The idea of this album came several years ago when we realized that we had quite a few unreleased, narrative songs, written from the perspective of characters we had created—almost enough songs for an album, in fact. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re all somewhat settled, with jobs, spouses, and less lingering existential anxiety than we had when we were 23, but after Winters Like These, we began feeling more drawn towards exploring the lives of others than ourselves.
We spent the next several months with a more careful eye toward storytelling in our songwriting and mined old notebooks for abandoned songs that fit the category. By late 2021, six months after Winters Like These, we were up to around a dozen songs. By early 2022 we were in the studio and, as tends to happen, a process that we thought might take six months ended up taking 18. In that time Scott moved to Nashville, Spencer got a new job, and Tara took some time off from making music. Things settled even further, and while at times it felt like we’d never finish this record, it was also fortunate that we got to spend so much time wrestling with these songs, these narratives, and these characters.
And many characters there are. The full 15 track version explores the lives of a big talker, a lost backpacker, a Catalan nationalist, a disillusioned Southerner, a late 19th Century brawler, a repentant ex-fascist, an anxious ghostwriter, an embattled Appalachian, a troubled teenager, a sentimental con-artist, an avid gardener, three generations of pecan farmers, and an early 20th Century idealist. Of course, anyone who’s seen us live has heard us perform songs about the Spanish Civil War, the topic of Spencer’s thesis in college—this record has a trilogy inspired by the conflict.
With all of these narratives, we tried to push our boundaries musically as well. We didn’t step outside the Americana tent, but we did try to explore every corner of it. From the Sufjan Stevens inspired ambient pop folk of “Eveline” to the junkyard percussion of “Stonewall // Asherah” to the barroom swing of “Ghostwriter”, we tried to let these songs lead us into new and intentional arrangements as well.
And while none of these songs are about us, per se, the title My Honest Face still suits the record, as walking around inside the mind of these characters allowed us to examine parts of ourselves that might otherwise have gone on collecting dust—what it feels like to have committed an irreconcilable wrong, to face the certainty of hopelessness, to lose the only person who made you to aspire to anything.
That’s a lot of hot air just to say, we put a lot of thought into this record, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.
—MB
