Ethan French ideas of the day vol. 1 previewed with ‘sticks and stones to telephones’

A track called ‘sticks and stones to telephones – day 52’ is the latest glimpse of Ethan French ideas of the day vol. 1, a 25-track collection due 2 October that grew directly from a daily creative discipline the Australian musician began at the start of the year. The piece combines R&B-leaning production with layered keys, bass and experimental textures, and it had already generated online reactions from Justin Timberlake and Ne-Yo before its formal release, Ne-Yo describing it simply as ‘Crazy.’

From daily discipline to a full Ethan French ideas of the day project

The collection has its roots in what French called his ‘Idea A Day’ series, a practice of sharing complete musical ideas each day rather than isolated chord sequences or fragments. He had originally considered a simpler ‘chords of the day’ format before shifting the concept toward self-contained pieces. According to BroadwayWorld, eight songs comprise the collection, all written, tracked and mixed during that daily practice. That constraint, rather than limiting the work, appears to have sharpened it.

French has spoken about how the format changed his approach to writing. ‘I’ve learned that when I place less pressure on each individual idea, it actually improves the quality of my writing,’ he said. He also noted that he regards even the shortest pieces on the record as standalone works rather than unfinished fragments, which goes some way to explaining how a collection assembled in daily increments holds together as a coherent body of music.

The series began on Instagram, and as One Stop Watch reports, French extended the practice to TikTok in late 2025. That expanded reach has helped build an Instagram audience of more than 850,000 followers, and posts from the project have drawn responses from John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Anderson .Paak, Tom Misch and SZA, alongside the Timberlake and Ne-Yo reactions attached to this latest single.

Remixes, Red Rocks and the tracks released so far

The project has already demonstrated a capacity to generate creative ripples beyond French’s own output. Earlier this month he shared an extended version of ‘reckless and arranged – day 56,’ which prompted remixes from Kerri Chandler and T-Pain. T-Pain opened his Red Rocks set in June with his version of the track, a detail that speaks to how far a daily social-media series can travel when the music itself warrants the attention.

French has released several further singles ahead of the full collection: ‘it takes a lifetime – day 58,’ ‘fake it till you make it – day 42,’ and ‘sight of me – day 10.’ Taken together, the releases sketch the range of ideas of the day vol. 1, which moves between short sketches and more fully developed songs rather than settling into a single mode. The day-numbering in each title is not incidental: it preserves a sense of sequence and process, reminding the listener that the record is, in one reading, a diary.

French grew up on the far west coast of Australia and began experimenting with music at home, first on a small keyboard and later on guitar. At 15, he won the Australian Children’s Music Foundation songwriting competition. He went on to study composition at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, choosing composition over formal piano performance while continuing to work largely by ear. That background in both formal study and intuitive practice is audible in the tension between the structural precision of pieces like ‘sticks and stones’ and the loose, sketch-like quality the daily format encourages.

Ideas of the day vol. 1 is released on Mercury Records on 2 October.