Fruition Announce Release Of ‘Broken At The Break Of Day’

Hot on the heels of their recent release, Wild As The Night, Portland-based roots-rock darlings Fruition have just announced another brand new collection of songs, Broken at the Break of Day.

The new seven-song album, available January 17th, 2020, was recorded in between tour dates in Fruition drummer Tyler Thompson’s newly constructed home studio, and like Fruition’s past releases, this collection of songs won’t fit into one box. Although it’s a challenge to categorize, Broken at the Break of Day feels whole because of the band’s dedication to honesty as well as harmony. Working as perfect companion pieces, both Wild as the Night and Broken at the Break of Day will be released together on 180g vinyl in January, giving listeners the option to hear the two newest Fruition releases as a collective body of work in this playlist-focused era. Today, Billboard Magazine premiered “Dawn,” Broken at the Break of Day’s first single, calling it “Melodic and harmony-laden.” “Dawn” is available on all online platforms.

In addition to the new digital and vinyl releases, Fruition have also just announced a slew of new tour dates, adding to their already-busy 2020 schedule. March will find Fruition playing their way through the American South before turning west to Indiana and Missouri on their way to WinterWonderGrass at California’s Squaw Valley Resort. Stops include NPR’s Mountain Stage (who included the single “Wild as the Night” in their November roundup of “Best New Songs,” noting the “cascade of harmonies feels like a 21st-century soft-rock treasure”), The Basement in Nashville, Asheville Music Hall, Indianapolis’s HI FI, and the Record Bar in Kansas City, MO. A full list of new and previously-announced tour dates can be found below.

Broken at the Break of Day shines a light on all five members of the band—Jay Cobb Anderson (electric guitar, vocals), Kellen Asebroek (piano, acoustic guitar vocals), Jeff Leonard (bass), Mimi Naja (mandolin, electric guitar, vocals) and Tyler Thompson (drums)—whether it’s on the traded lead vocals of “Dawn” or the irresistible rhythms of “Where Can I Turn.” As it’s been for more than a decade, their sound is hard to define, but the songwriting and the harmonies tie their diverse influences together.

For example, “Counting the Days” is a poignant love letter, while “For You” shows the exasperation of maintaining a relationship on the road. The band’s most electrifying rock moment, “Do What You Want,” is then followed by “Nothing More Than Spinning,” which sounds like a folk song interpreted by Queen. The stunning vocal blend heard in “At the End of the Day” brings Broken at the Break of Day to its beautiful and touching conclusion.

“This process was the quickest the band had ever written and recorded the songs,” Thompson says. “All the songs obviously fit either a ‘day’ or ‘night’ theme, but the whole rehearsing and recording process had to be done in about half the amount of time we were used to. That time limitation leant us to not overthink things, play instinctually and all live in the studio with very minimal overdubs. All the songs are very different, but I think the speedy process naturally created some sonic congruency.”

“From a visibility standpoint, being able to release more music more often—even if it is in smaller doses—is ideal in the new frontier of digital music that we have found ourselves smack dab in the middle of,” Asebroek says. “It’s nice to be able to stay on people’s radar, in an age where people have instant access to the whole of music history at their fingertips. It’s also nice to put these out together on vinyl as a nod to the way things once were.”

With a renewed focus on harnessing the energy of the live experience, Wild as the Night and Broken at the Break of Day allow listeners to get a glimpse of all five band members doing what they do best on stage, whether they’re opening for the Wood Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, and Jack Johnson, or playing at festivals like Telluride Bluegrass, Bonnaroo, and DelFest.

Their unmistakable vocal blend first revealed itself in 2008 when Anderson tagged along with Asebroek and Naja for an afternoon of busking in Portland. Drawing on their string-band influences early on, they released their debut album Hawthorne Hoedown that same year. Thompson joined the band in 2011, shortly after hearing the band members singing together in a friend’s attic. Leonard came on board in 2015. Broken at the Break of Day is the band’s tenth release, including EPs and LPs.
“We pushed ourselves like never before. But in the end, it all turned out great,” Anderson says about the sessions for Broken at the Break of Day. “It was a bit more of a hectic process to get things done and recorded. I can’t believe it sounds so good when we did it all so fast.”

Broken At The Break Of Day Track Listing:
Dawn
Where Can I Turn
Counting The Days
For You
Do What You Want
Nothing More Than Spinning
At The End of the Day