A music producer, composer and songwriter that I’ve been keeping up with since probably the end of 2017. I still don’t really know how I found him in the first place; I do remember I was on Spotify, but the connection between the two is still a little foggy. Anyways, it happened and it’s been incredible journey so far!

What a lot of people don’t understand is that, everything is connected in some form or another. Everything happens for a reason.

To me, there really isn’t a big jump between symphonic metal and cinematic/trailer music. I think there are a lot of similiarities between the two of them, epesically when it comes to writing the concept. The lyrics are easy to read and can be filled of different emotions. They both encourage the use of choir and big orchestra elements depending on the mood of the song itself.

Now as I say “trailer” music, I don’t necessarily mean Hans Zimmer, Alan Silverstri, etc. Nowadays, composers like Tommee and vocalists you have probably never heard of yet somehow they are (mostly) all located in Nashville are creating these gorgeous songs for various promos and they are becoming the new generation of what is cinematic music. Lately, the world has started to see the genius of Tommee’s work, which is really awesome! Two years ago, Tommee teamed up with a long time contributor Fleurie to do a tribute album for the final season of “Game Of Thrones”. I previously listened to the soundtrack that was put together Travis Scott, Ellie Goulding, Hallie x Chloe, etc. However, this one was worthy to be part of the score I thought because it was so beautiful with Fleurie’s dreamy vocals and fierce compositions behind her in the music.

You may not know this, but last year he worked with Christian rapper NF on his album The Search. I think the two of them have worked together before this release, but I’m not too sure about it. I feel like I can judge what feels and sounds like something Tommee would create, but in the last two cinematic compilations, he is starting to expeiment with other genres like country and a little bit of rock, which is great but sometimes I have issues with figuring out what Tommee has produced for him or not. There are other artists he tends to work with a lot, and they are Sam Tinnesz, Ruelle and Jung Youth. If you haven’t heard of anybody featured in this post, you should definitely give everybody a listen, trust me, you’ll end up loving something among the people I’ve included in here.

Have you heard of Tommee Profitt’s work? If you have, list that person or any others below in the comments for me! Do you have a favorite track too?

Album Review: “Cinematic Songs Vol. 5” by Tommee Profitt

We’re back with another batch of cinematic songs by record producer Tommee Profitt! I was so excited to hear that we would be getting another album, especially the fact that it would come out the day after my birthday! Unfortunately, I had to wait over two weeks to finally listen to it because I’ve had some issues lately, but it’s only added the fuel to the fire that I need to listen and review this for all of us!

If you’ve never listened to a Tommee Profitt cinematic volume before, he usually has close to 12-13 songs in some type of epic sound. So, you might have these powerful, in your face tracks that everybody seems to go for immediately, but he’s also started to come out of his shell and experiment with other genres and tempos too. The majority of them with independent, based in Nashville artists of various genres. For this one, we have six “veterans” coming back for this collection along with a few newcomers too. Tommee also likes to include a couple of instrumentals to the layout as well and I think it always give the album an edge to the whole thing.

The first track we have is “Heroes Rise” and it has Sam Tinnesz on it. I really love Sam’s soulful voice against these hefty beats. For this, I really like the slow build to the whole song. Despite having a strong ending, it’s actually pretty gentle and will inspire your inner fighter to come alive. Now for the next song, “You Made Me Do It” can be about anything you want it to be, actually all songs can be about whatever you want, you just have to change your perspective! I am really in love with this one though. It has a sassy sound all around, and I think Ruby Amanfu has a terrific voice to give it that extra edge that it needed to take it over the top! It’s definitely a favorite of mine for sure!

We all know and love Fleurie’s voice, and I’m so glad that she continues to work with Tommee because he always seems to make her sound even more beautiful than the last one. “Can You Feel The Heat Now” was the first song I actually listened to, I was on YouTube listening to my mix and it automatically came on, and since I didn’t recognize it at first, I kind of figured it was probably new. I like the calming piano introduction along with her sweet voice and then all of a sudden, this electric guitar sound would appear and gave it a nice rock-ish vibe. From the moment it starts, you get this feeling that it may not be as good as you originally thought, but what I really liked about it was not knowing what could come next. Would it stay in this tempo? And then towards the end, it does grow but not as grand as we’re used to with an average Fleurie song. Jung Youth is a Christian rapper, that has worked with Tommee before and I really love that we’re hearing a hip hop-cinematic fusion. “Who’s Gonna Stop Me’ is a great workout song to listen to gain that motivation when you need it the most!

