“We can play like children play / We can say like children say / Just you and I / Have we got the time,” they coo.Įntering their second decade together, Khruangbin, which also includes guitarist Mark Speer, have certainly evolved, but they’ve managed to remain loyal to their roots. “We could be together, just you and I.”īeneath time’s swinging pendulum, they long for youthful exuberance, innocence, and a return to simpler times. “If we had more time, we could live forever / Just you and I,” they lament with “Time (You and I),” the glossy album lead-in. They’d dabbled in specific imagery before, but there were new stories aching to be told. Given the nature of the album’s themes (time, memory, and longing), lyrics, which didn’t come into frame until months later, further punctuate the emotional arc. Aptly-titled Mordechai, recorded at their Burton, Texas studio, alongside co-producer Steve Christensen, the album delights with their sturdy funkadelic signatures, smooth grooves and perfectly-packaged instruments. As they began writing for their third album, the craft itself had taken an unexpected swerve, too. “Then, you’re able to get a real response and a real check-in with each other. “Sometimes, I’ll ask, ‘Hey, how are you doing,’ and the knee-jerk response is, ‘I’m good.’ You ask again, ‘How are you doing?’” he continues. Your schedule can be super hectic, but it’s important to take time, slow down, and just just ask, ‘How are you?’” And really mean it when you say it.” We always check on each other no matter what’s going on. “One of the things we learned over the course of last year, especially touring around the world and constantly being together, is that it’s so important for us to make sure each of us is doing OK individually. I was personally really conscious of being there,” muses drummer DJ Johnson Jr. “Any time a friend is going through anything, whether it be a transition or coming out of a rough spell, the main thing you want to do is be there. Lee’s presence had shifted, and her obsession with Post-It notes was evident. When Lee returned, her bandmates noticed her transformation ⏤ and not only because she spilled out her heart to them. I just would have made them more consciously.” “Even in having felt loss within the context of my life leading up to it, I feel very grounded and like I would have made all the same choices that I did make. Since that day, I definitely feel much more grounded,” says Lee. Then, there’s the real effect when all the dominoes fall, which can take months. “A lot of big events that happen in people’s lives feel really big at the time. When urged to take the leap, quite literally, over the craggy edge, Lee obliged. Later on, Mordechai and his wife and two boys took Lee on a hiking excursion, winding throughout the countryside, and the group eventually beheld the beauty of a gushing waterfall. While that might be something people see on a regular basis, I hadn’t seen it in a long time.” It was the simplicity of the day, and seeing the love of a family was really inspiring. It’s like when you say lyrics, they change meaning as they go on,” she explains. “It’s hard not to become disenchanted with my own experience of it. Such a monumental marker has been a considerable talking point in the band’s new album promo cycle, and Lee has begun feeling the crushing weight of that alone, as the memory itself begins feeling cold and distant. It was a hug and a reminder how beautiful family is,” she remarks. “It was a really sweet gesture and exactly what I needed. The stranger’s invitation left an indelible imprint, almost immediately, on her life. “I had talked to him initially one day just about my struggle in not feeling grounded because I had been nomadic for the past couple of years at that point and been on tour for more than that,” recalls Lee over a phone call last month with American Songwriter. Following this emotional and physical reprieve, Mordechai, a friend of a friend, invited Lee into his home to meet his family. So, they took a much-needed camping trip, invited a few London friends, and reconnected with nature. Funk/instrumental band Khruangbin had just come off nearly four years of touring and were in desperate need of a recharge. When Laura Lee met a man named Mordechai, little did she know he would change her life forever.
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