The Elephant
in the Room

“The Elephant in the Room” is a collection of delightful short stories arranged in an eclectic mix of original tunes, ranging from energetic and catchy, to calm and enveloping. Throughout the whole album, Zach and Maggie have carefully chosen music styles that intentionally match the “color” of the lyrics and character of each song, effectively a hand-in-hand technique. These fun and insightful stories explore the perspectives of various endearing characters, dividing the album evenly between two tones that capture an essence of either “playfulness” or “perspective”, a combination of ideas that Maggie refers to as “salty-sweet”. The first half of the album examines playfulness, where humor and honest scenarios unite from real-life experience, processed through comedy and a lens of “caricature”. These songs are just fun to listen to, lyrics to laugh to, and music to enjoy, no matter the current mood. The second half of the album explores perspective, songs that help process and understand aspects of life that often seem troubling until the subject is examined from a different angle. Like parables or fairytales, the perspective of another character can sometimes be helpful, observing certain issues “through another's eyes”. So a more serious tone of reflection provides an opportunity for the imagination to wander through the music into these unique characters' perspectives. Combined, this album shares a larger, beautiful story from all the little connected stories, creating an album you will enjoy returning to, again and again.

Making this Album

Making this album was a complete delight, mostly due to all the dear friends and musical mentors we were able to gather around us during the recording session. When originally discussing the process of making this album with our amazing producer, Seth Earnest, we decided that we wanted to create an atmosphere of collaboration. This led us to a studio in Nashville called Farmhouse, owned and operated by our good friend, Caleb Fisher. An older structure with soft edges, due to years of paint layers, it was stuck in the middle of one of the nicest neighborhoods in town. We spent wet and gray days in this low-ceilinged clubhouse-like space, filled with more laughs and quirky musical ideas than we ever could have hoped for. After sharing with the band that we were searching for unique sounds and ideas for the album that most artists aren't often able to use while playing behind major pop and country records, they were happy to oblige, providing instruments we'd never seen before, and obscure reference material for inspiration. Essentially, it was a week of recording that we'd only previously captured in our dreams. That immense joy we experienced in making this music should be palpable as you listen to each track. We hope that you are able to enjoy this music experience as much as we have.