Local musician evolves through new album
By Guy Chapman – Navarro County Gazette
In the last few days, Zane Faulhaber has found himself at a crossroads, having finally debuted his first solo album. Released on Jan. 5, Divine Discontent was a project several years in the making, the collection of music and lyrical statements is a personal journey balanced through the mix of life, work, and time spent with his wife, Shana.
“It’s one of those projects you invest in for a long time,” Faulhaber said of his new album. “It’s almost hard to let go, but at the same time, it’s finally out, and I wanted to share it with the world.”
Divine Discontent has been a project in the works over the last two years, a concept album with origins beginning when Faulhaber played music in Dallas’ punk scene, and well before his move to Corsicana.
But balancing creativity with a home routine led to a long process in discovering the album’s full potential. After moving to town, Faulhaber took a break from his album, instead directing his focus on working with his wife’s law office, and his new family life.
“I’ve been playing music my whole life, but I had a moment where I just needed to take a break from everything,” Faulhaber said. “I wanted to focus on my marriage and working with my wife, and worked a little more with my ‘left brain’ after doing the professional music stuff for so long.”
“I just needed to step back and reappraise everything.”
Despite his break, however, Faulhaber never stopped playing music daily. It was this break that allowed him to explore the messages he wanted to articulate through his songs.
“The evolution of this record is me finding myself, and finding higher into my spirituality, because there’s a lot of spirituality mixed into it. My message is to simply say: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world, to see the world you want to see in a greater place we can all live and exist.'”
Faulhaber described the creation of his new album as his “rebirth into the world,” part biography, part surreal journey that felt like reliving his entire life as it flashed before his eyes.
“Literally from song to song is the evolution of where I was many years ago to where I am now,” Faulhaber said. “One of the big things that I realize now is to have change in the world, you have to change how you think about the world.”
The album covers a variety of emotions, from positive to deeper internal dialogues.
“The song ‘American Way,’ I was choosing to look at the good we have, and how we have the ability to do things to be free and enjoy our lives, and not focus on the negative consequences.”
“There’s a track on there called ‘Blame Me’ where for a long time with stuff going back to my childhood, I took on attributes that were completely unnecessary. So listening back it to it, I was thinking about where I was at, and while I don’t feel that exact same way now, it’s still a pretty powerful song. Having this undertone to it has actually helped me grow and become a better person.”
Another track, “Humans,” explores the modern psyche from social interaction to social media.
“Humans are some of the most complicated creatures that exist, and we can complicate the simplest of things, you know,” Faulhaber said. “That’s just part of our human nature until we identify it and learn to work with it. We’re always going to have conflict and issues and stuff like that, but it’s how you act upon it.”
With the release of this album, the musician feels blessed to finally share his musical explorations with others.
“It’s been a long journey for sure,” Faulhaber said. “It’s been mixed in with the good, bad, highs, lows, and everything else like that.”
“This is me showing myself to the world.”
Divine Discontent is now available on the YouTube and Spotify streaming platforms.
