Inevitable (Nashville)

In an era of remixes saturating multiple channels—from mainstream music media to clubs and bars—some can only stomach dance music as part of the nightlife experience. For others, it's living and breathing. Kurt Kirton is one of the latter. A former small town boy from central Mississippi, he cut his teeth on the smooth grooves of the 70s and the synth-infused 80s.

While both decades were musically unique, the early 90s produced a fast-evolving genre in the US that had first taken flight in Europe. It was then that Kirton’s love of dance/club music was born. After stepping back from music for 5 years to work on other projects, he’s at it again with new full release, Bang the Drums.

“I always seem to have these long gaps between working on music,” Kurt laughs. “This last time it was mainly because it took several years to write, design, and market my book (2015’s Here Today, Hired Tomorrow). It was one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever undertaken.” Kirton wanted to use his experience and expertise career best practices to encourage and help those in transition have a better more efficient road map to success. “It’s been so invigorating though getting back into music—to rub elbows and talk music with other artists. Setting up a home recording studio has given me more control and the ability to take my music to a new level.”

And leveled up he has. Of the new record’s 12 cuts, 10 were written by Kirton. “Two are derivative works, meaning I kept the melody of the original but wrote new lyrics. Two are straight up cover songs, and the rest I wrote. You may see a theme among several of them: relationships I’ve had in the past few years factored in. Pain and frustration can be such an inspiration for songwriting.”

Inevitable is still Kirton at the helm—producing, writing, recording, and singing on the majority of the songs with guest vocalists and programmers along the way. Kurt has an enduring passion and knack for covering hooky melodic lesser known tracks as well as writing his own original material—a formula that's proven successful.

Kirton teamed up with Chilean trance artist X-Way (Samuel Iglesias) and close friend Jason Beetz to arrange the tracks on this new album. Iglesias also programmed and mixed two songs. “‘Hot Time in the City’ was the first Inevitable single. I figured it was a solid enough song to deserve a remix, and he did a bang-up job on that!”

“Putting a full Inevitable album together is a long painstaking process, so it’s nice to finally get to this point. To have every song be at the level I want as far as quality and production, it took longer than I had hoped, but it shows in what listeners will hear. I want every song to be as catchy and compelling as possible—no filler or throwaway tracks!”

“Electronic music on pop radio has changed since the early 2010’s. You won’t hear much clubby stuff today, but there’s an electronica edge to some of the pop out there now. A couple of my new tracks are this style. But, as typical for my music, upbeat songs make up the majority of the Bang the Drums album,” he says with a grin.

Inevitable's mission remains: Produce compelling, energetic electronic music that moves the spirit and feet of listeners—domestic or international—and to just have fun and enjoy the creative process along the way.