When they met six years ago at UW-Madison, Alex Charland and Emily Borley connected over their shared love of music. Charland, a saxophonist, played his favorite jazz pieces for her. Borley, a music education major, introduced him to classical. The night he finally asked her out, he played the song “Misty” by Ella Fitzgerald. Borley said yes.
“Music never really stopped being a part of our relationship,” Charland says. Each year to celebrate their anniversary, Charland would write a new song for Borley — little compositions inspired by things that she liked (violets, forget-me-nots) or defining events from that year (their first real vacation together, college graduation). From early on, they knew they wanted to get married. But when Charland started thinking of ways to propose, he struggled to come up with an idea that felt “special and unique to us,” he says.
Then he remembered the “Misty” night. And the suite of anniversary compositions — it was almost enough for an album. He started recording parts in his apartment and enlisted a group of musician friends — emcees Daewong, Dudu Stinks, Protege the Pro and GregB — to add lyrics and vocals. He secretly drove around Wisconsin, visiting Borley’s closest friends and family members, and interviewing them about the reasons why they love her. Those recordings, layered over piano, became “interludes” between the songs.
The result is a 15-track album, All of Me to You, which weaves together elements of jazz, hip-hop and electronic production. Charland — who performs under the name Alex Franzen — layers his emotive saxophone parts over delicate piano accompaniment. The addition of clarinet, drum machines and an electronic wind instrument add nuance and character. The emcees add energy and narrative to the pieces. There’s a sultry, almost R&B quality to these songs, and an unmistakable sweetness.
“When I’m writing something for her, I don’t overthink things as much,” Charland says. “When I’m writing or playing and I’m thinking of her, it quiets my mind.”
Charland, who lives with Borley in the Twin Cities area, will publicly debut the songs at an album release show Dec. 22 at Communication with Wilder Deitz (who also wrote one of the songs on the album) and electronic-funk-rock band The Earthlings. But he debuted the album privately. He played it for Borley on Dec. 14, their sixth anniversary. The penultimate track, “Will You Marry Me (Alex’s Interlude — For Emily’s Ears Only)” is brief and sparse — just piano over nature sounds recorded on another trip to the Ozarks. That’s the part where he popped the question. (She said yes!)