For this next song, “Witching Hour” we hear a newcomer by the name of Brooke Griffith. It’s an extremely spooky track when it first starts, which will fit naturally with the paranormal television shows like The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Riverdale, and Legacies. The cinematic elements to this song really made it come to life. I just wish it was longer! Our first instrumental is “Dark Conscience” and it really continues the ominous vibe we had going with the previous song, except the original beat is gone. I really like the usage of the horns and violins, because they each have a creepy factor to them. I just feel like a monster is going to be unleashed at the end of it. The seventh track, is “Follow Me” featuring my favorite Ruelle. This has a lively, but cosmic feeling everytime I listen to it. I get a real futuristic sense, and weirdly enough I actually liked it.

Sam Tinnesz comes back with “Far From Home” and it also mentions that it’s the trailer version, so there must be an original somewhere. Even though I’ve never heard of the other one. It’s kind of has a mellow sound to it, but towards the end of the climax, it gets faster and almost louder. I think it’s pretty good! Afterwards we move on to, “Rise Above This” and the singer on this one is Trella. Unfortunately, I was really torn about this because initially I didn’t like her “ahhs” up and down the scales, but the rest isn’t that bad. So, I’m still questioning that one a bit. “I’m A Ruler” is up next and Ruby Amanfu comes back for a second round. She brings that sassy voice again, and what I loved about it is the pop-bluesy sound you get with this. It’s not a song that could really work with a action based film, unless there’s a female-comedy vibe going on.

“Unbreakable” starts the end of the album, with Mike Mains on the vocals. I really adore Mike’s voice as well so I was happy to see him on the tracklist again. The song itself has an awakening kind of vibe going on, and I really like the lyrics with this and I definitely approve of the mellow beat it has with it. It was in your face, but not overwhelming! We have our final instrumental, “Infidels At Bay” and for once we have a makings of a ballad, but it doesn’t really stay like that. I would love to hear at one softer song or ballad with these albums to kind of give the listeners a nice little break. This was a good attempt. Our last song is “A Storm Is Comin” by Liv Ash. I like the thunder rumbles with the fast going piano playing, I thought that was a cool combination. The cinematic part does break through like a storm and it really has a fiery ending. It was just perfect!

 I was really impressed with this, but I’m pretty sure I say that about every volume so far! Oh, I don’t care. Cinematic music in any form makes me really happy and I really love hearing new artists being featured on these songs, that maybe you wouldn’t hear otherwise. If you’ve never heard anything in the cinematic/trailer music world, you should really look into Tommee Profitt’s other four albums! Just go in order, you’ll thank me later!

Have you listened to Tommee Profitt’s new volume of cinematic songs yet? What were some of your thoughts? Before checking this out, had you ever listened to any other composers in the epic music? 

 

Album Review: “Cinematic Songs Vol. 3” by Tommee Profitt

Well, this time I was finally up-to-date on my music and found that Tommee Profitt had released a new volume of cinematic songs to the world! In the beginning of February, I had some issues and couldn’t get my music to work and so I had to resort to going old school and used YouTube again. I love listening to Tommee’s music so I must’ve needed to hear a couple of my favorites from the previous albums, and somehow I found a couple of new songs by chance and at first, I didn’t even know they were really new until later on when I went on Spotify again and the whole thing popped up!

The album itself has a total of thirteen tracks, two of which are instrumentals, and yes I was very happy about that! If you’ve read the reviews of volume one and two, there a few artists that are featured on this that may seem familiar to you. I’m happy to see Tommee has other great people working with him on this one too! I think it’s a nice way to bring out new talent and get their voices heard to a bigger audience since more and more people are starting to really enjoy trailer or cinematic music like I do!

