Details
JUDAH & THE LIONTo paraphrase John Lennon, life is what happens when youre busy making other albums. After recording2022sRevival,singer-songwriter Judah Akers decided to creatively face the fact that his own life had imploded.Over their decade as Nashvilles crossover folk heroes Judah nRollin 2016.With2019sPep Talks,they revealed the musical confidence to grapple with real life struggles, setting Akerscandid dispatcheson alcoholism and family trauma to their cohering mix of acoustic roots and Alt Rock. But throughout the creation of2022sRevival,after the departure of longtime banjo player Nate Zuercher, Akers kept a tight lid on some grinding personal agony thatwas keeping him frozen, creatively and in life.The band had madeRevivalduring the pandemic,with the intention of bringing more positivity to the world. But during itscreation,I was fighting for my marriage, going crazy, and getting sick,says Akers, 33.Ifought writing about what I was goingthrough. Finally, a friend told me,If you dont write about the biggest heartbreak of your life, you cant be honest in your work.And he was right.Since Akers and Macdonald are both sons of therapists, ideas likeElisabethKbler-Rosss five stages of griefwere relatively close to hand, and once Akers committed to the harder material, the concept emerged as an almost inevitablealbum conceit.It gave us a way to embody the tough and sometimes really negative emotions that I deal with in songs, butwithin a larger framework of empathy, forgiveness, and hope.Like Kbler-Rosss model, the album begins withDenial,a hushed invocation over wordless choral voices, the singer musingon being inside an unruly psychic process:Just when I thought that I had accepted it/Id just sink into another depression.Thesong is likeopening the door to a house,Akers explains.Where you want to indicate all the rooms a visitor will find inside,the range of experiencestheyll have.The music enacts a subtle morphing within the track, as Macdonald described playingthe mixing board like an instrument, faders moving on recorded tracksdubbing autotuned vocals, raw ones, acousticinstruments, synth washesbringing different emotional textures to the foreground.We wanted it to feel as if all the emotionsfrom the record were spinning around you,Macdonald says
Download the Beatmatch app
Beatmatch is the social events platform for music, art, and culture. We empower people create events, discover experiences, and build community in real life. Join Beatmatch so you can do more together!
