10 Questions with ... Fruition

1. Can you recall the moment when you thought you could be in this group together? Do you find that your band name still represents you and your music today?

Mimi Naja: Yes, it was when Kellen (Asebroek), Jay, and I first sang harmonies together.

Jay Cobb Anderson: Yes, when we all first sang together like Mimi said, but also after Tyler Thompson entered the band as our drummer, and finally when Jeff Leonard came in to play bass. After that I think we felt more comfortable in our skin, and our capabilities as a group expanded musically. So, I guess the name does represent us well still. Mainly because I think we are still growing and flourishing.

2. Let’s talk about your latest album, Broken At The Break Of Day. Did anything about the process of putting it together surprise any of you?

Mimi: It felt the most cohesive creatively speaking of any of our projects. And yes, the songwriter is the songwriter, but all five of us equally arranged and made suggestions and came up with riffs and styles and tidbits that made the final cuts what they are.

Jay: I was surprised at how well it all went together, especially with how insane and chaotic the process was. It was stressful and so very exhausting to be recording all of this in the middle of a tour.

3. What was the inspiration for your current radio single, “Dawn”?

Jay: Mimi had a riff and I just started going stream of consciousness with the lyrics. We finished writing it altogether, and in the end the song kind of turned into a hectic day described through a bit of psychedelic perspective. I worked hard to get the chorus to try to tie it all together.

4. Generally, how does this group go about writing your music? Do you write together or separately?

Mimi: We try every possible approach we can.

Jay: This was more of a collaboration than anything we’d ever done before. But, generally, we all write separately in any way possible. For me it can be a poem that turns into a melody, a melody that lends itself to a vibe that entices inspiration to write, or sometimes the sky opens up, and the holy whole is bestowed upon you all at once.

5. How do you feel that this band has grown through the years?

Mimi: We’re all better humans, and therefore better musicians. We’re all still beautifully sensitive and still love each other immensely, and we’re all still perfectly silly

Jay: We have come leaps and bounds from the good-time busking string band we started as. I think only in the last three years have we grown into what we’ve been capable of this whole time. What I mean is we’ve found our sound. We do take the music more seriously, but the rest of the time we are still just as ridiculous and silly as we have always been.

6. Where do you think you are all happiest -- in the studio recording new music, on stage performing?

Jay: I love both the studio and the stage in very different ways. The studio is a playground to create and I love it more every year. The stage is a place of cathartic release. The problem with the stage is the touring it takes to get to each stage. Touring gets harder as the years go on. There’s a balance somewhere that we are striving to find.

7. What do you think makes for an ideal show for this band?

Jay: Ideal for me would be different than for everyone else. My ideal show for this band is a packed-out, 500-capacity dive bar. I love the energy of a small room that’s full and raging. The last couple shows we played on this tour were fun and packed raging crowds like I said. One in Philadelphia and another in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh sang a lot of our song lyrics from the last 10 years! That was special.

8. With all the different social media platforms out there, how do you balance it all?

Jay: Everyone’s over saturated with information. And the platforms are constantly changing. We just try to keep up and keep it real as possible.

9. What musicians have really been inspiring you all since you first started making music? Who would you still love to work with?

Jay: All the classics of course. We all have different musical tastes in the band so it’s different for everyone. For me: The Beatles, Motown, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, Delta Blues, The Kinks, TRex, Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Dave Rawlings, The Band, Folk music, Jack White, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, the list is ever evolving and too long to put down.

I’d like to work with Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, and my dream is to work with Tom Waits and or Jack White.

10. What do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people continue to take away from your songs?

Jay: I hope that people just connect to the music. I hope that we can inspire healing, entice some good times, help people process whatever they are going through, and, also, help folks let loose!

Photo Credit: Josh Nicotra