Abby K shares latest single “Bread” – RIYL resplendent folk-pop
Abby K is delighted to share ‘Bread’, the latest single from her forthcoming new album Where We’re At out March 31st. The song, Abby says, is about “the value of being artistically successful and always challenging yourself.” Making art and making bread are inherently different activities, but they can nurture a person in their own way. Both require patience, are driven by intrinsic motivation, and require vulnerability. Mastering your craft is the most rewarding result of all.
Much about love and life in art tends to be about beginnings and endings. Rarely is work that aims for the in-between, a space without edgy butterflies or a neatly tied (or messy) finish. This makes Abby K’s new album, Where We’re At, a unique endeavor as it explores a moment in time no less complicated or compelling than the bookends of a story.
Where We’re At was created as a wedding anniversary gift of sorts. Abby and Brian were looking forward to a celebratory getaway to celebrate their 20th birthday, but the pandemic quickly dashed those plans. With their children at the only functioning summer camp in the Lower 48, they found themselves alone and homebound. It was a fitting opportunity to reflect on where life’s adventure had taken them over the past two decades as they co-wrote a song as a gift for each other. The title track “Where We’re At” flowed from that first session, capturing their evolving love for one another, but also taking stock of the issues affecting the entire world at the time (political divisions, the ongoing fight for racial justice, global conflicts and climate change to name a few). What they had planned as a one-off quickly grew into something bigger when they realized they had only scratched the surface in trying to unravel the “alien rhyme” of an extraordinary season in their lives.
Abby and Brian had worked together on songs here and there, but they had never started writing an entire album as a team. Together they would work to create the story and songs for the album, bringing it all to life under Abby’s voice and artistry. When asked if “Where We’re At” could be described as a concept album built around the story of a marriage, the two more aptly describe the album as a time capsule. Something they hope their children will rediscover as adults and share with their own children. “That time span felt unrecognizable and difficult to put into words,” they share, “we wanted to capture, preserve and curate those moments.”
Abby has released three full-length LPs to date, including her latest album, The Whole Truth, which was released in 2019. While she describes The Whole Truth as a sometimes painful and cathartic exercise in coming to terms with many personal truths, Abby sees Where We’re At as an opportunity to “express myself for who I am, without embarrassment or embarrassment To ponder what a listener might think, to stand up against what is wrong and to write about issues that really matter on a global scale.” The album’s lyrics and varied soundscapes reflect the couple’s shared collection of laughs and tears , as they find their way forward by coming to a true understanding of where they stand.
