After teasing some new music, Kacey Musgraves has today officially announced her new album star-crossed. The follow-up to 2018’s Grammy-winning Golden Hour arrives September 10 via Interscope Records/Polydor/UMG Nashville. Along with the album, Musgraves will be releasing star-crossed: the film, directed by Bardia Zeinali and starring Musgraves, the same day on Paramount+. Check out the album’s title track, co-written by Musgraves, Daniel Tashian, and Ian Fitchuk, as well as the film’s trailer below.
Talking about the album in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Musgraves said: “I feel this record couldn’t be more literal in some ways. But I also feel it’s got this theatrical kind of almost fantasy take on … I wanted there to be that, just kind of that classical story. That classical vibe, kind of woven through all these other modern sounds. I always love when something classic or something traditional, something futuristic kind of meet.”
Katy Morley, a singer-songwriter and visual artist who records under the moniker Morly, grew up in the twin towns of Minneapolis and St Paul’s in Minnesota. She got her start in music as part of the 22-member Minnesota-based project Gayngs alongside the likes of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Phil Cook of Megafaun before releasing a string of solo singles and EPs, including 2015’s In Defense of My Museand 2016’s Something More Holy. Now, after putting her career on hold to deal with a chronic illness and recently moving to London from L.A. to be with her partner, she returns with her debut full-length album, ‘Til I Start Speaking. Co-produced with her frequent collaborator Christopher Stracey, the record reflects on creative fulfillment, heartbreak, and newfound love while both distilling and refining her musical palette, anchoring in minimalist, textured arrangements and subdued yet emotive vocals. It’s an enchanting, rich collection of songs that are animated by Morly’s ability to colour in her elegant compositions with lived-in details (“At home/ Dinner cooking on the stove/ And Nina singing to my soul”) and subtle touches of poetry (“Moon in the trees/ Shows you so enthralled with me”). Most of all, she makes sure her voice comes through: confident, sensitive, always resonant.
We caught up with Morly for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her earliest musical memories, the journey to her debut album, the importance of silence, and more.
What are some of your earliest memories of music?
My mom said I was always a compulsive singer, as kids tend to be. But throughout my high school and college, I was just compulsively singing. I actually have a problem in meditation every once in a while, I just start compulsively singing [laughs].
I had an extraordinary saxophone teacher when I was 10, was when I started. He just made music come so alive and made me feel like music was absolutely my own. He taught me to improvise, and it was the most enthralling thing. I didn’t want to do anything else other than play music. I’d credit him for a lot.
How do you look back on yourself as a teenager?
I was very, very quiet. Very sensitive. And I think felt outside all the time, like I was an alien or something. I definitely felt like a misfit, and I found a lot of solace in music and in art.
You studied neuroscience in college before switching to painting as your major. Do you feel that you were drawn to neuroscience for similar reasons that you were attracted to art and music?
That’s very interesting, I’ve never thought about it that way. Υeah, I guess so, because what I found interesting about neuroscience was the exploration of consciousness, which is this next frontier that we don’t understand that all humans throughout time have been trying to understand – is it a soul, is it just an illusion, do animals have it? And so, with neuroscience, you could study it very scientifically, but then I think I found it almost too clinical. Whereas doing art and music, you could be a conduit of consciousness and feel like you’re in touch with it in a different way. I remember that was a very difficult decision, deciding which path to pursue, but I think ultimately I just felt like I got to experience it more directly making music and making art than I did necessarily in a lab.
When you first started writing songs, was there something that you felt like you wanted to be more in touch with or explore that you couldn’t otherwise?
This is so embarrassing for me, but it’s very true. I started listening to Bob Dylan in university, as a lot of people do, but it just so radically altered my mind and it made me feel like I had been born in the wrong place and I was living the wrong life. And I just knew that I should be doing that, but I didn’t think I could because I was already so far along this other path of studying neuroscience. And I didn’t know any musicians; musicians were completely foreign. So I think that experience radically made me want to live in that place.
What changed your mind or made you feel like it was a possibility?
