Inside The Credits 021: Ian Fitchuk
Ian Fitchuk’s Quest Through Music Off My Radar Til We Met At His Opus
The new Maggie Rogers album, Don’t Forget Me, reminds me of a combo of the Bonnie Raitt and Fleetwood Mac my parents would play in my house growing up or on road trips. It wasn’t the main music I revered from their influence initially, but over time I found salvation in the tones of those musicians. They provided a dusty Alternative edge to my taste. While I had liked some of Rogers’s music before this album (mostly select tracks from her first project) this is the one where our points of reference collided. Her updates on a hybrid design have left a reverberating mark on my psyche since I heard them.
As I dove into the album credits, I found that a new collaboration could be part of the reason for this sudden synergy. Ian Fitchuk worked with Rogers for the first time on this album and co-produced every single song with her. When I perused back through his catalog I realized that in order to write this piece I would need to get out of my musical comfort zone. Fitchuk has produced, in his 23 year career, more than a few Country songs. I recognized a few artists he’d produced for, but not most, so I knew I’d have to sort through tracks and albums that probably wouldn’t connect with me. But I was determined to find the roots of our symmetry.
Through my quest, I discovered a three part build up to the Rogers album. It started with ten individual songs, each plucked from artists whom Fitchuk worked with over the first twenty years of his career. Of those ten, there is only one artist who has two songs I connected with, but they were each from different albums. The second part of the build is two groups of three songs from individual bodies of work, one released in 2022 and the other in 2023. Then lastly, there is a final three song build to Rogers. The last three songs are each from individual artists Fitchuk collaborated with and feel like missing pieces to the puzzle that became Don’t Forget Me. That album, I now realize, is the culmination of me and Fitchuk’s winding path to our sonic connection. Hope you enjoy the ride!
Part 1
“Feel” by Silers Bald (2001)
The first album Fitchuk co-produced (with producer Joshua Moore) was for a Christian Pop/Rock band before he dove heavily into the Country sphere. Much like Country music, Christian Pop/Rock is not a genre I’ve ever had true interest in. With Country, some stuff does catch my ear every now and then and I do have a reverence for certain Folk leaning Country more consistently. For example, Emotionalism by The Avett Brothers is one of my top 25 favorite albums. I didn’t even realize this album by Silers Bald was Christian leaning when I listened at first. However, most of it did contain some semblance of the cheesiness and cookie cutter approach I associate with the genre. Funny enough though, this track “Feel” gave me some nostalgia for something adjacent. I had a friend growing up who listened to a lot of 3 Doors Down, and I must say, I still have a soft spot for their hits and even their album Seventeen Days. “Feel” has a familiar popping set-drum pocket as well as a satisfyingly manufactured grunge essence to it. 3 Doors Down is craveable to me much like how sometimes you just want packaged Ramen Noodles instead of a restaurant quality bowl of noodle soup. Ian Fitchuk first grabbed my ears through this unexpected route and would continue to in ways I couldn’t have foreseen.
“Hostage (EP Version)” by Jeremy Lister (2006)
I had to skip ahead five years before Fitchuk grabbed me again. Jeremy Lister has a quintessential hybrid Nashville sound. That means he’s part Country/Folk, part Dusty Southern Rock. I’ve heard other versions of this sound that I’ve liked before, and this track from his Just One Day project has a really sleek blend of all the elements that hold my attention in the sonic space. Fitchuk, with co-producer Justin Loucks, combined rolling set drums, acoustic and electric guitar open chords and strum patterns, and chorus lifting strings beneath Lister’s baritenor croons and falsetto glides with deftness. This song feels like an open road drive in a vintage convertible.
“If I Didn’t Know Any Better” by Mindy Smith (2009)
I had to move forward just slightly less time this time (three year jump) to get a song that reminded me of some Country/Folk ballads I found in high school from groups like The Decemberists. Mindy Smith carries the vocals here, but the grounded male background vocalist in the hook reminds me of that satisfying dual sound. This is also a Fitchuk masterclass in letting the vocalist breathe while actually sitting back in a Country pocket rather than leaning into one. When Country songs lean forward I usually check out. I actually love the banjo rhythm here too. It’s springy in a really calming way and careens off Smith’s pristine melancholy really nicely.
“Give Up The Ghost” by Rosi Golan & Johnny McDaid (2013)
Another big time jump happened here where there was four years of music that wasn’t for me. But after that arrived my favorite new discovery from these first ten songs. While the last song was only a duet on the hook, this one is a full duet with all the lyrics sung in unison. The song’s instrumental is solely acoustic guitar and banjo which allows for heartbreakingly poetic lyrics about letting go of a deeply meaningful relationship. Fitchuk made something here that is tragically beautiful.
