CAAMP
- Presented/Guest
- KRCL Presents
with Fruition
- Date
- Sunday, July 16, 2023
Description
On their earthy, jubilant new album, the Columbus, Ohio, band Caamp examine those in-between days that make up a life -- not the best or most eventful days, certainly not the worst or most tragic, but those full of small pleasures and forgotten disappointments. Taylor Meier, the group's singer and primary songwriter, came up with the phrase Lavender Days to describe them -- a phrase that struck him out of the blue, "like a coconut out of the sky," he says with a laugh. Why lavender? "It's nostalgic. It can remind you of your grandmother's perfume or maybe the air freshener in your mom's car. It can summon up all of these incredible memories and transport you to those in-between days, which I think everybody remembers with more clarity than the big events."
Caamp have been writing and singing about those lavender days -- in tender love songs tinged with melancholy and determination -- ever since Meier played his first notes with bandmate Evan Westfall more than a decade ago. They met as students at Ohio University in Athens, playing local coffeehouses and growing more committed to this extracurricular project. With the addition of Matt Vinson on bass and Joseph Kavalec on keyboards, they built up a grassroots following well beyond the Buckeye State based on the inventiveness of Meier's songwriting, the exuberance of their live performances, and their tireless dedication to touring as much as possible.
From their self-titled 2016 debut album to their releases of By and By in 2019 to Live From Newport Music Hall, "Fall, Fall, Fall," and "Officer of Love" in 2020 and Lavender Days in 2022, the band has amassed over 1 billion streams globally as well as achieved multiple #1's at AAA radio. The band has headlined sold out shows, including their first arena show in 2022, and performed at major festivals around the world including Firefly, Shaky Knees, Forecastle, Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, Great Escape and many more. They have also performed on national TV on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS Saturday Morning and Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
- YouTube Video
Fruition
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Jay Cobb Anderson (vocals, lead guitar, harmonica) / Kellen Asebroek (vocals, rhythm guitar, piano) / Mimi Naja (vocals, mandolin, electric & acoustic guitar) / Jeff Leonard (bass) / Tyler Thompson (drums, banjo)
Fruition’s newest album, Wild As The Night, conveys the emotions of our darkest, and sometimes weakest, moments. Influenced equally by acoustic music as well as rock ‘n’ roll, the eclectic, after-hours vibe comes naturally to the Portland, Oregon-based band. Their unmistakable vocal blend first revealed itself in 2008 when Anderson tagged along with Asebroek and Naja for an afternoon of busking in Portland. Since that time, they have opened shows for the Wood Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, and Jack Johnson, and appeared at festivals like Telluride Bluegrass, Bonnaroo, and DelFest. Wild As The Night follows the band’s acclaimed Tucker Martine-produced 2018 album, Watching It All Fall Apart.
The album’s first single, “Wild As The Night,” provides perhaps the album’s most beautiful moment, with vocals from Naja evoking the midnight grief of letting a relationship go. It was released with the announcement of the album, along with the track’s accompanying music video.
Wild As The Night opens with the rollicking and pulsating “Forget About You,” setting the tone of the record as a whole; commiserating in sorrows and lifting spirits. “Sweet Hereafter” follows the album’s self-titled first single with an entrancing drum and piano loop that could be equally at home on a James Blake record. The organic beat gives way to thick repeating harmonies, leaving the listener wanting more after a subtle fade to silence. The album picks back up, tempo-wise, with a quick rock and roll study in city living with “Raining In The City” before it dives back into more classic Fruition territory with a campfire celebration of the Oregon Coast in “Manzanita Moonlight.” “Don’t Give Up On Me”’s seductive groove dips back into the commiseration with the final verse lamenting, “All the world is just empty without somebody to love.”
“For me, I've just always hoped that people relate to the music, whether it's a certain chord movement that lifts their spirit or comforts their sorrow, or a lyric that speaks to them like it was written for them,” Asebroek says. “This music comes from places of vulnerability and I hope people can take their guard down a little while resonating with it.”
Recorded at Silo Sound Studio in Denver, Wild As The Night captures the band’s mindset in the midst of relentless touring. “We were exhausted, but musically firing on all cylinders,” says Thompson, who shares production credit with the band on the new project. “It’s extremely diverse Americana, with a focus on great songwriting and harmonies. We weren’t going for a particular sound, just something that’s honest to our live sound along with a few tricks we learned from our last producer, Tucker Martine.”
With a renewed focus on harnessing the energy of the live experience, Wild As The Night allows listeners to get a glimpse of these longtime friends doing what they do best on stage, whether they’re opening for the Wood Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, and Jack Johnson, or playing at festivals like Telluride Bluegrass, Bonnaroo, and DelFest.
“Something that has always tied our variable styles together is the honesty in the songwriting, the attention paid toward what is genuinely and deeply catchy, not superficially so,” Asebroek says. “Vocal harmonies have also always been a unifying tool for our band. The Fruition sound has always been about being more than the sum of our parts.”
