Check out this fantasy-inspired local hip hop track

This is hip hop heavily draped in violin, cello and piano.

Sound dramatic? That’s the whole point.

Travis Andrews, goes by the stage name Frantic and describes himself as a poet, musician and an Indie abstract hip hop artist.

He's just released the debut single from his new concept album. The track is called Consequences and drops Jan.8.

“For me, this track will appeal to people who are interested in dramatic storytelling, dramatic lyricism, in allegory, and dramatic instrumentation,” he told Kelowna10 at his home studio. “Throughout the album there’s a lot of heavy cello influences, violin, and piano.”

The album deals with themes such as humanism, environmentalism, and loss of home. The project is large and ambitious and will be produced over three acts. The songs in Act One will be released monthly through 2024.

The debut track is entitled Consequences because it features a character looking back on the actions they’ve taken and regretting them, “… wondering if they could have done things differently to get a more pleasing outcome."

He added, while each of the tracks can stand on their own and be relatable individually by the audience, they also serve as a puzzle piece within the over-arching story of the album.

Following the vein of environmentalism and human actions, Andrews said one of the inspirations for the track is the Anime movie Princess Mononoke, by Studio Ghibli. He even has a tattoo from the movie on his ribs.

“That film explores what it means to be human… how much can you extract from the earth to help your common people before the bad you’re doing outweighs the bad? The feeling that gives me is what I want to impart on the project,” he said.

Andrews, 32, whose day job is in IT, has been writing poetry since he was 21 and five years ago made a fully-fledged move into becoming a musician.

He’s been active throughout the Okanagan including headlining Detonate Brewing in Summerland, performing at the sold-out Hip-hop For Hope fundraiser, co-organizing the sold-out SpeakSleazy event at Unlabeled Beer and Wine Studio, performing poetry at Arts on the Avenue downtown Kelowna and self-organizing many more events.

“Kelowna has an amazing community … I started as a spoken word poet and there’s tons of community for that. I’m heavily involved in the Inspired Word Café; I love them to death. The more you dig into Kelowna the more you can make things happen for yourself.”

Andrews can be found next co-hosting SpeakSleazy: The Second Round on Jan.20 at Unlabeled Beer & Wine Studio, with tickets available at https://www.kelownabrew.com/event-details/speak-sleazy-1.