Band of buskers stop in Bozeman ahead of album release
On their fifth full-length, Watching It All Fall Apart, Fruition transform pain and heartache into something truly glorious. With their songwriting sharper and more nuanced than ever before — and their sonic palette more daringly expansive — the Portland, Oregon-based band’s full-hearted intensity ultimately gives the album a transcendent power.
From song to song, Fruition display the dynamic musicality they’ve shown since making their debut with 2008’s Hawthorne Hoedown. Through the years, the band has evolved from a rootsy, string-centric outfit to a full-fledged rock act, eventually taking the stage at such major festivals as Bonnaroo and Telluride Bluegrass (a set that inspired Rolling Stone to praise their “raucous originals filled with heartfelt lyrics and stadium-worthy energy”).
In anticipation of their upcoming Bozeman performance, The Rolling Zone talked with Kellen Asebroek, one of Fruition’s three lead singer/songwriters, to talk embracing a newish sound and taking it on the road.
RZ: Hey Kellen. You’re gearing up for a winter outing later this month. How are tour preparations shaping up for the band?
KA: Tour prep is good. The most exciting thing is that it’s an album release tour, [so] we have a bunch of rehearsals planned. Part of the prep is making sure we have all the songs from the album ready for a killer live show. We recorded the songs almost a year ago, but haven’t been playing them live because we’ve been wanting to save them until the album drops. When people buy the album, it’ll be all new sounds coming into their ears. If they’re fans [who] come out to the shows all year, then they’ll historically have already seen all of our songs live. We tried to save some this time around to [catch fans by] surprise.
RZ: The new album is Watching It All Fall Apart, releasing in a few short weeks. Have you had the opportunity to share any of the new material with audiences?
KA: We got to try out a couple at eTown in Boulder, CO, at the end of last summer [where] they were received well. And just this last weekend, we tested out a song off the album called “FOMO” at our New Year’s Eve Eve gig. We had a three-piece string section [Portland’s Bizarre Star Strings] playing with us who were actually in the studio on the album as well, and it was incredible. It was bitchin’ on stage. The audience didn’t quite seem ready for it because they didn’t know it. On stage we were like, ‘Yes, that was awesome!’ but everyone in the crowd kinda just had their mouths open like ‘Whoa, what was that?’ That’s still a good reaction as far as we’re concerned. And that’s going to be the reaction a lot of people get from this album, hearing it for the first time. When you first see a good movie, you don’t immediately start talking about it afterwards. You have to process it. Then you go back and see it a second and third time because it was really good. I’m okay with that.
RZ: You’ve got to be pretty excited to get the music out there, but maybe there’s also a little trepidation involved.
KA: The sonic palette of this record is a little more expanded compared to the last records, and the songs are more mature. If there are people that don’t like it for whatever reason, if it’s not this or that, that sucks. The overwhelming majority of our fans will like it. Beyond that, it’s the kind of stuff that’s going to draw more people in than ever before because it’s so damn good and cool sounding. It’s warm and vintage and analog and trippy and catchy and recognizable yet original. It’s the best shit we’ve ever made.
RZ: Fruition teamed with producer Tucker Martine for its fifth LP. How did this collaboration allow the band to retain its signature sound, at the same time bringing it to the next level?
KA: That’s the job of a good producer, really. Before we actually started the recording process, we had Tucker come to our little basement studio and sit in on a rehearsal to hear the songs and to talk about what we wanted [to do]. He’d present a couple ideas of how to change them, or shorten them, or embellish that one part. The job he did extraordinarily well was finding the essence of what makes a song good, figuring out what we were going for with [each] and with the album as a whole. He’d expose that, take advantage of that essence, and flesh it out. He would take our ideas, we would take his — he became part of the band pretty quickly. I envision we’ll keep working with him for quite some time.
RZ: The new album has been branded as a conglomeration of folksy rock, psychedelia and soul. Are there any surprising influences behind this record? Maybe an off-genre flair you guys hope to integrate?
KA: We’ve always been generalized [as part of the] folk or roots or bluegrass genres. But as each individual band member is concerned, we all listen to everything but all of those things. We listen to hip-hop, jazz, garage rock, old psychedelic rock, and yes, folk songwriters, old Delta blues, and some bluegrass. This album is a little more characteristic of our diverse sonic tastes without sounding contrived, trying to be a certain thing. It was a, ‘Let’s do whatever we want with each song to make them the best,’ in a way that they all glue together in a colorful, timeless package. We used a lot of analog gear, we cut it to tape, and we tried to keep the amount of takes somewhat low to not get totally sick of the songs while recording, [and to] retain some of that magic. It was the next logical, evolutionary step for our band as recording artists. Each subsequent album has been like a revolutionizing of the last. No two albums have the same sonic palette. The expanded mindedness of our approach has become so much more adventurous and finally closer to the music we’ve been trying to make this whole time. We’ve always been inclined to make memorable, timeless pop — the pop The Beatles made as opposed to the pop the ‘Cash Me Outside’ girl made. We’re always trying to make stuff that will stand the test of time, and I think we’re getting closer and closer.
