Everyone has firsts. The first time you ride a bike. Your first day of school. Your first job. Your first apartment, or first time out of the country. The first time you wonder if anything that is definitely true might not be.
Soon enough, these firsts begin to shape our purpose. The first time you pick up a guitar, or play a piano, or hear a song that stirs your heart. The first time you realize what you were made for.
Eventually these firsts lead to a whole lot more firsts. The first time we fell in love led to a life full of more adventures and more new things than we ever imagined.
Even as we grow up, we see things with this formative first-ness. There will be a moment that marks the first time you realize you grew up, even if you didn't want to, and your life is your story now. And when you start to see that life is not as easy as you thought it would be, you may begin to recognize that behind most stories is another story. It is more than a smile in a picture perfect instagram post, or the laughter we see in a reel captured from a moment of coping in the hardship you faced that nobody knows about.
This is not to say that the smiling picture and laughing video are not real. But as beautiful and inspiring as they may be, they are an incomplete picture of a complicated whole. This whole self has some pieces you effortlessly proclaim to the world and other pieces you eagerly hide as if it would make them not exist.
That is what this project is; a hopeful and honest view of a bigger picture than what you see from afar. As we tell both the stories of the laughter and the events that contrast the good, we want to hold close the memories, the love, the mischief, and mistakes that inspire us to be more whole.
This album is a nostalgic recounting of our falling-in-love story and an honest memoir of the falling-apart narrative that we are still piecing back together in our lives of new beginnings. As memories light the way through our darkest days we sing every line with hope for a brighter future than any of our firsts.
Our story, like many others, has a lot of pain and a lot of scars intertwined with some of the most incredible segments of life. We have seen amazing places, done crazy things, and our love story is pretty sick too. We don’t hesitate on our dreams or look back when life takes us places. This life has left us with a lot of great memories and stories worth telling, even when it feels like a beautiful tragedy.
We have shared so many firsts together. From falling in love to moving thousands of miles away, with multiple encores across the country. We took ridiculous risks, started entirely new careers, never stopped trying new things, and will always chase every dream. Starting something new has never scared us, but not finding any more firsts might.
Every end sets the stage for another beginning.
I guess thats what you sign up for when you marry a girl who's name literally means new beginnings. (dawn, the encore of the sun).
This new band is an ode to many new beginnings.
This album and everything we create from it may very well be just another first for us. This is the first time we linked arms long enough to create something so special together, and strong enough to begin to tell our story. The first time we told a story our way, finally unbridled from what others think about how we tell it. We can only hope it will be the first of many, because we have a lot of stories to tell.
Creating this album has been far from easy on us, but has been healing in its own unique way. No matter what anyone thinks of it, our own healing is the first goal. We hope that along the way it is healing for you too, wherever you may need it. We are rough around the edges, and our music reflects that. We hope this album inspires you to keep doing new things, and to find new ways to radically love the people who mean the most to you, even through the hardest times.
Cheers to “All My Firsts."
Now available everywhere.
