It’s been thirteen years since violinist Rhett Price first went viral with his violin cover of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” In the years since, Price has continued to reinvent himself, finding inspiration everywhere he goes.
During a recent trip to Florence, Italy, where he was recording with Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, Price found himself in the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, an adventure that sparked a creative rebirth of his own. Exploring both music and visual art, Price has finally unveiled his debut album, Renaissance Man.
We caught up with Price to learn more about the pivotal moment that reshaped his artistic vision in Florence, how he approaches creating human-made work in the age of AI, and the ways the Renaissance continues to inspire him, especially as an independent artist.
JUICE BOX PRESS: This is your debut album. Why did now feel like the right time to finally release a full-length project?
RHETT PRICE: Several years ago, after my first few viral cover videos, a local songwriter introduced me to a friend as “a killer violinist who can cover any song, he can play anything!” and I think he meant it as a compliment, but that moment stuck with me and as time went on, I started to think more and more about it – Is that really all I can do, play other peoples’ songs? Cover bands don’t leave a legacy behind. The original artist does, and if I’m being completely honest I really really don’t want to be forgotten. When I look at my favorite violinists like Mark O’Connor and his On The Mark album, (which really helped shape the artist i’m becoming and the music I’m writing) I see an artist who pushed the boundaries of what was expected of him, and wrote not only music that was relevant to the time but music that has influenced generations of violinists after him. After the Florence session, watching artists I admire creating great original music, I saw my future and immediately felt that the time to start releasing my own art had come and slapped me in the face. The universe, or God, said that it was time – so it was the right time.
JUICE BOX PRESS: You’ve said the vision for Renaissance Man began during a trip to Florence while recording with Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign. How did that experience shape the creative direction of the album, and what did it teach you about yourself as an artist?
RHETT PRICE: The biggest thing I learned during that session is that most of what I’ve thought I couldn’t do, was all in my head. Ty is a genius and is one of the most severely underrated artists alive. The bro Leon Thomas was there too and he’s finally seeing a light shined on his art, and I think I started to realize that these guys who we revere as God-like figures in music, are humans too. They just create a life in which they have less distractions, and they work harder than anyone you’ve ever met. In fact, that night Ty gave me one of my favorite compliments ever which was “Man, you work like US!” and when he said that, I had a hint of that feeling of “and I could do this too”. I took that feeling and that inspiration and ran with it for 3 years while I worked on this project.
JUICE BOX PRESS: You’re not only a musician, but also a painter, and those two art forms come together throughout this project. What inspired you to merge your visual art with your music?
RHETT PRICE: Renaissance Man is a play on a couple of things – the Italian Renaissance (a nod to the birth of this project in Florence), as well as a way to say that I wrote, produced, and painted everything for the album. I’ve always wished I could be a painter, and when I decided that I could produce and write my own songs even though I’d never produced any beats before, I also thought “Caravaggio was a human too.” I’d have to dedicate a lifetime to be as great as the old masters, but I painted the cover art for “Leave The Bottle” (fashioned after Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam) while holding a paintbrush for the first time in my life, and when I was done, I was way happier with the finished work than I ever expected. I decided then that I would make paintings to go with every song to further the “Renaissance Man” theme. I think “Midnight Oil” is my favorite, and it’s the last one I did.
JUICE BOX PRESS: “Mr. Medici” is inspired by the Medici family, whose patronage helped fuel the Renaissance. As an independent artist, how did their story resonate with you?
RHETT PRICE: “Mr. Medici” is indeed inspired by the Medici family but not in the way you’d think – this is me asking where today’s Medici family is. More of a, “Where’s Mr. Medici?”, if you will. If the song had lyrics, they would speak on the struggle of being an artist in today’s economy and the difference a true patron of the arts would make to a visionary whose only hurdle is a financial one. Most patrons today support museums rather than working artists.
JUICE BOX PRESS: Do you have a favorite memory from making Renaissance Man?
RHETT PRICE: One of my favorite things about writing these songs and making these paintings, is that all art seems to have an “AH HAH!” moment where you throw things at the wall and then all of a sudden, unexpectedly, something looks or sounds amazing and you think “that’s it!!! YES!” and inspiration slaps you and begs you to keep going in that direction. For the title track, I had produced the beat first with a breathy part to counter the snare hits. When I went to record the violin parts, I wasn’t in love with anything I wrote at first, and then I had this wild idea of purposefully playing in a way that the violin created hardly any tone at all, like a slight whisper. I layered that a few times, and when I played it back, it was one of those moments. I’ve never heard anyone make a violin sound like that, and it was a really exciting moment to hear how well it worked.
JUICE BOX PRESS: In an era where AI is becoming increasingly common in creative fields, why was it so important to release an album that’s “written, produced, and painted” by you?
RHETT PRICE: The human element in art is what makes it worth having. When I played those ‘whisper tones’ in the title track, that was me doing something technically wrong. AI will always try to do things the “right” way, and that leads to a recycling of ideas rather than the invention of new ones. The last chord in “I Can’t Make You Love Me” was an accident, because Mike Reid didn’t highlight that chord when he was shifting everything to a different key, and it sounds brilliant. Sometimes it’s the mistakes that lead to something amazing.
JUICE BOX PRESS: What do you hope listeners take away from Renaissance Man after hearing it from start to finish?
RHETT PRICE: I hope people are inspired to create the art that they want to see in the world, and to take the approach of listening to their own taste rather than trying to create what is already proven to be successful. Don’t try to be Van Gogh; we already have Van Gogh. Be you, and do the best you can. I would be a horrible David Garrett, but I’m a really good Rhett Price.
Amelia Cordischi, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Juice Box Press, is an accomplished digital marketing professional with over a decade of experience in media and communications. Her work has been featured in notable publications, including The Boston Globe. A communications graduate of Simmons University in Boston, Amelia served as manager of Simmons College Radio (“The Shark”), where she also launched and co-hosted her radio show, The Find.
In addition to her editorial work, Amelia is an established freelance photographer, with bylines in Blended Magazine and CelebMix, capturing artists and cultural moments across the music and media landscape. Her career began at WCVB-TV’s Chronicle, the ABC affiliate in Boston, where she gained firsthand experience in broadcast journalism and storytelling.
When she’s not taking photos from the photo pit, interviewing emerging artists, or crafting the next Juice Box Press feature, Amelia can be found thrifting and exploring the world of sustainable fashion.