Greater Medford is much more than just a suburb of Boston—it’s also the adopted moniker of Dan Richards, the brains behind this acoustic indie-folk project. Homegrown in the Boston area, Richards has a personal relationship with the city.
There’s a theme of home present throughout Open House, Richards’ inaugural EP as Greater Medford. He was working as a carpenter at the time of recording, which may have inspired some of the house-related imagery in the lyrics, though nothing was purely intentional. The songs are warming and simple, contributing more to these homey vibes.
In spirit with musicians finding a home within their music, Richards described the relationship between a house and his music. “A home for me has always been something private as well something I want to share with others,” Richards said. “Which is similar in some ways to how I feel about these songs. That desire to create something personal but also welcoming.”
And, when asked to describe his sound without using genre words—Richards replied, “Unfunny, weather-related,?,? .”
As a new artist, Richards experienced the myriad challenges and surprises that come with recording. “I started recording the songs with Daniel Radin about a year ago, and I thought we’d finish in a few days, maybe weeks. He ended up traveling a lot this past year with his band The Novel Ideas, so we’d only get two or three days to work on the songs every couple of months, which was surprisingly fun. Having so much time to sit with the songs between periods of recording was satisfying, letting me enjoy small changes or moments in a way that helped me to learn a lot about what I wanted from the songs.”
You can check out Open House below; we hope to be welcomed into more of Richards’ music in the future.