you just settle in

Hello hello, 

It’s been around a week since I told you about my new album Tigers Blood and your response has been so warm that from afar it feels a bit electric. It’s gotten me so excited to bring the show on the road. I’ve put so much thought into how to bring the new record to life and damn, I just cannot wait to put it all into action. There are plenty of ways to experience an audience’s reaction to your own music these days, I reckon. For me, it all really starts to feel real and shared and purposeful when I’m singing the songs for you face-to-face. I just simply can’t wait for that. 

I thought I’d tell you a little bit about the first single “Right Back to It” and how it shaped what the whole record became. This is a story I’ve already told bits and pieces of to a handful of writers but I’d like to put it in my own words. It all started back in 2021 when I wrote the melody and wasn’t sure it sounded like something I would ever sing.  I was sitting back in our old studio playing piano and out of my mouth it came. October 20th, 2021 (according to my voice memos). The verse and chorus came together immediately and right away I thought of Kevin. 

At first, in my imagination, this song was a duet for Kevin and I to sing together. We occasionally toy with the idea of making a record together and I thought this may be a good jumping off point for that. I vaguely remember humming it to him and saying as much. Life soon got busy. I filed the melody away as something to return to when the time felt right. I set it aside for months and months and started a big year of touring the US. 

At some point in the spring and summer of 2022, I started writing lyrics to a bunch of melodies I had banked. This is how writing albums sometimes works for me. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then everything all at once, regardless of where I am or what I’m doing. It started while I was at home in Kansas City, then came along with me on the road. My band and crew were just the best sports about the whole thing. I would set up shop on the bus or in spare dressing rooms &  camp out all day, chipping away at songs until they were finished. I wrote “3 Sisters” this way. I wrote “Crowbar” this way. I wrote “Right Back to It” this way, backstage at Wolftrap, opening up for Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell. I remember passing Jason on my way out to the bus & telling him about the hot hand I was having with songwriting. I felt compelled to let him in on my excitement because I think it’s universally the best feeling to be in that zone. We’re all always chasing after that.

This song always felt like a love song to me. It just sounds like one. I don’t write a lot of love songs and I’ve really always felt like my comfort zone lingers around heartache, loss or anything that would evoke a little sadness. I experimented with writing songs about being in love on “Saint Cloud” because I really felt like for the first time I was settled and happy with someone. I could dig into the complexities of love and examine it. I took that approach when writing “Right Back to It” as well, approaching a love story in a totally unromantic way. My experience of being with someone for a long time really feels like surfing waves. There are triumphs and failures and it all begs for calmness, patience and humility. How we show up for it doesn’t always align and so in this song I wanted to pay tribute to the endurance of a long love even in moments of dissonance. One person is thrown off balance and the other person’s steadiness can sometimes set them back on course. 

Okay, now let’s quickly rewind back to March of 2022, I had joined Kevin at SXSW and early on in the trip I found myself wandering around with nothing to do. Kevin was busy and I was killing time. I checked my phone and Brad and Allison (who were both at SXSW as well) had texted me the same thing at the same time unbeknownst to each other. “Come to Cheer Ups, this guy MJ Lenderman is about to play. You’re gonna love it.” I went. My mind was completely blown. The performance singlehandedly smothered any existential malaise I was feeling. I got an early copy of “Boat Songs” shortly thereafter and listened to almost nothing else for the rest of the year. 

Fast-forward back to summer. Brad and I are surveying the current state of my indecipherable sixth album. No official demos or creative decisions had been made. I’d brought a large handful of finished melodies and lyrics to the table but nothing else had really made its way to the surface. While brainstorming I threw out the idea of bringing in Jake Lenderman, thinking that would be later in the process once we knew what we were doing. We’d had such a fruitful and fun time working with Bonny Doon on Saint Cloud so maybe this would be similar, but I didn’t know Jake as well as those guys so I was a little timid about it. To my surprise, Brad arranged for Jake to attend the very first demo session in August.

When Jake arrived at that first session I was pretty immediately put at ease. He somehow possesses this truly extraordinary talent but is also so deeply unpretentious. He’s about 10 years younger than me and part of a scene that reminds me so much of the scene I came up in. Getting to know him has really helped me realign with some core values I have about being an artist & without that having happened, I’m not sure I would have made the same record. I really owe him a lot for his creative contribution obviously, but really his energetic contribution as well. Spending time with him and his friends and band has helped me remember why I even do what I do. After a whirlwind couple of years and nearly 2 decades of churning away, that was extremely appreciated and important for me.

Anyways - where were we. 

 He came to the session, we jammed, he played drums at first then switched over the guitar when Brad called in Matt McCaughan for the day. When we ran “Right Back to It” I think it was the first moment where Brad and I felt like we’d stumbled on something worth drilling down on. That first demo is really similar to the finished song. One of the last things we did before Jake left for Asheville was have him sing a harmony on “Right Back to It”. I very presumptuously and probably with a decent amount of stage mom energy attempted to coach Jake through the harmony as I heard it. He very politely took that information in, went into the booth and sang something completely different but so much better. When he sang the line “You just settle in—-“ Brad & I darted our eyes to each other. That was really the moment the whole thing came into focus for us and we felt like we were doing something super exciting. 

Off of that session we piggybacked the entire plan for making what became Tigers Blood. It was the lightning rod that lit up the entire vision and set us on our path.  

I’ll stop my story here today. More soon. Thanks so much for reading. 

-KC

PS: tickets are on sale, RBTI is streaming and more music will be coming soon! And lastly, I had a lovely conversation with Elle Hunt about the new record for the Guardian that came out Friday!