Sequim pianist Jennifer Thomas finds ‘The Fire Within’

SEQUIM — “She’s at peace and yet somehow on fire.”

“Some women are lost in the fire. Some women are built from it.”

Sequim composer Jennifer Thomas has drawn inspiration from a few quotes like these to help with “The Fire Within,” her next album tentatively set for release at the end of August or early September.

She is taking pre-orders for the album at PledgeMusic with links at her website www.jenniferthomasmusic.com. She will preview some of the album at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Benaroya Hall in Seattle for the Ensign Symphony & Chorus’ “God Bless America” concert followed by Thomas’ all new music.

Tickets are available through the Seattle Symphony’s website at www.seattlesymphony.org.

She is in the final stages of the 10-track album being mixed, which she says may be her most personal release yet.

“In the past, it’s been very nature-inspired music,” she said. “This one I wrote from a lot of personal experience.”

One song, “Girl in the Mirror,” she wrote about her struggles with body image.

“It’s about looking into the mirror and being happy with the person you are,” she said.

Another song, “Rise of the Phoenix,” serves as inspiration for building yourself anew, she said.

Eight of the tracks on “The Fire Within” are written by Thomas, and the album includes two covers of Hans Zimmer’s “Time” from the film “Inception” and Imagine Dragons’ “Believer.”

“Time,” she said is her “go-to inspirational song.”

Thomas, who has a cinematic feel with her music, said she tends to write with sports in mind.

“Sometimes I think, ‘this would be really cool to skate to (or) this would be energetic as a dance,’ ” she said.

Ice skaters and dancers are some of her biggest fans, she said, including a 15-year-old ice skater who recently wrote her saying when competitions come up, she and other girls fight over who gets to skate to Thomas’ music.

“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all year,” Thomas said.

Like the athletes she’s inspiring, Thomas said she’s always striving for top quality with her music.

That’s one reason she flew to London to record strings at Abbey Road Studios with the English Session Orchestra.

She also flew to Sweden to meet with Glen Gabriel, her co-producer/orchestrator, earlier this year to record orchestrations, and they spent time in Seattle doing additional sessions.

“I won’t release something unless it’s top-notch,” she said.

“I’ve been able to consistently release music that meets my expectations and my fans have come to know it’s not coming out unless I feel it’s at its best.”

Despite the great lengths she goes to release each album, Thomas anticipates “The Fire Within” will be her last full-length album as she’ll focus on EPs (shorter albums with around five or six tracks).

“I can get more done in a faster time,” Thomas said.

Full albums are becoming less of a necessity, she said, as digital downloads of singles and streaming individual songs become much more common.

Thomas is considering staggering the release of “The Fire Within” a few weeks so people can only listen to it by purchasing it before streaming is available.

At Saturday’s concert, she plans to provide sheets about her album’s preorder, offering incentives such as signed CDs, photos and sheet music, and possibly VIP passes and Skype phone calls.

As for the rest of the summer, Thomas said her sons love swimming and her husband continues to train for an ultra-marathon.

She said her family continues to love it in Sequim and they hope to take a week off in August at Cape Flattery.

To learn more about Thomas and preorder “The Fire Within,” visit jennifer thomasmusic.com.

________

Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.