The New Empires Are Back.
with a new single in hand.
Last fall I found myself back in the studio with my band, The New Empires. We recorded a new single that will (hopefully) be one of many in the coming years. The last time we recorded anything was in 2010. We were young, with our rose-colored glasses on, largely inexperienced with the many cruelties of the world, and we were trying to “make it”.
We gave it a good shot. We played gig after gig anywhere we could— bars, churches and everything in-between.
But after a few rounds of marriage, moving, and babies, we all sort of stopped pursuing “making it”, and things went dormant (though we never quit and we never broke up, contrary to popular belief). And though we had some personnel swaps here and there, and a band name change, the band has always been “the band”— a huge part of my life that is more like family than anything else.
Through our dormancy, we still saw each other semi-regularly, even making good on a promise we made while in college— to have a band reunion in Casper, Wyoming for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.
But while all of those get-togethers were wonderful, we were missing a big part of what made us, us: fresh creativity. Every time we got together, we played old tunes and reminisced about college days and touring, but we weren’t making anything new. Being together always felt right, but there was a longing for more.
And then something changed in January of 2020. It was time. It was time to just see what may come if we dedicated an entire weekend to each other, and to creating. We spent a couple weekends making new music and restructuring old tunes and our kids played together and we stayed up late drinking whiskey and catching up. We were making up for lost time and creativity was flowing. And while we were discussing plans for shows and records, I remember saying, “I feel a sense of urgency to keep going.” I’m not sure if this is because I know we won’t live forever, or if the uncertainty of what the future holds was looming over me, but…
Then Covid hit.
Suffering. Disconnection. Loss. Confusion…
It would have been easy to give up entirely, but instead, we leaned in. We used online platforms to record practice tracks and we shared ideas and utilized Zoom just like everyone else to stay connected. In hindsight, the creativity was already locked back in and there was no stopping it.
When we were finally able to be together in person again (a year and a half later), we hit the ground running, with fresh material and a different kind of longing. It was more like a stubborn determination to see this thing through, damnit. We had unexpectedly grown so much, and I think honestly, were probably more ready than ever to create the songs we wished we could make before. Songs with deeper heart and intentional, thoughtful musicality.
So we did just that. We have an entire list of songs to give you all, and I hope we can give them all to you one day. But to start, we recorded a song that came into existence during our “making it” days that we never recorded.
And through the now-muddied glasses of these late-thirty-to-early-forty-something year-olds, with no desire to “make it” beyond hoping you love it, we give you this heart-felt single that is full of everything it was supposed to be all along.
I hope you enjoy what we made for you. I hope the words Matt and Joel wrote connect deeply in your soul. I hope you feel the magic, the longing, and the hope in the notes and hooks. I hope you listen over and over and over again and tell all your friends, and I hope it connects with them too. I hope more than anything, that while we live in times that feel more perilous than even Covid days, that this song (with it’s themes on the Civil War, brotherly memories, and division) helps us all collectively long and hope for a unity that is buried deep in compassion and love for each other.
I’ll leave you with that for now. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening.
<3,
Steph/Anie
Ah man, this is so lovely Steph. The video is great!
This made me smile so much.