Torin Dunn is a man of many influences. A 22-year-old musician from Cleveland, Dunn writes everything from rock to jazz to electronic music.
On April 11, Torin released his latest electronic EP — “Vol. 2: Falling Through Sound” — the follow-up to 2018’s “Cats Stuck In Space.”
“I was practicing writing video game music because I wanted to start doing video game soundtracks when I stumbled upon a cat synthesizer online,” he said about the inspiration for the project. “Obviously I had to try it out and I put together the track “Cats Stuck In Space”. When I showed it to my roommates they really liked it and encouraged me to write more. So the first album was kind of me just writing short tunes with a spacey video game vibe.”
This positive momentum led him to decide to create the follow-up.
“After the release of ‘Cats Stuck in Space,’ I got a lot of positive reactions. So, I decided to write a second album, but I wanted to make it unique in its own way. So I pulled back the video game vibes and I incorporated a lot of rock and jazz influences. My main goal was to make this album more colorful. So “Cats Stuck in Space Vol. 2” became a project where I tried to let my imagination flow and really put together tracks with more character.”
Unfortunately, in the final leg of the race to get the project out to the public, COVID-19 struck and threw Dunn for a bit of a loop.
“I was close to done (on the album) in May of 2019, and I kinda sat on the album for a while. Around January I erased two songs that I thought didn’t make the cut, and I wrote a couple more that I ended up really liking. So, around the end of February, I was done with the album but I didn’t have the album artwork and some songs needed some extra mixing and mastering,” he said.
“I was planning for a March release originally, but then I went to Spain and got sidetracked. However, as soon as I got back to America the whole country was on lockdown, so I took one day to put all the finishing touches on the songs as well as harass Colin Dunn — my brother and artist — to finish the cover. It took me like 7 hours of straight listening and mixing, but when it was done I knew it was ready and I immediately set a date to be released.”
Despite the coronavirus’ impact, he still has plans for the future of his music career.
“I’m working on a few things at the moment. First, I’d like to make another Cats Stuck in Space and make it a trilogy. I also just started a Youtube channel where I’m playing classical guitar and doing other dumb music things. And, finally, I’m working on a hard rock album that will hopefully surface in the next year.”
Torin Dunn can be followed on Twitter and on Instagram @jazzedaboutrock.