I always wanted to actively pursue it, I was just very depressed because I didn’t think I could. I sang with this bang Gayngs; I was very very young and they were all much older and seasoned musicians. My first time recording ever was with Justin Vernon at his cabin studio in Wisconsin. And I didn’t really know who he was, I just knew that he was a really nice guy who made cool music, so I didn’t even understand that was a privilege. I just was overwhelmed to be recording music. So, meeting him and all the other people in Gayngs who had spent their lives making music and art and just did it – there was no mental hang-ups about it, they just wanted to do it and they’re good at it so they did it. That completely altered my perception.
I’ve shared this story so many times, but it did imprint on me. My first-ever show, Prince was there. I didn’t technically actually meet him, I just was like, running backstage by myself because I was so thrilled that I just performed live and I thought I did a great job, when normally I had horrible stage fright. And I was just so excited, and then, there’s this tight and narrow hallway behind the stage, and I literally ran into him. And I’m 6’1 and he was about, you know, 4’8, so it’s just this beaming tiny purple presence who just looked at me and smiled so big, and I just stepped aside and let him pass. [laughs] So many of my friends now have actually worked with Prince and made music with him that it feels like it’s not as cool, but still, like in my own personal mythos, it’s very impactful for me.
In your own musical journey, what inspired the shift from beat-driven music to a more acoustic, traditional kind of songwriting?
I think my world was shattered when I heard, like, Burial and Mount Kimbie, and I was just so inspired by these sounds that I wanted to explore them. But my initial inspiration was like, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin and Cat Stevens, so it’s just been trying to figure out how to marry those worlds. I also think, honestly, getting sick with Lyme disease just made me want to slow down. Making dance music just didn’t feel like the natural thing to do. A big one is going on tour and playing my songs live; I hate playing the computer, I don’t like things being automated, I want things to be organic. And so I think when I went back in the studio after touring, I wanted to bring more organic instruments into it.
When did you start working on your debut album? I know some of these songs date a few years back.
I’d say about 2017. I even put out ‘Sleeping in My Own Bed’ thinking I was gonna finish the album soon, and then a few weeks after I put that song out, I got diagnosed with Lyme disease. And I was just like, “I don’t care, I’m gonna go get better. I don’t care what release schedules are. So that’s why that one came out like three years ago.
How did your vision for the album evolve since then?
I think what I wanted to do didn’t change. I had this sonic palette, I wanted to use this feeling, I knew I wanted it to be this emotional journey. But as I was doing it, I was constantly listening to Nina Simone, and I think I needed more joy in my life. And so I think actually the music became much more joyful than I thought it was for such a dark period of time, because the music itself was my joy. I remember listening to it all the way through right after we’d finished it and just being shocked that it was so much lighter than I thought it would be. [laughs] I thought it was gonna be this heavy, dark thing, and I was very surprised at how much joy came through. Which, I don’t know, playlisters maybe disagree; I was in like the “Sad Indie Girl” playlist.
Can you talk more about the emotional journey that you wanted the album to portray?
I basically just wanted to reflect the emotional journey I had been going through. I wasn’t too analytical about it, because I find when I do that it’s just not very good. I think it has to come organically from the subconscious. And actually, when I started doing album art, and I listened to the whole album through, I realized that the entire album and how I’d ordered it was this subconscious exorcism of this person from my life who had affected me and I needed to be influenced by but that I also needed to get rid of. And I had no idea until I listened to the album that I had also been doing this, like, subconscious exorcism.
The cover artwork really is stunning, both that of the album and the seriesofsinglesthatpreceded it. What was the inspiration behind them? How did conceptualize the artwork for the album in general?
I knew I wanted it to be some sort of self-portrait, and I had this idea of relating it to this feeling of “‘til I start speaking” – of the idea of, if there’s something suffocating you, you can either gnaw through the hand that’s suffocating or you can realise it’s your own and just gently take it away, if that makes sense. But when I went to do the underpainting, just like a quick charcoal drawing to see the composition, it ended up being so much better than all of the paintings I did. I kept making ones, and nothing was better than just a really quick 30-second drawing I’d done. But I also do love oil paintings, so I wanted to flesh out the other artwork for the singles more.
You alluded to one of the central ideas on the album, which is where its title comes from as well. And I love the way you introduce your voice on the opening track; at first it’s almost inaudible, then kind of muffled, and then as you sing the refrain, there comes this clarity. Why did you want to introduce your voice in that way?
