The veteran Grand Rapids band plays a sold-out release show tonight and reveals its back story for Local Spins on WYCE, which also debuted Michigan music by The Erly, Mike Ward, MaRynn Taylor & more.
Incredible Fan Support That’s ‘Bloomed Exponentially’: The Crane Wives released their new album today. (Courtesy Photo)
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Over the past 14 years, some things haven’t changed for The Crane Wives during their “wild journey” as a band.
The Grand Rapids quartet still loves making music together, still enjoys touring, still revels in the special chemistry and musical magic that occurs when their songs click and their voices blend.
“We all love each other and we get along great and we learn to read each other, so we have fun. We have a lot of fun,” said guitarist Kate Pillsbury.
“I think that it’s always incredible when adults can have a dream together and work collaboratively to make that dream come true, and then stay together in the midst of everything else that happens in life.”
Added drummer Dan Rickabus: “We’re all such fans of each other’s work.”
On the flip side, this isn’t the same Crane Wives that started out humbly, crooning folk-grounded music accompanied by a couple of acoustic guitars.
Fans of Each Other’s Work: The Crane Wives (Press Photo)
Now touted as an indie alt-rock band, The Crane Wives — who officially release their new studio album, “Beyond Beyond Beyond,” in a sold-out show at The Intersection tonight (Friday) — fire up stages across the country propelled by electric guitars and a rambunctious rock attitude, something reflected in their first full-length studio recording since 2016’s “Foxlore.”
Pillbury said she and fellow guitarist-singer Emilee Petersmark went through “a little bit of a rebellious phase” after the band – Pillsbury, Petersmark, Rickabus and bassist Ben Zito – pared back from a five-piece (with a banjo) to a four-piece outfit in 2015.
“We wanted to dig into guitar and take it more seriously,” she recalled. “I just think once we found that new form of self-expression, it just kind of led the way. We both use guitar writing to structure our songs and we really are very intentional about how guitar parts are interplaying with the lyrics and what not.
“Even in our early days, we always loved being rowdy, performing a rowdy show and playing to bars. Being performing artists really guided our musical sound because we have always been intoxicated by that high-energy crowd, and it’s just really fun to play rock music to a high-energy crowd. So, it just kept going and going.”
VIDEO: The Crane Wives, “Bitter Medicine”
A SPECIAL RECORD-RELEASE WITH VISUALS
That high energy will certainly be on display at The Intersection, with The Crane Wives planning a special show for their homecoming event in front of their devoted Michigan fans after a summer of crisscrossing the United States in front of jam-packed crowds.
“We really put a lot of thought into this show and we really wanted to make it special,” said Pillsbury, noting the band hired a production designer, have added visuals to the show and will incorporate a deaf interpreter team for the performance that will also features special guests cellist Jordan Hamilton and violinist Samantha Cooper. The 8 p.m. show — with opening acts Patty PerShayla and Cal in Red — also will be live-streamed. (Details here; cost $10.)
The Crane Wives have managed to cultivate a devoted audience for their music locally and nationally, with “this incredible, ephemeral community of our fans” who “give us the same passionate response,” Rickabus said.
“We are so lucky. They are a dream audience. They make each other feel safe to feel their feelings and they show us that our songs mean so much more than we ever knew. In all my time of being in bands, I’ve never seen fans scream every word to a brand new song before it’s even released,” he added.
Lighting the Way: The band has another tour later this year. (Press Photo)
“They hunt down live performance videos on YouTube and dissect the lyrics before we’ve even announced a release date for a single. It’s the exact kind of fervent fandom I’ve lived for my favorite bands, so it feels really special to be on the other side of that hype.”
Much of that hype revolves around the new songs on “Beyond Beyond Beyond,” music created after the pandemic and after the band jettisoned some material originally planned for “Foxlore’s” follow-up. After two songwriting retreats, they pruned their arsenal of available tracks with Rickabus crafting “the vision of the album” – a trajectory of inner conflict, grief, joy and uncertainty, finally arriving “at a place of being ready to take a brave step into making change.”
Recorded at Zito’s Centennial Sound in Grand Rapids, Rickabus noted that “the end of the record intentionally loops back to the beginning musically, so hopefully people enjoy it enough to keep it spinning in a circle.”
The album reflects “a big gigantic, exponential swoop” of support and growth the past two years, he said, along with experimentation and renewed collaboration.
“My hope for the future is that we can continue to work together to find balance and sustainability,” Rickabus said of the band that has another leg of its U.S. tour kicking off in mid-October in support of “Beyond Beyond Beyond.”
“There are a lot of unhealthy narratives and patterns baked into the music industry that we’re trying to dodge. I’m proud of how we’ve been able to navigate this wild journey together as the support has bloomed exponentially. … We’ve been able to work together so well as a team to make what we want out of this thing rather than be swept up by it. I want to keep us, as human beings, nourished and grounded so we can keep finding inspiration and keep making songs for the people.”
For this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE – which showcases Michigan music at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org – The Crane Wives spotlighted two tracks from the new album, “Bitter Medicine” and “Black Hole Fantasy.”
The show also featured 2024 tracks by The Erly, The Bootstrap Boys, Gianna Stansell, Cal in Red, Mike Ward, Spencer LaJoye, Silver Creek Revival, Big Timmy & The Heavy Chevys and MaRynn Taylor. Listen to the podcast here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (9/6/24)
BONUS COVERAGE: Listen to the full Local Spins interview with Dan Rickabus and Kate Pillsbury of The Crane Wives, with more details about the new studio album and upcoming touring plans.
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