Van Friscia: Overture (Official Guitar Playthrough Video)

Van Friscia’s official guitar playthrough video for “Overture,” from the album “Fallen Angel.”
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ALBUM NOTES
“Fallen Angel” is a concept album released in 2024 by solo artist Van Friscia. In chronological order, it tells the story of Van’s grief journey from the untimely passing of his son, Tony, who died as a result of a car accident when he was just six months old.
Track listing:
1. Overture
2. Charmed Life
3. Tony’s theme
4. Blink of an Eye
5. The Haunting
6. Serpentine
7. Charmed-ish Life
8. Lily’s Theme
Todd “Van” Friscia - All Guitars/Bass/Vocals/Drum & Synth Programming
Mixed & Mastered by Dennis Ward at TrakSkak Studios / Kangaroo Ton Studios
SONG NOTES
Fallen Angel opens with the Overture and, despite being a concept album, it doesn’t actually tell any part of the story. In a way, though, it tells the WHOLE story because it previews themes from every song that follows it. This is just me having fun with music, in an instrumental style very similar to the songs on my Epic Symphony album. The timestamps below detail its structure and where the other tunes are featured.
00:00: Overture - Main Theme
00:44: Overture - Verse
01:12: Overture - Bridge
01:29: Charmed Life - Bridge / “Joey Ramone” vocal
02:17: Tony’s Theme - Verse
02:47: Tony’s Theme - Chorus
03:01: Overture - Main Theme Variation
03:34: Blink of an Eye - Intro / Bridge / Outro
04:22: The Haunting - Pre-chorus
05:05: The Haunting - Chorus
05:29: The Haunting - Post-chorus riff
06:05: Overture - Bridge 2 (this is a throwback to Epic Symphony’s Blitz)
06:39: Iron Maiden Riff (this has no connection to anything; I just like Iron Maiden 🙂)
07:20: Serpentine - Intro / Chorus
07:43: Overture - Bridge 3 (“Descent into Madness”)
08:11: Charmed-ish Life - Intro / Chorus
08:35: Charmed-ish Life - Verse
09:23: Lily’s Theme - Main theme
09:50: Overture - Finale
Despite the grand concept, it’s not too difficult to play on guitar. Since I’m not an octopus I couldn’t play everything, but I tried to highlight the most prominent parts I’d likely choose for a live setting. Admittedly, my playing for the video wasn’t 100% perfect but you’ll get the gist!
4;22 - I often play power chords & octaves with my 1st & 4th fingers, which is weird. There’s no rhyme or reason to when I do it, and it’s not something I actively choose to do. Sometimes it just feels right!
5;17 - Gift of Life is the organ donation program that we used after Tony had passed. Somewhere on this earth, another child is alive thanks to the beating of Tony’s heart in their chest.
5;21 - We donated money to have this placard installed on a “Donor Wall” at our local children’s hospital. Several years later they ended up taking the entire thing down, which left a very bitter taste in our mouths. Of course, our money still went towards the hospital’s mission of treating sick kids, which is the most important thing.
5;26 - The cover art to Serpentine, the 1st single from Fallen Angel.
8;18 - The cover art to Charmed-ish Life, the 2nd single from Fallen Angel.
10;11 - 2024 family pic. From left to right - Daisy, me, Peach, my daughter Lily, and my wife Julie. Also of note is Chicco the monkey, which was Tony’s favorite toy. Since he obviously can’t be in our family photos himself, we use Chicco to represent him.
“FALLEN ANGEL” BACKSTORY
5/26/2012 - I’m driving my wife Julie, Tony, and a family friend to get dinner. On the highway, an approaching vehicle didn’t see us coming and a collision was imminent. I jerked the car left to avoid a collision but lost control. We ran off the road & hit a tree at 60 MPH.
Our friend and I had minor injuries; Julie had cracked ribs and an awful concussion (she remembers nothing of the crash); and Tony...I didn’t know it but he was suffering severe head trauma and just cried weakly. He was taken by helicopter to a nearby children’s hospital, while Julie and I went via ambulance. I just laid there in disbelief, worried sick for my semi-incoherent wife and my baby boy who was off in a helicopter somewhere without his mommy or daddy.
The next few days were a miserable blur of hospitals, doctors, nurses, visitors and terrible news that only got worse. Tony officially passed away three days later on 5/29/2012.
This ordeal wrecked my life in ways that I can’t fully describe, but these words and this album are my best attempt. I came out of our accident physically intact, but spiritually and mentally broken. It took over a decade of processing, healing and reflection for me to write, record and release this.
Thanks for listening (and reading!)