Soul Sound
Art of all kinds deserve celebration, and music is no different. For the very first time, the Hedge Apple Magazine introduces Soul Sound! Alongside literary and visual artwork, music sent by HCC students and staff members will now be showcased in our magazine’s online edition. Step into the realm of rhythm and experience pure sounds from the soul!
Interview with Daniel Webber
On April 8, 2026, we met with Daniel Webber, a professional guitarist and Music professor at Hagerstown Community College.
What drew you to music?
Probably, like most people, I started off as a listener. And then when I was younger, I guess at some point listening just wasn’t enough and I just wanted to create and be part of it. And I had a bunch of friends who played music, and so it became as much a social part of my life as, you know, some kind of artistic endeavor.
What are your early influences and how has your sound developed?
So, I grew up in the in the 80s and the stuff that I was really interested in was rock music. In the 80s, heavy metal styles started to emerge as the popular style. That was the stuff that really attracted me. And that was the first stuff I wanted to play and thought that was the direction I was going, but then when I went to college and I studied classical guitar, it took a little while until I felt like it made sense to me, like that instrument made sense to me. There were a few different forces that kind of came together for me.
One particular piece of music that I learned to play was the gateway that made me think, like, oh, yeah, I kind of understand this instrument now, and it felt like it was expressing a part of me, that there was something inside of me coincident with that. Then in our music history classes, we studied the impressionist composers: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Gabriel Foret. And there was something about their music that, again, really kind of spoke to me. They were French composers, and we compared to the German composers. German composers tend to be big and really dense in their expressiveness, and this French style was a little bit softer, a little bit more ethereal. There was space in there. It felt kind of dreamy. And there was something about that that just really spoke to me. So, this piece of classical guitar music that I played that had a similar kind of aesthetic, this French impressionistic music, really kind of like, oh, there’s something in there that I feel resonates with me.
Further coincident with that was learning about the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. And Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue was kind of the first masterpiece of modal jazz. And there is a common aesthetic with these impressionistic composers and the piano music of Debussy. And it was resonating with me. And so, I developed this idea, this heavy metal music that I really like. That was something that’s a different thing. This classical guitar, this impressionistic thing, this jazz thing. I’m kind of finding this new world of stuff that I can get into. And it took a long time during my professional performing career. I still did all these other styles but developing that particular part of my artistry where I’m kind of bringing together these classical elements, these aesthetic elements of the Impressionists, this jazz approach to things. And so, where I am now in terms of the music that I create tends to have all of those different elements brought together.
What is your process for composition?
I don’t have a singular process when I’m composing things. It can happen in a number of different ways, typically, because I’m a guitar player. And I think in terms of harmonic stuff before I think about melodic stuff, I tend to write the harmonic environment of the music first. So I’ll write chord progressions or I’ll come up with ideas for the harmony first. And then only after that do I then try to write a melody that fits where other people might start with the melody and then come up with a harmony later. The harmony is always kind of first in my mind.
What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?
In terms of the artistry, my recommendations would be learn as much as you possibly can. For a young musician, you might think you know what you need to know, but you probably have no idea what you need to know until you learn how much you don’t know.
Second, I would say take as many opportunities as you possibly can. So, whether that’s getting together and playing music with other people, performing gigs, whatever it is, just take as many opportunities as you possibly can early on to figure out what you actually want to do. Maybe more important, what you don’t want to do.
If you want to create original music, if you want to write and compose your own music and have your own voice, be honest with it. Don’t try to emulate other people, don’t try to sound like other people. Don’t try to find whatever the recipe for the next popular thing but instead try to be true to yourself. I think if you approach it with good faith, honesty, and integrity, people will eventually figure out what you’re trying to do. You know, even if they don’t get it right now, even if it’s not really popular right now, at some point, if you keep at it, people will, if what you have is worthy, people will eventually catch up with you and figure out what you’re trying to do.
Are you part of a band or a group?
I play in a funk and R&B band called the Lana Spence Band. I lead a jazz trio, drums, bass and guitar trio. I have a duo with my wife, who’s a classical guitarist, and we play a very eclectic program of classical style stuff, jazz kind of stuff, the impressionistic kind of thing that I mentioned before. I have the duo with Lorenzo [Cominoli], I do these collaborations with different musicians.
Do you typically prefer duet compositions, solo pieces or full band performances?