That is a great question. [laughs] I had written that mantra almost, the “I don’t know what I can say ‘til I start speaking,” and it felt like the thesis of the album lyrically. But it also wasn’t like a fully-fleshed song, and it felt like this is the intro. We buried it in all the sounds – we put sounds of skating people, which is like, I just grew up in Minnesota playing hockey for 22 years. I put my piano teacher who was this jazz piano player who just absolutely transformed how I play piano and think about music, and he’s kind of buried in there. I was just trying to plant little seeds of me in the album.
Why do you think you were so drawn to this mantra?
I think just because it has been my journey in music so far, of having to overcome so much self-doubt and having to overcome feeling like I shouldn’t be doing this, like my voice maybe isn’t worthwhile, good enough. So it just felt like this declarative thing. And that is what enabled all the other songs to come, if that makes sense. I know it’s very on the nose, but there’s something, I think, beautiful about just saying the thing.
In the context of the album, being silent doesn’t always have negative connotations. It’s not always associated with self-doubt, as you said; it can mean being attuned to your surroundings or your own self. Is that something that’s important in your life?
Silence has been very important to me in my life because I’ve always been a listener. I’ve always felt like that’s one of my superpowers, is listening and understanding. I need a lot of silence in my life. I like things quieter, slower. But I also think I can fall too much into that, and so the challenge for me is to make noise, in some ways. I also think the best songs – the default is silence, and then you only put what adds. Basically, minimalism. I think of Erik Satie and his music, and in some ways, silence is the undercurrent, and then he sprinkles in a few notes on top of the silence.
I feel like that tension between being silent and making noise relates to another conflict on the album: that of falling in love while trying to hold on to your independence. There’s this line on ‘Super Lunar’: “Don’t say you want me to swallow the sun/ Then leave me to suck in your shade.” Do you feel like working on these songs has brought you closer to your own individuality, or closer to achieving the dreams that you’re singing about?
Yeah, absolutely. It goes back to the time in college when I just had that moment of feeling like I was living the wrong life. It’s been this journey towards becoming the person that it feels like I should be, and I think writing new songs and recording them has absolutely made me feel more like myself, and releasing it into the world and is like showing that to the world. And being home now [Morley was in Minessota visiting family at the time of recording], for the first time in like a year and a half, I think it’s the most myself I’ve felt since I was a child. And I completely credit making the music for that feeling.
Could you talk more about that? How did being home make you feel more like yourself?
I think in some ways it just helps people understand you better. When I first started doing music, so many family, friends, or people I went to school with would say things like “That’s so unlike you.” I saw someone I went to high school with at a festival I was playing, and he just was drunk and he was like, “No one ever would have thought this, no one ever in a million years would expect this.” And I was just like, man, I see why I had a hard time, because it almost felt like you had to break out of this shell of expectation. But as soon as you feel okay with doing what you love, everyone else immediately accepts it. I feel like my worlds are kind of aligning – for a long time, I felt like this is family, old life; this is who I want to be as an artist. And I think they’re finally melding, which is entirely an internal shift. No one was doing anything. It’s all inside of me, but I’m finally feeling it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Efterklang have shared ‘Dragonfly’, the second offering from their forthcoming album Windflowers. The track comes with an accompanying video directed by Søren Lynggaard Andersen, who also helmed the video for previous single ‘Living Other Lives’ (which landed on our Best New Songs segment). Check it out below.
Talking about the video, Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg said in a statement: “It features the three of us alongside our live-band members Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, Bert Cools, Øyunn and Christian Balvig who all have contributed significantly to the making of our new album. It was Indre who had the idea of featuring kite flying in the video and shortly after we found a box of abandoned white clothes and then it sort of rolled organically from there. We were all on Møn for Efterklang’s Sommertræf (Efterklang’s Summer Summit) and took the afternoon and evening off to fly kites, swim and run around and dance silly and un-choreographed in Danish corn fields. It was a beautiful moment with people we love dearly and I am so thankful it’s been captured so stunning and vibrantly by Søren.”
Windflowers is set to arrive on October 8 via City Slang.
