Will You Tell The Kids We Tried?

A New Album For Your Consideration

Making this record was an exercise in trusting the process and letting go of control. A large part of that was accepting the help of Gavin Gardiner (Georgia Harmer, Fiver, July Talk, Tokyo Police Club, The Wooden Sky) and Champagne James Robertson (Lindi Ortega, Dwayne Gretzky, Peter Dreams) collectively known as MOONRIIVR to produce and engineer the album. Gavin reached out after mastering my previous record asking if I’d be interested in working on some new songs together. While I was initially hesitant to begin work on a new solo album, James and Gavin were incredibly supportive, generous, and enthusiastic in convincing me to bring these new songs to life. 

Under Gavin and James’s direction, the album came together through true collaboration. The band for this record was comprised of long time friends and collaborators - folks who know me and my songs well but who I encouraged to play to their own instincts. Joining me on the record is Jason Tait (Bahamas, The Weakerthans), John Baron (William Prince, Begonia), Julie Penner (Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene), Keiran Placetka (Madeleine Roger, William Prince), Dominique Adams (Leith Ross, Madeleine Roger, Slow Leaves), and Taylor Jackson.

This is a band record. We spent 6 days sitting in a circle taking skeletons of songs and arranging them into what you hear today.  I would play the band a song on acoustic guitar or piano, and then we would record live takes all together into a Tascam 388 tape machine until we felt we had captured it. Relinquishing control to the band is not something that comes naturally to my control-freak brain, but I think that tension between wanting to hold onto control and being forced to let go took the songs to places I never would have been able get to on my own. 

The result I think (hope) is a more earnest, vulnerable, and raw record than my previous release. These songs were captured as they were born, and I feel like the limitations of the time, tape, and space we had to record forced us to take more risks, and commit to them, as terrifying as that might be. I think what I’m most proud of about this record is the trust we built together in the studio and how that trust translates into the arrangements themselves.

The songs on this record are slightly more personal and political than my last album. The record is born out of seismic life changes. In the past few years, I’ve had two kids, started and ended a career, and learned to live with some pretty serious mental health challenges.

At the same time, I still feel like there is more hope on this record. I wrote a lot about finding community, seeing good in tough situations, and learning to feel less allergic to growing up and getting older. A lot of that optimism came from working with Gavin and James. Their infectious enthusiasm for the songs and their musical aesthetic brought a levity to even the heaviest songs that was felt in the room while we were tracking.

The record get’s it’s name from a few different places. On one level, telling the kids we tried is directed at my own kids; hoping for understanding as to why we’re insisting on raising them in a world I don’t necessarily believe in anymore.

On another level, it’s a message to campers and staff I had to abruptly walk away from at the children’s summer camp I used to run.

Finally, it’s also a refrain for the world we’re leaving our kids. Tell them we tried.