CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 16 Made in America: Part I | Page 140

W W W. C R A F T BY U M H . C O M
When I go out solo, I’m a little bit selfish. I play a lot of the new album, whatever
the new album is. Toad has got this catalog with all these songs we have to play,
and so we end up playing almost nothing off the new record. The effort it took to
get that album out…I was really proud of us. I mean, going into it, I didn’t even
know if we were capable of being unified enough to make an album, yet we did
something I think we’re all really proud of. But, yes, it’s kind of a big process.
At this point, we all have other outlets, and a song here and a song there keeps
it fun. I think the most important thing for Toad is keeping it fun because that
means we keep doing it. If it becomes a drag, then it stops.
And speaking of other outlets, your latest solo album, Swallowed by the New,
was released in 2016. The big subject of that album is your divorce, but even so,
it’s not a depressing album. There’s a lot of hope and optimism on it. Is that a
natural byproduct of your personality or did you have to work to uncover that?
I write the songs I need to hear if that makes sense, so I try to write from my
better self or for my better self. I wrote a lot of songs that were angry or blame-y
or more raw, and there’s definitely a place for that, but I wanted this album to
be a tool for me. It’s a tool for transitional times. I like the idea of music as that,
because things can be pure expression, they can be about the rawness of it. And
certainly, there’s a function in feeling less alone when you know somebody is in
the same pain as you are.
I also wanted to appeal to a higher perspective in myself on it. Transition and
displacement are universal things. People find themselves unexpectedly losing
the things they care most about. Underlying the anger and everything else that
can come along with a big transition is grief. You lose things you love. And in the
case of divorce, often lose them because of your own failings, right? There’s a lot
of reckoning in that and a lot of forgiveness required and a lot of hope required
to get through it.
It’s not exactly an uplifting album, but it isn’t a downer either. It isn’t a break-
up album. It’s a wake-up album. Ha ha! I did write a lot of songs. They would
have made a really different record, and I just decided to let those be what they
were. I needed to get some stuff out my system, but I didn’t necessarily need to
share that with anybody.
You started touring when you were 18 years old. I’d imagine there were lots of
pizzas and fries back then, but what’s it like these days? Are you adventurous
with food when you’re out on the road? Do you like to try the local flavors or do
you stick with what’s familiar?
It’s somewhere between trying to keep it healthy and trying to taste everything I
can. I love touring with my friend Jonathan Kingham. When we’re out, it’s great
because it’s not like we’re in a bus and we’re stuck in the neighborhood or with