joshfraner.com
Fitzsimmons' new release, Gold In The Shadow, is a musical reflection of William's personal resuscitation and psychological renovation in the years following his divorce. Based on a specific set of psycho-pathological disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV), Fitzsimmons describes the songs as "a real and long coming confrontation with personal demons, past mistakes, and the specter of mental illness that has hovered over me for the great majority of my life."
Whereas almost all of William's previous albums have dealt with the bleak, somber side of intra- and interpersonal disaster, Gold in the Shadow is a work focused on healing. William continues: "I had reached the point where I was either going to yield to my sicknesses or engage them headlong. In either case, I could no longer continue the way I was."
Gold In The Shadow represents a welcomed musical departure, not from authenticity in writing, but from the field of focus. It is a return to William's pre-music therapeutic passions, but with one eye fixated on actual and optimistic change. It is ripe with personal elements, but also represents his first foray into external perspective taking; examining the lives and psychological struggles of those around him in addition to his own. It is an acknowledgment of the shadow self and the Todestrieb (Freud's "death instinct"); but, even still and more so, an promulgation of hope.