Bruce Hornsby Is Still Seeing What He Can Get Away With Since The Way It Is, the visionary songwriter has made his mark on so many genres. His latest, Deep Sea Vents, dives once again into something new.
By
John Mirisola
March 6, 2024
Bruce Hornsby '74
Image by Tristan Williams
Press play on Deep Sea Vents, the new collaboration from Bruce Hornsby '74 and the sought-after contemporary classical ensemble yMusic, and one thing quickly becomes obvious: This is not Hornsby resting on his past successes-many and multifaceted as they may be.
Over the past forty years Hornsby has amassed one of the most varied catalogs in modern music. Its not boring anyway, he joked in a phone interview last month.
The Music that Made Berklee
See how The Way It Is and so many other songs have shaped Berklees legacy.
To summarize, incompletely: Theres his deep well of thoughtful, slightly askew pop-rock songs, beginning with 1986s The Way It Is, whose title track helped launch Hornsbys career and then enjoyed a bank-shot second life as an iconic 2Pac sample. There are his contributions to the jam music world (most famously as a live keyboardist for the Grateful Dead for a number of years in the '80s and '90s); his bluegrass group with Ricky Skaggs; his jazz trio with Jack DeJohnette and Christian McBride; and his many screen scoring projects with director Spike Lee. Then theres his more recent emergence as a key collaborator in the modern indie music world, working with Bon Ivers Justin Vernon and Vampire Weekends Ezra Koenig, among others, and sharing the stage with indie-jam crossover act Goose. Also, should we mention he played the memorable piano part on Bonnie Raitts classic hit, I Cant Make You Love Me?
Watch Bruce Hornsby join Goose for their live cover of The Way It Is:
Yet the wry, experimental chamber pop of Deep Sea Vents, released under the collective moniker BrhyM, sounds like nothing else in that discography, and proves he still has more sonic territory to explore, even if he needs to survey the ocean floor to find it.
The Wild Whaling LifeIm just always looking for the new, and looking for inspiration in new places, and also looking not to repeat myself, said Hornsby, describing himself as a wandering minstrel, stylistically.
Something just presents itself emphatically, saying to me, This is where you should go. This will not be denied. Do this, dont f*** around. Deal with this right now. And so I try to listen to that loud voice.
The inspirational touch-points across these ten tracks are vast. He draws on a New York Times science story (Deep Sea Vents), web research on the platypus (Platypus Wow), a decades-old family joke (the song Barber Booty is a nod to how his sons used to pronounce their family barber shop, Barber/Beauty, as young children), and a couple Stephen Crane poems recalled from an eighth-grade English class (Deep Blue), among other sources.
Listen to The Wild Whaling Life by BrhyM
Hornsbys voracious curiosity has always been an engine for his creativity, and literature has played a particularly significant role in his compositions. My reading life has, for the last many years, completely influenced my songwriting life, he said. Prior to Deep Sea Vents, there have been songs referencing novels by Don DeLillo and David Foster Wallace, for instance. And then theres The Wild Whaling Life on this new album, which came together as Hornsby was reading Moby-Dick during the pandemic.
[yMusic] sent me this track around late November of 2020, he recalled. And their track just sounded like the book. A lot of the sounds they were making sounded sea-like. Seagulls and bushy ocean birds making sounds. And so it just led me to this place where I thought, Okay, let me go back through this book that Ive been reading. So Hornsby flipped through marked-up passages and margin notes, eventually shaping those ideas into a celebration of a life that sounds a lot like the one hes been lucky enough to lead-a wanderer, feeling pride in pushing forward, always in search of the big one. This is what I chose for my lifes work, he sings, Its the wild whaling life for me.
I Am the PlatypusWhile Hornsby has never shied away from weighty subjects in his songwriting (The Way It Is alone tackles issues of class, race, and social progress), hes also one of the only songwriters of his stature to follow that loud voice of inspiration into songs of humor and frivolity. For evidence, look no further than the skronky, honking Platypus Wow.
The song began as a yMusic demo with the word duck in its working title, and by a series of associative leaps from the horns quacking and the titles billing, Hornsby found his way into a deep dive on the egg-laying mammal and its ilk.
I just started doing a little research about the platypus, and platypuses related cousins, which led me to some old cartoon characters that I knew from my sons early days-Crash Bandicoot and Knuckles the Echidna, Hornsby said. And so I just went from there, learning about this whole area and writing about it, with a light strain on a tone level, because the music had that.
The result is a track that manages to sashay along the boundary between absurdity and fascination, and that BrhyM successfully carry off on the strength and strangeness of their performance.
Part human, part bird / Part beaver, reptile nerd / Im weird just like you / Lets exult in greens and blues, he sings with a swagger, and its easy to imagine Hornsby identifying with the platypus here.
Because of the way Im singing, I call it Sugarfoot of [funk band] the Ohio Players meets [20th century avant-garde composer] Pierre Boulez, said Hornsby-a string of words only this artist could credibly utter. Its completely an odd match. Im sure Pierre Boulez has never heard of Sugarfoot and vice-versa. I feel pretty confident about that.
A Zappo ProductionWhi
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
18/08/2026
SMT will provide race technology for FOX Sports' coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. on August 23, when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES races ...
18/08/2026
The live, YouTube-native roundtables combine fan voices, credentialed reporters,...
18/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/08/2026
The industry legend sounds off on replacing the Heat's iconic Medusa score...
18/08/2026
William F. Rasmussen, the sports fan-turned broadcaster and entrepreneur whose out-of-the-box idea of a 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, changed forever the ...
18/08/2026
DAZN Group has completed its acquisition of ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for sports content owners. The acquisition was first announc...
18/08/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has added SI TV, Sports Illustrated's 24/7 streaming channel, as a broadcast partner for the remain...
18/08/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), originally scheduled for November 2026 in Riyadh, will be postponed to Novemb...
18/08/2026
Diversified has announced a new Global Managed Services Practice, consolidating the company's managed services capabilities into one organization. Rob Mello...
18/08/2026
Appear has completed a proof of concept with Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), demonstrating multi-camera remote live production over bonded 5G cellular an...
Bruce Hornsby Is Still Seeing What He Can Get Away With Since The Way It Is, the visionary songwriter has made his mark on so many genres. His latest, Deep Sea Vents, dives once again into something new.
