Ethan French has exploded onto the music scene out of nowhere! Well, sort of. His recent viral song “Idea of the Day” series on social media has certainly catapulted him to internet fame and gained recognition from the likes of Jacob Collier, Sza, and John Mayer. But in reality, this is just the next exciting step in a music journey that has been unfolding for over a decade, stretching right back to when Ethan won the 7-12 instrumental category of the 2015 ACMF National Songwriting Competition with his composition “Gone”.
A Nonconforming Student Wins the NSC
Ethan was not a typical music student. Despite his high school music scholarship, he was completely uninterested in studying music theory, preferring to learn things by ear, experiment with different sounds and instruments, and cause his teachers some stress in the process.
“Ironically, in school, I was incredibly resistant to learning musical theory. I hated it. I was always the kid that my teacher was like, ‘oh, he’s not even going to be able to do music ATAR. He can’t read music, he can’t sight read, he doesn’t know theory’.”
But one teacher recognised Ethan’s love of writing songs, and suggested he enter the Australian Children’s Music Foundation’s National Songwriting Competition. He did, and he won.
“I remember it very vividly… going to the bathroom at school because I wanted to check my phone just because I knew the competition winners were being announced.”
The win and the $1,200 prize money that came with it had a big impact on Ethan, boosting his confidence as a songwriter and helping him to get the equipment he needed to keep exploring his sound.
“I think it was great. It certainly was some kind of material validation in terms of I can say that people listened to my song and they compared it to these other songs and they thought it was good. I think that was really helpful for me.
“I got some speakers and I got a microphone, and that’s huge. I was using that gear for years, like years and years and years… I remember that being such a massive thing… that stuff took me a long way.”
After the competition, Ethan kept experimenting and learning, dragging his friends into music practice rooms at recess and lunchtime to jam, singing in the school choir, writing songs in his room, and learning how to use music production software to record his music. He even started getting into music theory towards the end of his schooling, putting names to the techniques he had learnt by ear and using technical knowledge to create more complex chord variations in his song writing.
Breaking the Internet
Ethan’s song “Idea of the Day” series, where he uploads a snippet of an original song idea to social media, recently went unbelievably viral. The videos have racked up millions of views, turned celebrities like T-Pain and Justin Timberlake into fans, and now the 25-year old artist and producer is preparing to leave the comfort of his home studio and fly to LA to collaborate on music with some major artists. Oh, and he’s about to release ‘Ideas of the Day Vol. 1’ an album featuring extended versions of the song ideas that have opened many new doors for him. After years of music making, Ethan’s career is taking off.
Finding Identity through Music
Regardless of internet virality, celebrity endorsement, and career potential, for Ethan the best thing about music is how it makes him feel. As someone who has struggled a lot with self-confidence throughout his life, playing music pulled him out of his introverted shell as a teenager and gave him a sense of community. It has continuously pushed him creatively and it allowed him to explore who he is becoming.
“It gives my life a purpose, like not to be too dramatic, but it’s really a grounding presence in my life. It’s been like one of the only constants… It’s gotten me through a lot.
“Being open to expressing yourself creatively, I think is a hugely beneficial thing for a young person, to kind of manifest your identity in some kind of way where it’s like you can actually then play it back and listen to it.”
What Young Songwriters Need to Know
So, what would this introverted musician turned star-on-the-rise tell a young person thinking about writing a song and entering it into the National Songwriting Competition? Begin, explore, create as much as you can without expectation. Trying to put everything into one song, one project? The pressure build up and potential for disappointment is enormous. But creating often, without the need for it to be the best thing you’ve ever made, that’s where magic can happen.
“Making more things and making them more often, I found to be really fruitful for me creatively, but also like mentally as a creative person. And I think you can only get to that point by beginning, right? That’s really the ultimate advice is just to begin, no matter where you are. You know, I didn’t start in the studio, I didn’t start with instruments, I didn’t start with a real piano. I was recording voice memos on an iPod Touch. And then I had an iPod with GarageBand, which I started to layer stuff on and it wasn’t good, it wasn’t good stuff at all, but if I hadn’t started it then I would not be where I am now, you know? It’s okay to be bad at the beginning, and embarrassed! I’m trying to embrace that more now, in terms of learning skills. It’s actually wonderful to be bad at stuff.”
“The thing that is good for people to realise is that, like… I couldn’t do this stuff right at the beginning. It’s something you develop and learn how to do. So, that’s it. That’s the lesson. Begin.”