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
On this week’s list, we have ‘More’, the latest in a string of magnificent and haunting singles from Low’s upcoming album; Circuit des Yeux’s hypnotic ‘Dogma’, the lead single off Haley Fohr’s newly announced album -io; Ducks Ltd.’s deceptively upbeat, The Beths-featuring ‘How Lonely Are You?’, the second preview of their forthcoming debut; Bedouine’s wistfully gorgeous ‘The Wave’, which leads Azniv Korkejian’s latest LP; and Remi Wolf’s infectiously funky, “full on psycho” ‘Quiet on Set’.
SZA is back with new music. Today, the singer took to social media to share “random thoughts” via SoundCloud. Listen to ‘Joni’, ‘I Hate You’, and ‘Nightbird’ below.
Last September, SZA returned with the new single ‘Hit Different’ (featuring Ty Dolla $ign), which was followed by ‘Good Days’ in December. Since then, she’s teamed up with Doja Cat on ‘Kiss Me More’ and SAINt JHN on ‘Just For Me’. Her last album, Ctrl, came out in 2017.
Don Everly, the last surviving member of the iconic country rock duo The Everly Brothers, has died at the age of 84. A spokesperson for Everly’s family confirmed the news to the LA Times, reporting that he passed away at home in Nashville on Saturday. No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
“Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” his family said in a statement. “Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams … with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother.”
Isaac Donald Everly was born in 1937 in Brownie, Kentucky and grew up in a musical family with his brother Phil. His father Ike, originally a coal miner and also a guitarist, moved the family to Chicago in the late 1930s to pursue a career in music with his wife Margaret. After Phil was born in 1939, the family moved to Shenandoah, Iowa, where they hosted a country music show on local radio stations KMA and KFNF.
Following the success of the show, Ike took his two sons to Nashville where the boys auditioned for labels as a brother act, officially forming The Everly Brothers in 1957. They eventually signed a record deal with Columbia Records, but were dropped by the label after an unsuccessful 1955 single. They then signed with Cadence and were given a tune penned by the husband-and-wife writing team of Boudeleaux and Felice Bryant, ‘Bye Bye Love’, which topped the country chart and reached No. 2 on the pop singles chart. Between 1957 and 1962, the duo had 14 more Top 10 hits, including ‘Wake Up Little Susie’, ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’, ‘Problems’, ‘Devoted to You’, ‘(Till) I Kissed You’, and ‘Cathy’s Clown’.
The Everly Brothers released a total of 21 studio albums, including 1958’s early landmark concept album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, in addition to numerous live and compilation albums. Don Everly also issued several solo records, including Sunset Towers and Brother Jukebox.
The Everly Brothers became one of the first groups to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 alongside Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. Don was voted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2019. His brother Phil died in 2014 of pulmonary disease at the age of 74.
Don Everly is survived by his wife of 24 years, Adela, his son Edan, and daughters Erin, Venetia, and Stacy.
Celebrating her 33rd birthday, Kacey Musgraves took to social media yesterday (August 21) to preview some new music. The singer-songwriter shared a snippet of a new song followed by several Instagram posts revealing the next line in a set of lyrics for what could be the title track of her upcoming album. Combined, her posts read:
Let me set the scene… Two lovers ripped right at the seams They woke up from the perfect dream And then the darkness came. I signed the papers yesterday You came and took your things away Moved out of the house we made …And gave you back your name What have we done? Did we fly too high? Just to get burned by the sun? No one’s to blame ‘Cause we called all the angels to save us Called them by name But I guess they got lost…
As Stereogum points out, the song Musgraves teased could be ‘Star-Crossed’, a Romeo and Juliet-inspired track that may feature Carlos Santana. In an interview with The Crack, Musgraves described ‘Star-Crossed’ as “a pared back, Latin-inflected ballad about resigning from a relationship and accepting fate without bitterness” that “swells into a pattern of guttural electric guitar, spectral strings and a chorus of voices.” Musgraves also joined TikTok and shared a snippet of another song, which you can check out below.
Kacey Musgraves’ last album was 2018’s Golden Hour.
Today’s stylish menswear trends are forecasted for feel-good fits and low-key vibes. As society slowly returns to normalcy amidst the pandemic, men are gravitating towards designer shirts for men that resonate with this newfound post-lockdown lifestyle.
