The second full-length partnership of Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) and Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek, Works Progress Administration), “FICTION FAMILY REUNION” sees these two distinctive artists once again offering up their idiosyncratic blend of folk flavor, classic pop arrangements, and expertly etched songcraft. Where 2009’s self-titled debut was almost entirely self-created by the two musician/songwriters working in their own home studios, the new album – released via a label deal with Newark, NJ-based Rock Ridge Music – finds the duo joined by bassist Tyler Chester and drummer Aaron Redfield, both now full-fledged Family members. Songs such as “Give Me Back My Girl” or the psych-pop tour de force, “Avalon,” ring out with lyrical resonance and sonic ingenuity, the exhilarating sound of a gifted band in full flight.
“Everything just fell into place,” says Watkins. “It was so easy. When a band feels like a band, that’s an awesome thing.”
Foreman and Watkins first became fast friends when Switchfoot and Nickel Creek shared the top of the bill at their hometown music festival, San Diego’s famed Street Scene. E-mail addresses were exchanged and the duo began writing songs. Recording proved the obvious next step and in 2009, Fiction Family’s eponymous debut album was released to both popular success and critical fanfare. Touring in support of “FICTION FAMILY” required the recruitment of Foreman’s longtime friend and collaborator Aaron Redfield, who in turn enlisted his own longtime friend and collaborator, Tyler Chester. The four players meshed easily, but like any band worth its salt, were inextricably bonded by the road.
“It was the hardest tour any of us had been on in the recent past,” Foreman says, “but at the same time, it was also the most fun. We were in a Sprinter van that broke down every night. Every city we went to, it seemed like it was the coldest night on record for 40 years. But those are the situations that cement a brotherhood. It’s a bunch of people who’ve been through the mud together.”
Fiction Family came through that crucible eager to capture their shared purpose on record. They convened at Switchfoot’s Spot X Studio in Carlsbad, CA for a series of sessions spanning 2010 to early 2012, the lengthy process necessitated by Foreman and Watkins’ crowded schedules. The band produced the recordings themselves, keeping the sessions as intimate and organic as possible to best cut to the truth of the proceedings.
“What you do is, you press record in the control room and then run over, pick up your guitar, and start to play,” Foreman says. “So you tend to forget that there’s a recording going on because there’s no one there from the outside saying, let’s try that again. It’s all happening on the inside.”
With Foreman and Watkins leading on vocals, guitars, and any other instrument that might happen to strike their fancy, Fiction Family have conjured a remarkably rich collection defined by its collaborative chemistry and determined artlessness. A family in more than just name only, the band was joined on “Fools Gold” by Nickel Creek fiddle player Sara Watkins and multi-instrumentalist John Mark Painter on “Up Against The Wall.”
“It wasn’t just me and Jon,” says Watkins. “You bring a song in and the whole band puts their stamp on it. It wouldn’t be the same without them, whether or not you actually write together.
“FICTION FAMILY REUNION” is set apart by that fraternal spirit, its tight harmonies and intimate acoustic interplay marking its place on the timeless continuum of great American folk rock. Foreman specifically notes the influence of The Band’s eternal “The Weight,” describing the soulful “Up Against The Wall” as Fiction Family’s “attempt to find that same DNA and import it into what we do.”
An eclectic, adventurous energy further defines “FICTION FAMILY REUNION,” the sound of Foreman and Watkins reveling in the chance to venture out of their own familiar bailiwicks. Incredible as it may seem, Watkins’ “Damaged” features the first full-on electric solo of the guitarist’s Grammy Award-winning career, while songs like Foreman’s outlaw blues “Just Rob Me” allow for elements of narrative storytelling not regularly present in either tunesmith’s work.
“‘Fiction’ being the first word of what we’re called, that’s been an ongoing theme,” he says. “Fiction allows you to bring out the colors of the world in ways that are strange but true. When I’m deciding if a song would work for Fiction Family, it has to have that quality.”
Ultimately, Fiction Family’s ever-busy schedules proved a boon to the album. A first draft was complete in late 2011, but was then repeatedly postponed in order to accommodate everyone’s day job.
“In that delaying period, we came up with more songs,” Watkins says. “Better songs. We ended up replacing a lot of what we originally had with new ones, so it’s good that it took this long to come to fruition.”
Fiction Family will celebrate the release of “FICTION FAMILY REUNION” with a major North American tour presented by To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. From there, the band is committed to touring together at regular intervals, despite the innumerable other obligations certain to arise.
“We’re going just say, okay, there’s a time of year that is blocked off for a Fiction Family tour and that’s the way it is,” Foreman says. “Because if you build it, they will come – if you make time for it, it’ll happen.”
With “FICTION FAMILY REUNION,” Foreman and Watkins have crafted a collection as fully realized as anything in either artist’s remarkable histories, an album that reverberates with invention, passion, spontaneity, and above all, the special relationship these four musicians share. Indeed, it’s the singular camaraderie between this extraordinary band of brothers which promises Fiction Family will remain a going concern.
“There’s no shortage of songs,” says Foreman. “Any excuse to hang out and play music with these guys.”
“We really want to make this something that’s ongoing,” Watkins says. “It’s not something we put on blocks and then come back to. We definitely see this as something we want to do long term. It’s just too much fun and it needs to be something we do a lot.”
