These, she discovered, were just part of the landscape of ones 30s.
Its calmer, and its more subtle, but theres still a lot going on.
Theres still a lot of new problems.
Photo: Molly Matalon
Together with producer Brad Cook, Crutchfield doubled down on the country-folk ethos of her last record.
We felt pressure to follow upSaint Cloudand reinvent it a little bit.
Katie Crutchfield:It was really organic.
The album cover forTigers Blood.
I think Brad [Cook] and I suffered a little bit afterSaint Cloudcame out.
We were really nervous, because we didn’t want people to think it was a fluke.
And that was scary for a little while.
We felt pressure to follow upSaint Cloudand reinvent it a little bit.
How did you come up with the title of the album?
Very quickly, I was like, Well, thatll definitely be the song title.
How did you incorporate that into the record?
I think that sobriety on my last record was like a security blanket, in a way.
Something that kept coming up on this record was the friend breakup.
Those relationships can be frustrating, and as emotionally taxing as a breakup.
So I wanted to incorporate that.
The whole record is a snapshot.
The 30s come with some weird shifts.
Theres different kinds of these microcosms that exist all the time in these relationships.
Its very nuanced and subtle, but it is really real.
It was such gorgeous fodder for songwriting, and now Im having to mine a little bit deeper.
The decision to collaborate with MJ Lenderman seems like such a natural fit.
How did that happen?
It was a sort of, We have to collaborate at first sight with him.
Hes not playing very many shows here.
You would love it.
I love sports, and he talks about sports a lot.
I was like,This literally was made for me.
But with MJ, I didnt know him that well.
It helped put us on the path.
What were you listening to when you were making the record?
Youve been in a relationship for many years.
The album cover forTigers Blood.
Youre obviously in a new era.
Did your personal style shift with this album?
which Im still figuring out.
Im still figuring out what that means to me, but thats where the record cover look comes from.
What do you want people to get out of this record?
Its funny, I feel like a few people have asked me that.
Truly, when I was younger, I was a very selfish songwriter.
If people got it, great, and if they didnt get it, then who cares?
But as Ive gotten older, Im really writing songs with a listener in mind.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.Tigers Bloodis out on March 22.