People are seeking a fine balance between comfort and style, which can be seen across trendy menswear stores like Differio. Shifting away from stuffy shirt-and-blazer outfits, the latest shirt trends make a statement on their own – sans necktie. Men are swapping out their usual office looks for mens casual dress shirts designed with bold patterns, unusual fabrics, and modern silhouettes.
Whether you’re working from home or planning your next getaway, you can easily work just about any of today’s fashion shirts for men into your rotation. Check out these unexpected shirt styles that are making a fashionable comeback.
Oversized Shirts
Popular during the 90s and early 00s, oversized shirts are back in full force now. These cool shirts for men are an urban streetwear staple, especially amongst hip-hop culture. And despite it’s seemingly overwhelming fit, these fashion shirts for men actually look flattering on all body types. If you’re not sure how to style the oversized trend, don’t fret. It’s such a versatile fit that you can really wear these men’s dress shirts with virtually any style of bottoms from skinny jeans to baggy joggers.
Utility Shirts
Utility shirts have made a strong comeback, capturing the essence of both form and function that today’s fashion-forward men seek. These shirts, often characterized by their multiple pockets, durable materials, and sturdy construction, are not just about practicality anymore. They’ve evolved into a style statement that blends seamlessly with the contemporary demand for versatile, ‘ready-for-anything’ attire. Their resurgence reflects a wider trend towards clothing that offers both aesthetic appeal and practical benefits, making them an ideal choice for men who value efficiency and style in their daily wardrobe. Nowadays, wearing navy blue utility shirts with tailored trousers and a pair of sleek sneakers is just as stylish as wearing it with rugged jeans and work boots. This blend of functionality with a modern twist ensures utility shirts are cool again, embodying a smart-casual look that’s perfect for the post-pandemic world.
Sheer Shirts
Sheer shirts are all things delicate, unusual and bold, especially when styled with trendy menswear. They’re an exceptionally edgy choice that’s changing the game for mens dress shirts. Ideal for going out, these mens fashion shirts were practically made for the nightlife scene. You can usually find see-through mens designer dress shirts crafted in fine mesh or heavyweight fishnet. If you’re not ready to commit to the full-on sheer top, you can always layer these mens button down shirts over a solid tank top.
Camp Shirts
Despite its seemingly simple design, these mens dress shirts make the ultimate summer statement. Not to be confused with retro bowling shirts and Hawaiian shirts, camp shirts are defined by their distinct cabana-esque collar and flowy fit. Even better, you can wear these mens button up shirts to withstand hot and humid temps while still looking effortlessly stylish. Just throw on one of these fashion shirts for men over chino shorts or linen pants for a breezy beachside look.
Cropped Shirts
Male crop tops have been around a lot longer than you might realize. Popular during the 80s and early 90s, these cool shirts for men are being revived with streamlined designs and modern fabrics. Instead of just mesh jersey, now you can find cropped fashion shirts for men in button-down styles ideal for going out. You can pair these designer shirts for men with high-waisted pants for a balanced look.
Tunic Shirts
Tunic shirts are perfect for injecting boho chic vibes into your wardrobe, especially the low V-neck styles. With its sweeping longline length, these mens fashion shirts are perfect for both casual and formal occasions. You can even use them as a light layering piece over tank tops or undershirts, especially if you’re investing in see-through styles. Packed with couture-like flair, these designed shirts for men can be worn over skinny jeans and fashion meggings.
Kendrick Lamar has revealed he’s currently producing his final album for his label Top Dawg Entertainment. On a new website called Oklahoma, there’s a graphic of a file folder labeled “nu thoughts” that leads to a written statement from the rapper. It reads:
I spend most of my days with fleeting thoughts. Writing. Listening. And collecting old Beach cruisers. The morning rides keep me on a hill of silence.
I go months without a phone.
Love, loss, and grief have disturbed my comfort zone, but the glimmers of God speak through my music and family.
While the world around me evolves, I reflect on what matters the most. The life in which my words will land next.
As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years. The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood. May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life’s calling.
There’s beauty in completion. And always faith in the unknown.
Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. I’ve prayed for you all.
See you soon enough.
