When we first started tracking these songs, I joked about calling the record “Existential Love Songs from Middle Age.” It’s probably still somewhat appropriate—these songs certainly are existential and many of them started as love songs. But as we kept adding tunes (and taking away) and the thing took shape it was obviously about more than just love songs or middle age or even existentialism. When Laremy suggested TRYING as a title, I laughed it off; I’m sure we were in the middle of a long text thread about different possible titles. But I just kept going back to it—and realized that the songs did too. Before We Know starts with a version of the serenity prayer: “I keep trying not care about the things I cannot change.” (dis)appear centers around the idea: “I am trying the best I can/to hold this life both loose and tight”. It’s all over Mother Mary, trying to see the holy in the everday, trying to tell someone just exactly how you love them, trying to understand how we’re made of atoms and yet. In Murmur—the most love-song song on the record—the idea is at the center of the chorus: part of loving a person is to keep telling them how and how much you love them, despite never quite getting it right. And getting it right? What takes more trying than doing the right thing? Right‽

Every time I make a record I think it’s my finest work and I hope that’s always true, but I’m as close to certain as I get on that with this record. But even better than that? We had loads of fun. We did it our way, holed up in Back Back, slowly making progress. We invited friends, like the venerable Reverend Doctor Jeremy Perigo who saxamaophones his way into my very marrow (that one great blue note makes me grin every time). People Are People Too includes some of my favorite musicians—my brother Caleb, old band mates Jacob Champlin and Josh Engen, Christian Lief doing non-drum, super-Christian things. And a master of music history to boot in Joe Mann’s string work.

This is a strange life I’ve found myself in, making my favorite music with my literal neighbors for a specific place and time. And I think it’s that strange specificity is what makes the act of TRYING into the art of TRYING, something the four of us practice to differing degrees of success everyday. We hope you like the record, hope you love it really. We tried our best.