I COULD NEVER JUST COAST
Good morning from California, where I’m writing to you from LAX, about to head off to KC to see Kevin and my dogs, perform at Thundergong and try to soak in some autumnal essence before the winter takes the reigns. I’m speaking to you from the past as I occasionally do in this newsletter, fresh off some dates with one of my earliest favorite bands Rilo Kiley. That experience was so sweet and full circle and someday I’ll go into deeper detail but today I have other news I’m going to turn my attention to. Today my new band Snocaps is releasing our first album Snocaps and I am thrilled for you to finally hear it.
About 2 years ago my sister Allison and I started discussing the possibility of making music together again. Some of you know my history and I am sure some of you don’t. My twin sister Allison and I started learning to play music together when we were about 14. We had many bands together over the years, contributed a lot to each other’s solo endeavors and she’s still very involved in my career now. Allison put her music-making on pause a few years back and currently has an amazing career working on the other side of the music business as an A&R at Anti- but she had been dreaming of a return to form. Some time in early 2024 we found ourselves on opposite sides of some strange spectrum of output. I was feeling fatigued by my own voice and ideas. She herself hadn’t made any music in years and was living with a lot of creative frustration. We circled around the idea of making something akin to what we made when we were younger. When we were in our early 20s we started a band, wrote and made an album all in one week, just the two of us, and we uploaded and shared it as soon as we were finished. We longed for that type of experience again, to make something with no ambitions and no plan, purely for our own enjoyment, for the experience of making something we ourselves wanted to hear.
We started collecting and writing songs early this year and by March had 12 ready to go. In April we brought in my two most trusted collaborators Brad Cook and MJ Lenderman and together, the 4 of us made this album in Brad’s home studio over the course of a week. Every aspect of this project has felt nostalgic in a sense that it felt direct and joyful and easy. Allison and I synced up on a shared vision for the first time in forever, starting a band with our dear friends, keeping it all simple, realigning with the earliest, purest versions of our music-making selves.
There is so much more to say and in time I will say it all. My experience of Snocaps has been exactly what I needed to stay close to whatever artistic spirit lives within me and keeps me moving forward. For now I’ll just say that I hope the album brings you some joy. It brought us all a lot of joy to make it.
Stream the album wherever you stream, check out all the great lyric videos made by our dear friend Anna St. Louis on Youtube. Keep your eyes peeled for some shows, too.
More soon,
XO,
KC