-oklama
Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO and founder of Top Dawg Entertainment, confirmed Lamar’s next album, writing, “With this being Dot’s last album on TDE, this is more of a VICTORY LAP, a celebration. I know he will be successful in whatever it is he decides to do and will have our FULL support.”
Since releasing his last studio album, 2017’s Damn., Kendrick Lamar curated and contributed to the Black Panther soundtrack and launched a new company called pgLang with Dave Free, the former president of TDE.
“There’s something moving over me/ I want to remember everything,” Karly Hartzman sings on ‘Cody’s Only’, a highlight off Wednesday’s new album Twin Plagues. As the band drifts through the chaos of memory and between the realms of shoegaze, noise-pop, and country, that something remains as elusive as the everything is overwhelming – a haze of trauma and anxiety percolating underneath her and Jake Lenderman’s distorted, feedback-drenched guitars. On their third album and second as a full band, the Asheville five-piece – which also includes Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel, Margo Schultz on bass, and Alan Miller on drums – expand on last year’s stunning I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone to deliver a collection of devastating beauty and striking dynamism. Hartzman’s vocals barely crack through the swirl of instrumentation; the music mirrors the emotional weight of her writing, which is both painful and tender, evocative and surreal, often alluding to a real-life car crash and other events from her upbringing. The effect is immediately transfixing, sometimes disorienting, always compelling, and ultimately cathartic: try to remember everything, they suggest, and something new might come along.
We caught up with Wednesday for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about the band’s relationship to country and indie rock music, the process of making Twin Plagues, and more.
Part of the conversation around your new album revolves around a sense of nostalgia for a certain type of indie rock, but hearing that cover of the late Nanci Griffith’s ‘Love at the Five and Dime’ with Xandy on pedal steel reminded me just how much of a country influence there is in your music. Could you talk about what draws each of you to country music, and how do you think it intersects with your interest in heavier music?
Karly Hartzman: It’s hard to avoid a country influence when you’re from the South, because you’ll go to the grocery store and they’re playing pop country, or like, in the car, most of the stations we have autosaved to our thing is country stations, outlaw country music. Lyrically, I feel like the most out of anything I’ve been affected by country music, like, Lucinda Williams kind of stuff is more who I’ve been taking writing inspiration from. Anyone that talks about their life in detail and what it’s like living in the South is going to be a country song, even if the instrumentation isn’t country at all, because that’s just how it feels to describe where we live. It’s always going to come off that way, and I find that really comforting.
Xandy Chelmis: It’s funny that you just brought up Lucinda Williams, because it actually made me think of something that I’ve never really thought about. And that’s like, when I was growing up, everyone including myself was like, “Oh yeah, country sucks. I like every kind of music but country.” But I’d totally get down to Lucinda Williams and really liked that music a lot, and I just never realised that it was country. Same thing with like Johnny Cash and just older stuff. People always say that they don’t like country, but I feel like everybody definitely does, they just don’t even know.
Jake Lenderman: For me, what got me into country music was like – you know, we get compared to a lot of ‘90s bands, and the first country music I got into was the alt-country music from the ‘90s like Drive-By Truckers, Richmond Fontane, Sun Volt. That’s some of the most formative music to me, but it got me into older stuff, and the thing I like about it is that it’s simple music, but it’s really lonesome music. And it’s really funny music and clever, and I think just the prettiest. It can be anything.
KH: I think the element of humour especially is something that country music does the best. Almost nothing is going to connect faster to people than sadness and humour, and a mix of two that emphasises both and brings out the beautiful parts in both. Because being able to laugh at pain in the way that country music kind of helps you do is like, transcendent.
Margo Schultz: I’m from Maryland, which really pushes away the southern identity pretty aggressively. I feel like I’m probably the latest comer to country music out of everyone in the band, but I just love it so much and it makes me feel even more at home here in North Carolina than almost anything else.
Would you say that getting into indie rock and other kinds of alternative music was kind of a reaction to what was always in the background growing up?
KH: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I actually got more into alternative and indie stuff because my friends that would carpool me to school every morning were playing Christian radio stations, and it can be country-adjacent sometimes, the music on there, and I never felt more alienated by music. I was Jewish, and so being in a car with a group of people that just seemed to know the words to these songs, I literally had never even come close to feeling what they were feeling. Definitely in middle school I found indie rock to be a safer place for me to bond with people music-wise.