“Attention” by Zoe Sky Jordan (2016)
Our second three year jump arrives here. Zoe Sky Jordan on her album TOPIARY mostly sounds like a TJ Maxx Lana Del Rey. This may read harsher than I even intend it, but is an accurate description. I like TJ Maxx, it’s just off brand. The thing about artists like that though is they are also slightly different from the authentic thing. Thus, when they sonically lean just enough away, sometimes magic appears. The best song on TOPIARY is “Attention” because it does just that. It sounds like if Lana Del Rey had a bit of a Florence and The Machine edge and was trying to do a Fleetwood Mac impression. Fitchuk added some of his Folk affinity underneath Jordan and it became this distinct fusion.
“Quicksand” by Claire Guerreso (2017)
Finally, the time jump here is just a single year. Here, Fitchuk assisted with another Lana impression, but this time led with a classic femme fatale piano. There is also a synthy smoke machine drum sequence in the hook that is such a cool counterpoint to the minimal production on the verses. It’s not super groundbreaking, but I would be lying if I said the song wasn’t extremely catchy.
“High Horse” by Kacey Musgraves (2018)
Ian Fitchuk has made three albums with Kacey Musgraves. I found out that I like two songs from the entirety of the three albums and both of them are departure songs from Musgraves' core sound. This first one appears near the end of her debut and sort of sounds like Dua Lipa. What’s really cool about it though is that some of the instrumental and lyric delivery choices still keep a Country essence strewn throughout. It feels like the song Fitchuk did for Zoe Sky Jordan, except this time he added the Pop on top of the Country rather than the Country beneath the Pop.
“Ruined” by Patrick Droney (2018)
This is as close to an R&B song as Fitchuk has in his catalog. It’s definitely a John Mayer-esque R&B track, but shows that Fitchuk has some proficiency in going bluesier. This track feels essential to me more than any in his first ten years of production in pushing Fitchuk towards a sound I would love for a whole album.
“Young Heart” by Birdy (2021)
I needed another three year jump to get to this title track piano ballad. While other tracks felt Lana adjacent, this song has a similarity to certain Billie Eilish songs. But the other element at play here is a Folky, almost Carole King-like tone. I put Carole King’s music in the same category as Bonnie Raitt and Fleetwood Mac as a certain type of music my parents played in the house. This song confirmed that Fitchuk and I really do have a significant number of artists where our influence overlaps.
“What Doesn’t Kill Me” by Kacey Musgraves (2021)
This final song from the ten tracks over a ten year period is the one other departure song I like from Kacey Musgraves. It is perhaps her most Pop leaning song in her catalog and is the song of these ten that feels most closely related to the eventual sound Fitchuk would craft with Maggie Rogers. It’s a finesse filled head nodder that could be played as much in a bar as on a road trip.
Part 2
“Mountain Peaks,” “Please Don’t Go Home Yet,” and “Easy On My Eyes” by Stephen Sanchez (2022)
This three song sequence, smack dab in the middle of Stepehen Sanchez’s 2022 EP Easy On My Eyes, is a time stopping set of love songs. It feels like a three day period of absolute adoration. All of the production is simple and complex at the same time. Sanchez is allowed space to let his lyrics and tone hit you like a crashing wave, while at times he also gets beautifully lost in an ocean of instrumental elements. It’s Pop primarily, but also contains clear Country undertones. It’s the first time in Fitchuk’s catalog I heard him collaborate with an artist without it feeling like they were departing from the core of what they do or tweaking something familiar. The balladry is intense yet peaceful.
“Keeping The Light On,” “Sweet Symphony” feat. Chris Stapleton, and “Revolution” feat. Maxo Kream by Joy Oladokun
Joy Oladokun offered Fitchuk an opportunity to thrive within knocking rhythmic pockets for the first time on three songs from her 2023 debut Proof of Life. I was not prepared for a Rap feature to appear in this search, but it works so well here. Funny enough, the drum cadence that spurred Maxo Kream to spit a perfect verse, very clearly would lead Fitchuk to Rogers. There’s a rolling sonic quality that had to exist proficiently within Fitchuk’s arsenal for him to make the Fleetwood/Raitt progressive hybrid opus.
Part 3
“Phases” by Gus Dapperton, “Fetish” by Spill Tab, and “Amen” by Beyoncé each added final elements to what Fitchuk had built to prepare him for Don’t Forget Me. That essential song on Dapperton’s 2023 album Henge is the most festival sounding record in Fitchuk’s catalog. The Spill Tab record has a surefire Alt Rock angst that is the undertone energy Rogers needed to make her album remain guttural even with all of its grandeur. Lastly and simply, Beyoncé gave Fitchuk just enough Soul to carry him through.
When the first track “It Was All Coming Along” kicks into gear on the Rogers album, its pulse makes me wanna close my eyes and dance around my apartment hoping I don’t bump into anything. That feeling doesn’t leave for the full project and explodes most on track 2 “Drunk,” which reminds me of how I feel when I listen to Fleetwood’s “The Chain.” The Ian Fitchuk journey is a combined one of Pop/Rock, Folk/Country, and Bluesy Singer/Songwriter sounds. Don’t Forget Me is a tightrope walk equilibrium of all those elements that never falls too far into any single one.
Inside The Credits 021: Ian Fitchuk- The Playlists