On May 7, Reece Doppenberg, a fourth year UFV student majoring in biology, released his single “Our Song.” This track will be part of a larger, currently unnamed album, set to be released this summer. “Our Song” can be listened to on all major streaming platforms and is a promising sneak peek at the album to follow.
The single opens to a light, dreamy guitar riff, and it maintains this upbeat and airy atmosphere throughout. “Our Song” leans on laid-back, acoustic guitar and instrumentals that evoke “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. It very much gives the musical aesthetic of sipping an ice-cold drink in the summer while lounging on a terrace with nothing else to do. The range of instruments is surprisingly rich for the clean, acoustic vibes, but the piano, guitar, and percussions are layered expertly and used sparingly so they don’t overwhelm the lyrics. “Our Song” manages to show that it’s mastered professionally with just its instrumentals alone. While self-produced albums can be effective if done right, the production assistance on “Our Song” gives it a professional sound and an extra oomph.
Doppengberg explains that the album will be produced and mastered in a studio and how the chance to create this album was a lucky opportunity: “I’m working with a producer, Rob Begg. I met him through work and basically came to him about a year ago and was like, “Hey. I’ve wanted to make an album for a long time. I’ve heard that you do this kind of thing.” It was just one of those fluke opportunities, you know. He’s great. Really knows what he’s doing. I would never have gotten “Our Song” to sound the way that it is, production wise, without his help.”
The song lyrically offers a thematic contrast to its instrumental backdrop in that it expresses heavy emotions with a light hand in lines like: “I chased you / Until you had me on my knees / My running, it start to move me away from who I was / Until I was nothing,” and “I’d be wrong to say / It’s all your fault / But after all / It’s a shame because this was our song.”
Elaborating on this intentional contradiction, Doppenberg explains, “This was a song that I was writing for a girl I was in a relationship with about four years ago, give or take. And I was writing this song, and then the relationship went to crap … Then I came back to it a year later, and was like, “Well, I’m going to finish it.” The musicality, besides the lyrics, sounds like a love song, but the lyrics are like, no. It’s very much a break up song. That’s the whole point of it.”
This aspect of the song is fascinating — the fact that it was repurposed by Doppenberg. “Our Song,” originally dedicated to someone else, was taken back and molded into Doppenberg’s own narrative in an interesting and empowering turn of events.
Doppenberg describes the album to follow “Our Song’s” release as the “culmination of the last five or six years of my life — in personal struggles and hardships and musical expression and evolution,” and also pointed out that it was the right time to make the album. And not solely because he found an opportunity to work with a producer to create it.
“I applied to med school. So, if I get into med school, at that point all bets are off. It’s not happening. I just won’t have time. It’s like, I want to get this done now because I think I need to prove to myself that I can do it, and I need to do it now because I can’t see myself having the opportunity to do it at any other point in my life.”
As a biology student and a musician, Doppenberg pushes against the idea that those in STEM can’t have an artistic side to them. “I think it’s definitely a misconception that people think. I think a lot of people tend to view people in one light. You’re either this to them, or that. You’re not both … Most of the time, people are a lot more complicated and complex and have a lot more interests outside of what they do for work or school.”
“Our Song” is a promising debut by Doppenberg into professional music, offering a light-hearted summer tune with deeper lyrics that certainly build anticipation for the album to follow. It stands as another testament to UFV’s wealth of talent and their ability to succeed beyond their academic discipline. Those eager to keep up with Doppenberg’s music can check out @daniel.reece.music on Instagram.
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.