Stephen Ingram shares his latest single, “Fridge Magnet Symphony”
London, ON-based musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, actor, and music director Stephen Ingram has recently unveiled his single, “Fridge Magnet Symphony,” from his upcoming album.
Listen to “Fridge Magnet Symphony” below and learn more about Stephen via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hey! I’m Stephen Ingram, an independent singer/songwriter living in London, ON. I graduated from Western University with a music degree in 2017, and since then I’ve made my living primarily in live theatre, performing in theatres across Ontario and working as a music teacher whenever I’m not on the road.
I’ve spent most of my life writing music for school assignments or other peoples’ projects, but in 2020 I started writing songs for myself. In 2021 I started working toward an album, and in 2022 I completed it. That album is being released this coming month, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
On February 17th, I released my first single off my upcoming album, “Fridge Magnet Symphony.” It’s also the title track of the album.
The song is a lament of how hard of a time I’ve always had with writing lyrics that are personal to me. I never liked any of the songs that I wrote that weren’t musical theatre or classical music because they never felt genuine. I was afraid, to be honest, so I always ended up writing stuff that was derivative or just felt like straight-up word soup. After lockdown hit, I had a lot more time to sit and listen to music, and a lot of the artists I connected with at that time influenced my music and inspired me to get out of that funk and write about what I cared about.
“Fridge Magnet Symphony” is sort of a metaphor for both those states: a very visual metaphor for the word soup that used to come out when I was trying to write songs and also for using what feels like someone else’s pre-made building blocks to make your own unique work.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
When writing music as a singer/songwriter, it has to be personal stories or emotions for me. I work as a musical theatre writer as well, and 90% of that is fiction, which is really hard work. Inventing a situation, making it vivid and realistic, and then creating a character and deciding how that character would react realistically requires a lot of planning and editing. Despite requiring me to put in a lot of hours, I write my singer/songwriter stuff for myself as a sort of self-care rather than work. So it always has to come from somewhere in my life.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
None I can announce yet, BUT I have another single coming out on March 10th, and while the date for my album hasn’t been finalized yet, it will be in the month following that release. Follow my Instagram @stephenjamesingram or like my Stephen Ingram page on Facebook for updates!
What’s your goal for 2023?
My goal for 2023 is to try hard, fail hard, and learn hardest. This year is a year of me trying new things; I’ve never released any music before, and rather than opting for the EP to start things off as most people do, I just went straight for the full album. I’m working on finishing my first full-length musical, being written in residence at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, and I’m working at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake as their music intern this year, hopefully improving my musicianship and learning a ton that I never got to learn in music school. Whether all of these things will be a success or not, I have no idea, but I do know that regardless of whether I succeed or fail, I’m going to come out with a ridiculous amount of new knowledge and skills.