We start off with “I Know Your Secrets” that features Liv Ash. She was one that was on the last album, and I thought her sweet, low voice was perfect for this song. It kind of adds an edger element to it. She’s very commanding and matches well to the beat itself, but I think the song would be better without the sound in general. I do love the last minute or two, where the hefty bass drops! It’s such a powerful sound! Second is “Empire” with Christian rapper Steven Malcolm, I really liked this! I thought it was very upbeat, I really like the more hip hop sound to it. I know I mentioned this already, but I real weakness for cinematic rap or hip hop and this doesn’t help it, but I don’t care!

Next we have “Will I Make It Out Alive” with Jessica Early and this, along with the first song were the two tracks I found on YouTube earlier last month. They were the ones that made me look into this a little more, because I usually have a pretty good memory, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t losing it! This is pretty quiet compared to the first two, but I’ve really grown to like the mellower ones lately so it’s not bad. After that, we venture into “Rebel Renegade” with Beacon Light, another rapper that I really enjoyed on volume two. First off, I really love the title! It has a nice ominous tone to it, but it also has a strong beat that isn’t too obnoxious. Sixth song is “Only One King” which made me believe that it had some strong religious views to it, and that’s fine. I think some of my favorites might’ve had that as inspiration. It features Jung Youth, who is a rapper out of Nashville. The song itself is pretty low on energy, but it’s not bad though!

We have our first instrumental track next called “Benevolence” and I swear this is one of my favorite words. I think the word has a beautiful meaning and I just like how it’s spelled. I know I’m weird, we’ve already established this a long time ago! I think the sound of it goes great with the meaning, it starts off really soft and slowly comes alive to this beast, but it never loses the sweet notes to it that the piano brings. Next we go back to the vocal tracks and this one has two artists on it. “Rescue” features Raine Wilder and another favorite Svrcina Raine’s mostly works on hip hop and alternative–some people would consider “cinematic” alternative music–projects. Svrcina is purely on the backing vocals, so she’s not prominent compared to him, but I think it is still an interesting dymantic with the strong music that slowly but surely grows.

And then we hear another familiar voice, Sam Tinnesz is back with the first of two songs he’s featured on this album. “The Hate Inside” brings out his mysterious demeanor, and I really like how the beat is somewhat tailored to his low voice. It sort of has a pop-hip hop element to it, as it doesn’t have that recognizable commanding sound like the some of the other tracks. It mostly stays at a hauntingly, slow pace so it’s pretty unique. The ninth song is “When The Sun Goes Down” and it has Laney Jones, and she has this soft little voice, but you instantly know it’s going to be an interesting track after that first ping goes off. Despite this assessment though, it takes it a bit to build into the beast I knew it would be, you just have to patient. You need to hold off until you hear 3:47, trust me you’ll really like that part!

We’re getting down to the wire now with the last four songs! We have “This Ship Is Going Down” with singer Xeah, This one was a totally different take then what I was expecting, because I’m hearing autotone in the choruses. It kind of gives me old 90’s or early 00’s pop music vibes but it’s definitely cinematic, there’s no questions about it. It’s very interesting that’s the only way to describe it! Last instrumental is “Decimator” which made me think it would be big and heavier than the other track, we all know that I can be wrong. Thankfully, this time I wasn’t! It was everything that I thought it would sound and then some with the addition of the choir! It’s very short, but amazing too! We have Sam Tinnesz back with “Cruel World” and I really like the fact you can hear a slight rock sound with this one, at least to me this is what I got from it! It’s not overwhelming, kind of soft and mellow. And lastly, we have “Where You Are” with another favorite Mike Mains. This one has a very soft introduction, I actually liked it. It was a perfect way to end a jam packed album.

I thought this was a very good batch of songs! I actually like it more than the last one, but I don’t know because I was so late to the party, but I think the more Tommee does these albums, the better he gets! And of course, I love discovering new artists and Christian rappers, like Jessica Early, Steven Malcolm, and Xeah! If you haven’t listened to it yet, you really need to find it either on Spotify or YouTube, or hey you can even buy it on iTunes too!

If you have listened to volume three, what are your favorite songs so far? Who do you think Tommee should work with on the next one? Let me know!