Q&A with American duo The Narrative

 

We are maybe some of the worst people at naming things alive today. When it came time to pick a band name, which felt like a really important decision, we had no immediate inspiration. Like anyone naming something with no real inspiration, we made a huge list of names.

 

The first name we chose was actually “January Window” which was taken from a line in a Sylvia Plath poem, and we actually released our first demo under that name. In hindsight, it’s not such a bad name, but it felt awkward to us then, so we went back to the list and asked some friends for help.

 

In the end, the winning suggestion was to drop the word “paradigm” off of “The Narrative Paradigm”, and we wound up with “The Narrative”. The Narrative Paradigm is a theory which suggests meaningful human communication comes from storytelling, as we are natural storytellers and respond strongly to narratives.

 

Anyway, don’t ask us about how we choose our song names.

 

In line with our band name and its lineage, we have always been natural storytellers. Our songs generally walk the line between things that are highly personal to us, and a somewhat altered but hopefully generally relatable version of those things.

 

In many ways we are similar writers in these regards, but we of course are our own unique selves. When you listen to a song that started with Suzie, it will be melodically and lyrically different than a song that starts with me. All of the songs on New Anxieties but ‘Higher’ really at the core started with Suzie. We’ve always helped each other with lyrics, but the majority of the experiences explored and the way they’re explored lyrically are Suzie’s.

 

Those songs explore distinct themes of a series of personal emotional struggles and attempts to see yourself through them. On the Ride, for example, is largely a song about letting go and letting life lead the way. It’s an exploration of a potential solution for some of the problems described in the other songs.

 

Right, so this one came together a little differently. It started as an instrumental track I had done, and Suzie came in and wrote a top line melody and some ideas around verse lyrics and melodies. I then took it and fleshed out most of the lyrics based on her ideas, which also resonated with me. So this is very much a combined effort, and a song that really stems from both of us as we were both going through a lot of the same things.

 

I think a lot of things I’ve written lately have been lyrically thematic around losing myself as an individual, and as a musician. I love my kids, but I always tell people who are thinking of having kids that it’s a rebirth. Your old self dies, and you are born anew. There is not really a better or worse, but you can’t expect to ever have your old self back again. You may miss parts of your old self, and you may reach for them, but there is always a living, breathing, often screaming reminder that that person is gone.

 

‘Higher’ really explores both this sensation of loss and rebirth all at the same time. It’s a very complex, kind of bipolar story jammed into an 80’s influenced pop song. I think it’s kind of emblematic of our band in many ways, a really good representation of all of our strengths coming together via a truly collaborative effort.

 

This was kind of a unique writing experience for us vs. a lot of previous songs because of how much of the work we did individually. The songs would get tossed over a virtual fence from Suzie to me, I’d sit with them and arrange around them until we had a thing, and then we wrapped everything with a bow with longtime friend & producer Bryan Russell.

 

In terms of specific experiences, I turn to ‘Higher’ again because it’s the one track where we did a bunch of work in the room together, listening back and throwing out ideas. When we made our first EP, Just Say Yes, we spent countless nights going to Suzie’s tiny apartment and sitting in her loft just throwing ideas back and forth and it always felt really natural. A lot of times you get in a room with someone and the vibes are just off, but that was never the case with us, and I enjoyed getting back to those roots a bit, which is something we’ve been exploring more of lately.

 

We’ve been having discussions about what’s next. With this album, we did this drip release thing where we released one song at a time and those became an EP. Everyone is releasing singles, we live in a singles world now and the era of the album feels kind of dead, which is sad to us. We were dead set for a little while on falling into the culture of singles, but on further reflection we’re thinking we’d really like to just get another album together. We are an album band.

 

We’ve also each got out own things we’re exploring separately. Suzie is releasing a solo record very soon, so keep an eye out for that! I have been exploring a few very different sounds which may find their way to other projects or could find a home with The Narrative at some point.

 

Our main goal is to just keep making music together in some capacity. And on that note, I want to thank all of the people who support that goal, especially those folks who are members of our Patreon. The thing that inspires us most is knowing other people care about what we do.