Music collective Right the Stars is back with a new single, “Calfornia Sun” inspired by California and The Beach Boys. The inspiration goes even further than that, however, with Right the Stars being a sort of music co-op—“a constellation of writers, musicians and producers” headed by singer/songwriter/producer Rich Jacques. The project began in 2009 and has since provided the background music for various commercials and TV shows.
Jacques speaks about the collective songwriting process saying, “I just find a group of players I co-write with, and it’s basically just me writing with other people that I find that I like. By nature, I like diversity, so for me, it’s about changing it up, finding new people, new energy, new environment” going on to say “If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t do it. If you like it, it’s just about meeting people and working with them. Chasing it doesn’t play out the same way. A lot of it is patience. In any of the arts, the moment you start forcing anything, it’s not the right way to do it.”
Now after a four-year hiatus, Right the Stars is back with “California Sun.” Being a Floridian abroad, I have experienced the tendency for people to often mix up Florida and California (maybe because of their similar associations with the sun and Disney). For anyone actually from Florida or California, however, this tendency to interchange them is nonsensical—they are worlds apart. For reasons that are initially difficult to articulate, California has arguably always stood out from the rest of the States. This mystical quality is what “California Sun” successfully encapsulates—not completely on the ground but not necessarily up in the sky either.
California Sun Is Somewhere Between the Earth and Sky
Jacques speaks of the single saying, “California has always been a mystical place to me caught somewhere between the earth and the sky. Somewhat real and not real at the same time. It almost comes off as a dream. You can’t bring where you came from here… you have to surrender and become part of the flow. There’s a deep spirituality in California that can get confused sometimes and makes people feel ungrounded, but there is access here and you can realize a deep peace and unwavering presence below the surface.”
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