Former member of Fidelio Society and Yorkies at Andover, Henry Crater ’20 is now beginning his sophomore year in college as a musical theatre major. Earlier in 2021, Crater released an extended play (EP) titled “Einstein of Love,” which he had been working on for a year. This EP dives into his vulnerabilities and how he defines love.
“The idea of ‘Einstein of Love’ is the idea that I have tried to think about romance and think about love as this very logical thing, and try to apply an objective logic to it, and tried to overanalyze everything, and that’s why I’m the ‘Einstein of Love’…That’s what the songs represent, the manifestation of my crazy, obsessive thoughts about these things that happened to me,” said Crater.
Crater’s EP is composed of four pop songs that he wrote in the past year. Beyond creating music for this EP, Crater also faced the challenge of building his social media presence and marketing his music.
“My biggest challenge is probably the marketing side of it. It’s my least favorite thing to do is go on social media and plug my stuff just because I don’t like social media. So in my dream scenario, I just write pop songs and musical theater music, and somebody else does the marketing,” said Crater.
The fourth and final song on the EP titled “Things You Can’t Un-Know” is Crater’s personal favorite, and in his opinion, his strongest work on the EP. Opening with soft piano, the song is deeply vulnerable and expresses anxieties Crater has felt while in relationships.
“It’s really intense, and gripping. It’s basically a manifestation of one of the biggest anxieties that I’ve felt in my life, which is the anxiety of, ‘am I getting cheated on right now in this relationship?’ which is very daunting and very anxiety provoking.
Looking forward, Crater has goals to expand into not just writing pop songs but also for the genre of musical theatre. Further, he also would like to challenge himself to collaborate with others more often in his work.
“I want to get more into the musical theater side of writing, where you’re writing about specific characters and situations, and I want to get better at collaborating because right now writing is very much a solo thing that I lock myself in my room and sit with my brain and myself and just pour something out,” said Crater.