As I mentioned, you know, music sort of became my social thing, there’s always a social component. I do think I prefer playing with other people, if only because it’s this social interaction that you can have through music, but I think my real preferred medium is in the trio. So whether that’s the drum, bass, guitar trio, or two guitars and another instrument, I think the trio is the environment that I like probably the best.
You took a sabbatical two years ago and collaborated with musicians from outside the US. What was your favorite part about that experience?
My sabbatical was all about collaborative music making. The project was going out and just making music with other people. I got together with a number of musicians here in the United States, some locally and then some that I traveled to and did just these collaborative kinds of things and some of it came about because of the pandemic, when we were all locked at home and had to kind of reevaluate things. The idea of exploring different things really became a priority to me.
It was through the pandemic that I first learned about Lorenzo Caminoli, the Italian guitar player that I’ve collaborated with. We connected with each other, exchanged some messages, and agreed to do a little project together. So it was after the pandemic, it was 2023, I think, that he came here to the United States, and it was just a really, really moving, valuable time. So, coming out of the pandemic, getting together with Lorenzo and some of the other musicians that I had gotten to know, just made me want to explore some more of that. And so, when the idea of this sabbatical came about, that was what I wanted to do, take every opportunity that I could to just get together with other musicians and collaborate.
It was from April until June of 2024. I spent about seven weeks in Europe. We were in Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium. I didn’t get together with other musicians in all those places, but in a number of them I did. Whether it was just to get together and kind of jam a little bit, or we did some public performances where it was almost always in a duo setting, so myself and another guitar player, and it was all original music; either stuff that I composed or stuff that they composed. It was this really interesting and inspiring experience of being able to get together with people who I’ve either never met or only kind of met through social media or whatever, and we could sit down in a room and just start playing music together. And that we suddenly now have this relationship, this social relationship with one another.
So if you ask, what was my favorite part, it was getting together and collaborating and making music with these musicians from very, very different cultures than my own.
What differences did you have in training and aesthetics?
I think we probably had very similar experiences coming up to that. In Denmark, I got together with a musician named Jens Christian Kwella. He goes by Kwella, and he works at the Royal Academy of Musical Arts in Denmark. He works at the Aarhus and the Aalborg campuses. It was great because we got together and played a little bit, but then he took me to his schools and showed their facilities and the kind of stuff that they do in their programs, and that was really, really fascinating. So in terms of, like, the different training and the different aesthetics, I can get into some of the differences between myself and Kwella as musicians, but what was really, really fascinating about it was, again, the institution for which he teaches and their program. And they have a fairly rigorous entry, so like an audition process. You have to be a fairly accomplished musician to get into that program, but once you’re in, they kind of take it as their job not to run you through a set curriculum, though that’s again a part of it, but to help you to become the best musician that you can be and to help you achieve what you want to get as a musician, as opposed to kind of molding you into what they think you should be as a musician.
We got to see their student ensemble concert and they had an avant garde jazz ensemble, they had a more traditional jazz ensemble, they had a soul R&B ensemble, they had a Brazilian ensemble in Denmark. This ensemble has all these European musicians that play nothing but Brazilian music. It was very, very diverse, the music that all these students are studying there.
The next night we got to see a graduate student doing their final recital. She was this German singer songwriter who composed music and both songs, performed them on harp and then sang these things. And she had another musician perform with her. It was just absolutely fascinating that her graduate studies was writing songs and performing them on the harp, which that’s not the way that things typically happen here in the United States. Our academic musical programs tend to be a little bit more rigid and a little bit more confined to classical styles of music or jazz styles of music. And here’s a program, this international program that’s much more expansive in the kinds of things that they help students to develop as they’re in their musicianship and in their performing careers.
How much of what you learned over the years can be credited to what teachers taught you versus what you taught yourself?
One of the things that I often tell my students and guitar students is ultimately everybody teaches themselves. All that a teacher can do is show you what to practice and then you have to go home and actually do it. You have to actually learn it yourself. So, everybody is to some degree self-taught. That being said, I did do formal music training in college. I have a bachelor’s degree in classical guitar. I have a master’s degree in classical guitar performance. I have a second master’s degree in humanities. But that had nothing to do with music performance. I’ve learned all of the academic music stuff that you’re expected to have learned. Then of course, playing with musicians, that’s probably the biggest learning experience of all, actually being in the present moment learning or playing music with other people. I think it is in that act of actually performing with other musicians that all of the stuff that I learned in music lessons and in classroom settings, all of that stuff suddenly makes sense. Now when I’m actually performing with other people, I’ve learned the value of all those things that I learned in academic classes.
