LOS ANGELES, CA- I follow a handful of musicians on social media who have committed themselves to the whole “one idea a day” exercise. There’s one guy I’ve been following on TikTok for a while who does more musical theater-type stuff, whose name unfortunately escapes me at the moment. So the concept itself isn’t entirely new to me. But Ethan French is.
“reckless and arranged – day 56” is my introduction to the 25-year-old Australian artist, and I have to say, I love what he’s doing.
French committed himself to putting one new musical idea out into the world every day, regardless of whether that idea was destined to become anything more. “reckless and arranged” began as one of those experiments, originally appearing as a roughly minute-long sketch before the reaction to it convinced French that there was something worth developing further. It has since taken on a life of its own, inspiring remixes from Kerri Chandler and T-Pain, with T-Pain even opening a Red Rocks set with his remix.
I find that remarkable.
There is something liberating about the idea of simply creating every day without demanding that every idea become a finished song. French has talked about discovering that putting less pressure on each individual idea actually improved the quality of his writing, and I can understand why. Sometimes you just need to get the idea out of your head and into the world before you have the opportunity to overthink it.
And there is definitely something here.
Look, there are only so many notes on a keyboard. When I first heard the opening chord progression of “reckless and arranged,” there was something about it that immediately sounded familiar to me, almost like something I might have heard on an old Stevie Wonder record. But I’m not going to fault French for riffing on a proven chord progression, particularly when what he builds around it has so much personality.
The piano is really what grabbed me. There is a warmth and familiarity to it, but French surrounds that foundation with these wonderfully moody sonics that give the song a much more contemporary character. The press materials make comparisons to Radiohead and Tame Impala, and while I can understand those reference points, I’m probably more interested in figuring out exactly where French takes his own sound from here.
Because I don’t necessarily think “reckless and arranged” has exhausted its possibilities yet.
I’d actually love to hear French take this idea another step further. Maybe combine it with another one of his daily experiments. Give me a breakdown. Give me a bridge. Introduce something completely unexpected halfway through and then somehow find your way back to that original piano progression. The foundation is strong enough that I want to hear him push against it.
That’s probably the biggest compliment I can give the song. I’m not listening to it thinking about what I wish weren’t there. I’m listening to it thinking about everything else that could be.
And lyrically, that title becomes increasingly appropriate as the song unfolds. “Reckless and arranged” captures the contradiction running through the song: instinct against structure, what we choose against what we inherit, and the question of whether we ever completely escape the people and circumstances that helped make us who we are.
There’s also something wonderfully fitting about those ideas emerging from this particular creative experiment. French imposed an incredibly rigid structure on himself: create and share one musical idea every single day. Yet the entire purpose of that structure seems to have been to encourage spontaneity.
In other words, the process itself is a little reckless and arranged.
French’s experiment has now grown into ideas of the day vol. 1, an eight-song collection consisting of material written, recorded and mixed during that daily practice. The project is scheduled for release October 2.
For now, though, Day 56 has done its job. It introduced me to Ethan French.
I dig this kid’s vibe. I dig the sonics he’s exploring. And perhaps more importantly, I dig the philosophy behind what he’s doing. If the entire point of putting an idea into the world every day is to discover which ones deserve another day, “reckless and arranged” certainly deserved its second.
Follow Ethan French on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
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