It couldve all been over.
Are we done?'
You know, weve been a band for a long time.
The Portland, Oregon, band Fruition struggled to find their identity during the pandemic; they succeed on a new album.Kaja Sigvalda*
Do we have anything else to say?
Meeting up to jam on a friends farm in Oregon in June 2021 put all those fears to rest.
Its still there,' Anderson says.
Theres definitely more to be said and more to be done.
During their time apart, theyd gotten married, become parents, gone to rehab.
But, above all, theyd learned to have fun playing music again.
But no matter how much we grinded, we were always doing just that: we were fucking grinding.
While Thompson and Leonard both became fathers, and Anderson was married, Naja got sober.
Like so many of their peers, Fruition felt theyd had real momentum going when the pandemic hit.
All the same, theyd felt like theyd gotten boxed in.
And they nurtured us and supported us, but we dont jam and we dont play bluegrass.
That, to their ears, wasAmericana.
In all, they cut 17 songs in seven days, 13 of which made it onto the record.
Part of that was just hit the songs.
Loosening that grip on control helped bring them closer together, too.
This time, they opted to cowrite.
We had some hard conversations…
But that songs gently cooing harmonies arent allHow to Make Mistakeshas to offer.
In that sense, the time that Fruition spent apart may well have done them a favor.
Rather than hitting the end of the road, theyre convinced that theyre just getting started.
And now were in the open world, doing the thing.
