Come to Fruition

Fruition fans might have caught a recent milestone for the band: an interview in Rolling Stone, at bit.ly/rollingstonefruition.

The genre-spanning group (it’s been described as bluegrass, folk-pop and Americana, among others) formed in Portland in 2008 and includes two former Lewiston residents, Jay Cobb Anderson and Tyler Thompson.

Anderson talked about the genesis of Fruition’s latest album, “How to Make Mistakes,” in the interview with Rolling Stone’s Jeff Gage:

“There were definitely moments where you just question everything that you’ve done in your life and [ask], ‘Is this a band? Are we done?’ ” says singer and guitarist Jay Cobb Anderson over a Zoom call with his co-songwriters and lead vocalists, Mimi Naja and Kellen Asebroek. “You know, we’ve been a band for a long time. Do we have anything else to say?”

Turns out, they did.

Anderson, Naja and Asebroek go on in the interview to share the journeys — musical and life — that led to the new album, out last month. They explain the band’s move beyond the “jamgrass” scene, emerging as the Americana group it’s really always been.

We caught up with Anderson and Thompson via email to catch up on Fruition, post Rolling Stone.

Inland 360: What is your Lewiston connection?

Jay Cobb Anderson: I was born and raised in Lewiston and graduated from Lewiston High School, class of ’02. I come back to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley every year for most holidays to see family. My mom and dad, my grandmas and grandpa, and most of my aunts and uncles and cousins still live in the valley.

Tyler Thompson: I was actually born in Spokane and moved to Lewiston in 1995, but my siblings were born in Clarkston. My sister has been a teacher at LHS for 10+ years, and my mom has worked at Lewis-Clark State College for 20+ years, so I still have a very strong connection to the valley.

360: Where is each of you based now? What has it been like creating and performing now that Fruition’s band members live in different places around the country?

JCA: Right now, the band is pretty well spread out. I live in Seattle. We have one member in Atlanta, one in Brooklyn, one in Vermont and another who lives in Pittsburgh. Living in different cities doesn’t seem to have affected us all that much. If anything, having some space makes it that much more refreshing when we get together. And we usually tour enough that we don’t really need rehearsals going into shows. But if it’s been a while, we will schedule some rehearsals.

TT: I met my wife, Samantha, in Pittsburgh while on tour eight years ago, and I’ve been living here ever since. Since then, the band has dispersed across the country. Sure, it’s difficult for spontaneous jamming or songwriting, but we see each other so often on the road, it’s actually a nice balance. Seems much healthier than the days when we would tour 200 days on the road and then come home to each other living in the same house.

360: Congrats again on the Rolling Stone interview. It sounded like you as a band hit a point where you’re comfortable just making the music you want without trying to avoid or attract any particular category. How does that open you up to continue creating together, and what can listeners expect next?

JCA: Thank you! We are quite chuffed about the new record.

It’s funny how certain records get more attention than others, but this one to me just feels like what we’ve always done. We try to do justice to the songs individually. It’s always been the most important thing for us to serve the song first, and then make some kind of congruent piece next for a full album. And if you listen back to each record, I believe you will see that we’ve always made whatever we wanted, without any thought of where it’s supposed to fit. If a song is a rock ’n’ roll song and we want to do it, we lean into that. If it’s a soul song, or a country song, or a folk song, we lean into whatever feels right once more for the song. We’ve never thought about what category our music is put into. We’re artists. When you are making art, you can’t think like that, or you’ll probably make something that’s less than genuine, and trite.

If anything for this most recent record, we leaned into making an “Americana” record. But I feel like that’s what we’ve always done. There’s just a good name for it now that’s been accepted and understood in the language of music genres. And listeners can expect us to continue to honor whatever it is that we are resonating with for our next record. Which we already have recorded.

TT: After four years of not making any albums, we have a lot of material to work with. In those four years there was a pandemic, some got married, some got sober and some had babies. Long story short, there was a lot of change in all of our lives, so we wanted to show the world the most honest version of this new phase of the band. This album is made up of songs we felt didn’t need any extra studio tricks, which meant no overdubs, just like so many of our favorite classic albums were recorded. This was something we had never done before, so I can confidently say, this album is the best representation of us live, because it was done all live in the studio. Up next, we have another album with our favorite Portland producer, Tucker Martine. I don’t wanna give away too much, but it should be coming out later in 2025, we hope.

360: What would you say are your personal musical influences? Who were you listening to, growing up in little old Lewiston, Idaho? Who do you listen to now?

JCA: Personal musical influences are all over the place for me. Growing up, I was turned on to The Beatles by my dad, who really influenced me with all the music from the ’50s and ’60s. When I saw “A Hard Day’s Night” at 9 years old, I asked for a guitar and got one on my next birthday.

Other than that, we would listen to the golden oldies radio station when we ate dinner. I loved all the bubblegum pop from those days, and all the catchy melodies and harmonies really sank into me. Everything from Dion, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, to the Dave Clark Five and all things Motown. And my mom always listened to the current radio stuff of the times. She seemed to know all the words to all of the new stuff from the ’80s through the ’90s and beyond, from the Bengals and Billy Idol, to Alanis Morissette and Boys to Men. And both of my parents can sing beautifully, so we would always be singing together. It was a lovely way to come up.

But as I got older, I got into Nirvana, Bob Marley, Primus, Sublime, TLC, The Fugees and Weezer. Also I would listen to whatever live music was around in the valley. Getting to see the masterful musicianship of the Seidel Brothers to the unabashed wild energy of The Rummies really had an effect on me. Bands that were my peers like The Gravel Children, The Lawyers, The Spaniards and The Bad Bats all had a lasting impression on me, and the local scene when I was coming up was just so vast and vibrant. I’m grateful for all of it.

Now I listen to all kinds of stuff, but some of my favorites are Dr. Dog, Anna Tivel, Built to Spill, Madison Cunningham, Micheal Hurley, Richard Swift, Willie Nelson, Dan Reeder and always J. J. Cale.

TT: Growing up in Lewiston, I mostly remember listening to what my older siblings and parents were listening to. The Beatles, CSN&Y, Van Morison, Bob Marley, the Roots, G. Love & Special Sauce, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and a lot of jazz. As a teenager, I found myself playing a lot of local jazz gigs with my band the Kartel, but also played a lot of classic rock covers in my parents’ band, True North.

Nowadays I love listening to Beck, Father John Misty, Ty Segall, Dean Johnson and Kassi Valazza, but to be honest I mostly find myself listening to current recording projects I’m producing/mixing or what my almost-2-year-old son enjoys dancing to.

360: Looks like your current tour hits Portland and Seattle. Any chance you’ll be playing closer to home anytime soon?

JCA: Would love to play the valley again sometime. Not sure where or what that would look like, but I always love playing the old hometown. Nothing in the books yet, but hopefully there will be.

TT: Not that I’m aware of, but we would always love to perform in the valley.

“If you book us, we will come.”