From being a biology major to recording his debut EP, college was a crazy time for singer/songwriter Mark DiLillo. The Austin, Texas based singer records under the name Welsh Avenue and created an interesting hybrid vibe he calls a cross between alternative, electronic, experimental and nu-wave music. The four track EP stirs up a dynamic mix of distorted vocals with trippy synth and other clever sonic textures. However, the core of everything The Great Exchange is the beautiful melodic echoes and influences of his many years of classical piano training and performances.
Welsh Avenue focuses The Great Exchange on a change of mindset, growing from negative to positive.
Drawing from his science and philosophy backgrounds, this intellectual and thoughtful lyricist can weave clever stories into lyrics over sonic backgrounds. The opening track “Germ Theory” references Louis Pasteur (a French biologist, I’ll save you a Google search) with lyrics like, “And as the storm came my way, this time I did alright/Cuz like the Germ theorist once said, chance favors the prepared mind.” However, Welsh Avenue throws in the theme that hard times can benefit us or we can ignore the lessons learned from them.
The title track, “The Great Exchange,” explores the exchanges of thoughts as we drift from one mindset to the next. This “requires change of thought and heart.”
Every great EP always has a song about a life-altering relationship. “Blue Eyes” is a whimsical and romantic track that reflects fondly over a relationship that “coulda been, shoulda been.”
The EP closes with a mystical track “Time To Fly.” Welsh Avenue recalls the traumas of a pet owner DiLillo encountered while working as a veterinary assistant. Through all their misfortunes and his compassionates responses, he repeats the refrain, “My heart says it’s time to fly.”
“The EP is essentially about a change of mindset, from negative to positive, from unproductive to productive, from mediocre to excellent,” he says. “It is a message that I think my generation needs. It reflects me as an artist because I want my music to have purpose and intention. I know I can always improve myself as a person, and I want listeners to hear it and feel the same, from hopeless to hopeful. It definitely contains experimental qualities, and I like that because it gives me some options as to where to take my sound from here.”
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