XS: I had a cool older friend who sat me down and made me watch Garden State when I was 13 years old. [laughter] No, I know, but I was like 13 years old and like, hormones coursing through my body and I was like, “This is it. It has to be.” Him yelling in the rain, and I was like, “Hell yeah, I love indie music.” [laughter]
To me, it’s kind of limiting to view it as nostalgia for a certain genre, because it also is nostalgia for a physical place and the personal memories that are attached to it. And the kind of nostalgia that’s not necessarily musical is a little bit harder to pinpoint, but on the album it’s evoked in such a way where the listener can relate to it regardless of where they grew up or what kind of experiences they’ve had. For you personally, has writing and releasing these songs made you reflect on your upbringing any differently?
KH: Yeah. My motivation for this album as a whole was to close the book on any trauma I had experienced in high school, any memories I kind of wanted to write about so I would never have to think about them again. I’ll be like, “Okay, here’s the song I wrote about this, now I can move on emotionally.” I definitely learned through that process that that’s not how that works. Reflecting on your past in the first place is always going to just reopen the box of pain – newer music I’m writing still is dealing with old memories that I’m just sitting on and that affects me every day. Because in a way, your upbringing never goes away – I grow more every year that I live, obviously, and I’m growing in a positive direction, but I’m also constantly reminded of the things that got my brain to where it is now, like in the way of certain things are harder for me now because of things that happened in the past. I mean, that’s how trauma works, but it never goes away, even if you really – the point of the album was to make it go away, and that’s not how it works, and I think that was a valuable lesson to learn. So I learned a lot from making it, but I didn’t necessarily achieve what I set out to do. I think I’ll just always write about my upbringing and my past because that’s literally the only thing that makes a person who they are, otherwise you’re not writing about yourself, in a way.
There’s a line on ‘Cody’s Only’, and even though it comes late on the album, it feels kind of like starting point: “There’s something moving over me/ I want to remember everything/ I cannot figure out what I meant/ By living all those ways I did.” I was wondering how early on in the process of making the album those lyrics came to you.
KH: I think ‘Cody’s Only’ was probably the first song I wrote for the album, I don’t know if it was intentionally a starting point. That song is probably the most abstract; I think that song just overall is based on wandering around your house trying to figure out how to deal with pain. And I have this vision of myself in my junior year of high school, just not knowing how to be at my parents’ house anymore. Like, emotionally, how to live in this space where I’ve experienced something terrible happen to me. And I guess it is like a starting point in a way, emotionally, but it was completely unintentional for the writing process. This isn’t a concept album in any way, like I couldn’t have planned any of the songs or how they interact with each other. Because I just write the songs I have to to feel better, is my process.
Something the essay that came with the release of the album made me think about is how it can make the listener reflect on their own past selves. It made me wonder how everyone else in the band was affected by or saw themselves reflected in these songs before it came to building them to what they are now.
MS: Good question! I feel like whenever Karly writes one of the demos that’s basically just lyrics and guitar, I always listen to it like crazy and try to, a) imagine how it would sound, but b) also just think about what the lyrics mean and how that would match the music. And I feel like there’s certain songs that definitely affect me more than others, lyrically. I feel like ‘Cody’s’ probably the most; from my interpretation, it just sounds like a song sort of about being depressed but still feeling hopeful. I feel like the lyrics are very beautiful and abstract and poetic, but I mostly connect really hard with the music itself, the whole fleshed-out product.
XS: For me it’s like, I hear a demo and I like it and I can hear some stuff in my head, but especially with lap steel and the way I play it with Wednesday, it’s usually when we’re playing all together and fleshing out a song – I’m not even listening at that point to the lyrics as a totality, there’s some lines that will stick out but mostly I’m just responding with my instrument. And it’s not usually until we have a decently fleshed-out demo where I can hear Karly’s voice, and then I’ll start listening to it, and then… It’s kind of like a lot of music for me, even my own music that I write, when I revisit it or listen to it, wherever I am in my life it usually means something different. But I really like these songs because they are really meaningful to me consistently.