RZ: Watching It All Fall Apart is said to be an album of heartache and breakups. Because putting this collection together was likely cathartic, was there some sort of supposition similar feelings would transfer to its listeners?
KA: It definitely was cathartic, writing the songs and also having them come to life. The last album [Labor of Love] was very much about falling in love, being in love, missing love — glorifying love. Everyone deserves that and wants to feel that at some point, [but] often times, shit falls apart for one reason or another. It was kind of funny because a lot of the relationships that led to the optimistic and longing sounds of the last record did happen to fall apart. [Songs on this album show] the opposite side of the love spectrum. They’re still love songs, but it’s more like, ‘This is how I fucked this up,’ or ‘Ahh man, the world hates me,’ or ‘You aren’t who I thought you were,’ all the subtle little things that make love a pain in the ass or make losing love so hard. I think people will be able to relate to that just as much they can relate to the love songs. They’re not all vindictive, ‘I hate you’-type breakup songs. It’s still very introspective [and] there’s still some kind of hope and optimism in most. I think there’s a lot more to grab onto here and people will connect to the music more than they have in the past, honestly.
RZ: This may be an unfair question, but is there any one standout track you’re really eager for people to hear off this album?
KA: We’ve put out two singles so far, “I’ll Never Sing Your Name” and “Northern Town,” and people have been really digging them. But we have this song called “Turn to Dust” that’s somewhere between a funk tune and “Lady Madonna.” It’s this kind of Beatlesy, psychedelic funkable rock. We all just love this tune. We used Mellotron on it, and we have very poppy background ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahhs’ — the harmony sounds like a bunch of damn birds. Any time I’ve shown it to someone, they’re like ‘Holy shit, that’s a lot different than what you guys have done in the past.’ But it’s still quintessentially a Fruition song. Somehow we keep getting away with this stuff. I think it’s a testament to having [great] songwriters and a lot of different songs, tied in with harmonies and familiar voices people have been hearing for the last ten years. So basically, we could make a whole symphony, new metal album. As long as we sang on it, it would still sound like Fruition [laughs].
RZ: For Fruition fans as well as those unfamiliar, what can Montanans expect to experience at your string of shows in Bozeman, Billings and Missoula?
KA: All we do is tour — our rehearsal space is a stage in front of people. We’re constantly trying new things and pushing ourselves to be better. We’re given the chance to try those new things by virtue of how much we tour. So by the time we get out to Montana, people will be seeing a well-oiled machine. The Montana shows are right before our big album release party in Denver, so they’ll be kind of like a soft opening [for Watching]. We’ll be playing all the new songs and people can expect a damn good show.
RZ: You’re about a decade in with this band after getting started casually busking on the streets of Portland. Considering those origins, to what do you think Fruition owes its success to this point?
KA: It’s been a slow and steady ride as opposed to a skyrocketing explosion. I can’t pin it on any one thing, but I can narrow it down. The first few tours, we’d book a couple shows here and there and we’d leave days, even weeks open to busking in other cities. So that’s a big part of it. But you won’t go that far busking if you don’t have a good product. There’s also times when you’re busking out there for nobody, or it’s cold, or somebody’s sick. You’ve got to have some resilience and be able to grind it out. And you’ve got to have luck. Off the top of my head, those are the top three.
Fruition takes the stage on Saturday, January 27th at the Eagles Lodge Ballroom beginning at 10pm. Advance tickets to this 21+ show are $15 at www.1111presents.com, $17 at Cactus Records (in store only), and also available at the door. Doors at 9pm.
Preceding their Bozeman show, Fruition also perform at Missoula’s Top Hat on Jan. 25th and the Pub Station in Billings on Jan. 26th. Log on to www.fruitionband.com for further details.
Fruition is Jay Cobb Anderson (vocals, lead guitar, harmonica), Kellen Asebroek (vocals, rhythm guitar, piano), Mimi Naja (vocals, mandolin, electric & acoustic guitar), Jeff Leonard (bass), and Tyler Thompson (drums, banjo).
New singles “I’ll Never Sing Your Name” and “Northern Town” are available now. Watching It All Fall Apart will be released February 3rd. •