Lionel
My name is Lionel. I’m a music major and the composer of the two pieces “Bound To Fade” and “Vultures.” These two songs are part of my new EP “Daydream Debris,” which comes out on May 8th. These songs mean so much to me not only because they are original projects of mine, but also because these represent moments in my life that have defined me, especially those that happened in the last 2 years. The songs are about navigating through life while also speaking of what we can lose, win, and human reaction. If I could put the production of the music into words, I would say it’s an 80s inspired ballad, with synths inspired by Tears For Fears, but with a touch of indie pop/alternative pop to it.
Bound to Fade by Lionel
Lyrics for Bound To Fade
I’m not condescendant,
If you want
I’ll just go
But, where did the time go?
Did I step on the wrong cord?
‘Cause
You
Gave no
Clues
You
Gave no
Clues
Stare until I zone out
Can you see me in the void?
Now I see shadows when I close my eyes
How much of this until I learn to turn my back?
Take my time
And waste it away
Can’t run back
Bound to fade
I see it all in black and white
Tracing back patterns to the child in your mind
Now I see shadows when I close my eyes
How much of this until I learn to turn my back?
Take my time
And waste it away
Can’t run back
Bound to fade
How much longer can we hold on?
How much longer can we hold on?
How much longer can we hold on?
How much longer can we hold on?
Vultures by Lionel
Lyrics for Vultures
Keep hiding out ’til the sunrise
All these vultures
Won’t quit hunting me down at night
Borrowed time, walking fine lines
All these vultures
Keep on breaking apart
Haunted pieces of love that I found
Under your bed
Are you running away?
See the message you’re trying to send
While you manipulate
Your version of the events
Honey,
I think it’s time, we both should know by now
One of us won’t make it out
And I can’t bring myself to stop running to you
Keep hiding out ’til the sunrise
All these vultures
Won’t quit hunting me down at night
Borrowed time, walking fine lines
All these vultures
Keep on breaking apart
I never wanted to believe it
You slipped right out of the door
No trace to follow along
For once could all these ghosts relieve me?
While you keep rising above
Waiting for me in the dust
Honey,
I think it’s time, we both should know by now
One of us won’t make it out
And I can’t bring myself to stop running to you
Keep hiding out ’til the sunrise
All these vultures
Won’t quit hunting me down at night
Borrowed time, walking fine lines
All these vultures
Keep on breaking apart
Toby
Music has been one aspect of my creative nature for over fifty years. I have had the
inspiration to write a few songs, of which this is probably one of my most successful
and favorite. It does reflect my faith journey and I have done it at various coffee houses
around the community. I enjoy a variety of music, having learned to play guitar on
Creedence Clearwater Revival and Neil Young songs. It is an activity that I am happy
to be able to still be doing at this point in my life.
3 Miles from Nowhere by Toby
Lyrics for Three Miles From Nowhere
To stand in this place and not see a road,
To stand in this wilderness, all alone
And shiver from the cold, cold driving wind
That blows my life along
To see the morning sun, rise in the fog
Trying to warm this stone that’s become my heart
But Your stars and Your moon still shine
On my forest lawn
And I’m three miles from nowhere when I for forget You
Three miles from nowhere when I turn and walk away
Three miles from nowhere ’til I turn back again
Three miles from nowhere then I’m gone
Three miles from nowhere without You
How can a rock live and breathe
With oh so many, many cracks in me
And how will the angels ever make it right
How can I hear, hear my song
That’s running through my brain, all along
And I never can forget the place You made for me
And I’m three miles from nowhere when I for forget You
Three miles from nowhere when I turn and walk away
Three miles from nowhere ’til I turn back again
Three miles from nowhere then I’m gone
Three miles from nowhere without You
(Instrumental)
Three miles from nowhere, out on the sea
I feel the mist surrounding me
And you come and you comfort, whenever I need You
And I’m three miles from nowhere when I for forget You
Three miles from nowhere when I turn and walk away
Three miles from nowhere ’til I turn back again
Three miles from nowhere then I’m gone
Three miles from nowhere without You
Three miles from nowhere without You
Three miles from nowhere without You