When it comes to fleshing out the songs, did you have any conversations in terms of where they sit emotionally, or was it something that came more naturally?
MS: I feel like we throw these songs into the pit. [laughs] We just get together and we’re like, “What are we thinking?” And we try every single thing anyone’s thinking, and it’s a beautiful mess. And then it’s a song eventually.
XS: I feel like it’s usually not a conscious emotional response that we’re trying to invoke. It’s probably more intuitive.
JL: You can talk about something all you want before you try doing it, but it’s never going to turn out how you talk about doing it, so it’s kind of pointless.
KH: Actually, I feel like, what usually happens is… I don’t use a guitar chord if I don’t feel like it translates to the emotion I’m going for, and so we usually have a pretty good idea – a good example is ‘Birthday Song’, when we were first playing that, I bet when we were practising it in the space they couldn’t tell what I was saying, but they could tell that it was painful and they adapted to that and they made the instrumentation work around that. And usually there’s a moment down the line after we’ve already fleshed out the song where I’m like, “This is what this song is about.” I usually wait to tell anyone what it was even about until after we’ve already decided the instrumentation.
I remember once me and Xandy were sitting in this venue where we both used to work and listening to our last album through the PA after a show one night, just sitting around in the dark, and as each song went by I was explaining what each one meant to me. It’s hard for me to get into what they’re about in the moment, too, because it’s hard stuff to talk about. And I mostly just kind of blurt out whatever the song is about whenever I feel like I’m in a place to talk about it.
XS: And that night when you were telling me about those songs, we’ve been playing them for like months at that point. It was kind of wild to suddenly get context gaps filled in.
I was actually going bring up ‘Birthday Song’ in relation to what you were talking about before, especially with the line “Couldn’t laugh at it yet/ Wasn’t far away from it yet.” To me, it’s a reminder that just because you get to process something through songwriting, it doesn’t mean it won’t come back or that you won’t revisit it in the future. But with it being tied to the album now, are there any joyful memories that you associate with the recording process that you think will also stay with you in a more positive way?
KH: Songwriting is extremely painful and dwelling on the memories is painful, but when it comes to like, I got to make these songs with my best friends and record them with people I would say I capital-L love now – I mean, every album we make, every song we write, every tour we go on, we get closer and we understand each other more. And Jake was added to the band like a year ago, but him and Xandy are already telepathically communicating with each other on stage, and Margo does shit on the bass somehow which, I didn’t know the bass could be an emotional instrument to me…
MS: [laughs]
KH: But Margo does stuff sometimes that makes me completely nuts, because she understands the unspoken meaning of the song emotionally and how to translate that into a bassline, which I don’t understand how she does that. And then Alan, I have another really special and happy bond to because he started playing drums right when I started playing guitar, and so we’re learning our instrument together from the ground up. And he’s not in this conversation right now, he’s not here, but I mean…
MS: You can say whatever you want Karly, he’s not here.
KH: [laughs] I don’t know, I have like an insane bond with everyone in this band now that would be impossible to replicate. And I think that has made most of this experience happy. It’s hard to translate that this has been like a happy experience.
JL: You’re not mentioning that there was a pool in the studio.
KH: [laughs] Oh yeah, there also was a swimming pool in the studio, so… But overall, very positive experience. And the thing is, if I’ve written a song about it, I have moved on in a way that makes me comfortable to talk about it, and that is a healing moment in itself. Even though it doesn’t solve the problem, it doesn’t make it go away, it puts my brain in a space where I can remove myself from the situation and figure out what had I learned, what did I gain from that, even though it was some of the worst stuff that could have happened.
MS: And recording was so fun. It was in the middle of such a horrible, horrible time, I feel like it was everyone’s depression peak – it was such a fraught and depressing time for everyone individually, but together, it was very joyful. Because I know I was really depressed, I feel like I had a conversation with each of us one-on-one where I was just like, “Yeah, this is the worst my life has ever been. But I’m happy I’m here, and there’s a pool. [laughter] And Xandy and Jake have been playing feedback for two full hours, that’s really cathartic, just listening to a feedback recording session happening in the background.” It was amazing, and I feel like it’s even more cathartic now to see such a positive reaction to it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
