The Graham’s: A Candid Conversation
The Grahams, husband and wife duo recently sat down with Fusion Press’ Lauren Alexis Wood to talk about their latest track, a new music video and single release from their album KIDS LIKE US.
“In its most simplistic form, this song was written as a cautionary tale for our daughter who at the time had not yet been conceived,” explains Alyssa and Doug Graham (musical partners and a married couple) of alt-pop band THE GRAHAMS about their brand new track/video “Don’t Give Your Heart Away.” “However, its meaning goes far deeper and at its core is much more of a personal struggle than may come across upon first listen.” Taken from their new album KIDS LIKE US (released on March 27, 2020 via 3 Sirens Music Group/RED MUSIC/The Orchard), the video for the track premiered via Popmatters and was written in collaboration with the band’s longtime friend and co-writer BMC.
watch the new music video HERE.
Literally childhood sweethearts, Alyssa and Doug have led a fairytale romance, having met when they were seven and ten years old respectively and fell in love soon after. Atypical of that fantastical trope however, during the making of their newest album Kids Like Us, which explores their adolescence years in the not-so-mythical suburbs of New Jersey, Alyssa and Doug struggled to have a baby. “After many failed attempts at IVF, we had pretty much given up hope, yet even during the recording of this record, we would sneak off into the bathroom or the van or even the control room so that Doug could give me an injection in my abdomen or my leg or my butt,” Alyssa confesses. “It was painful and laborious and seemed somewhat futile after so many failed attempts. Regardless, we persevered and after each evening of sneaking off for shots I would go right back into the vocal booth and sing my heart out. It wasn’t easy for my sweetheart either who had wanted a baby since we were first married many moons ago.”
On their fourth round of IVF, the treatments took hold and they conceived their daughter, Georgette. Having gone through an intense emotional rollercoaster before, they were both thrilled and yet very, very cautious. “It was a very high risk pregnancy (though we continued to mix and master the record and tour as safely as possible) and Georgie came a month early due to complications and spent the first several weeks in ICU,” they added.
For the Grahams, “Don’t Give Your Heart Away” is as much a cautionary tale for their daughter as it is a reflection on the emotional turmoil they were enduring to have her. “Every time we went through the [IVF] process, we had to remind ourselves that the odds were against us and that giving our hearts away and allowing ourselves to dream was a danger we needed to protect ourselves from.” Their daughter, now 18 months old and “perfect,” is featured as the light of their lives in this stunning cinematic video.
Kids Like Us sees The Grahams exploring balmy and graceful dream pop, 50’s mod-influenced garage rock energy, 60’s style groovy guitars, all with an explosive Morricone-esque cinematic intrigue. The two producers on the album, Producer-legend Richard Swift (former member of The Shins who worked with Damien Jurado, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lucius, Lonnie Holley, The Mynabirds, Cayucas, Guster, and many more) and Co-Producer Dan Molad (Lucius, Elizabeth & the Catapult, The Wild Reeds), who later took over the project, enabled The Grahams to channel all the chaotic stimulus of the couple’s earlier motorcycle trek across Route 66 into something big, lush, ambitious, and profoundly satisfying. Kids Like Us was Swift’s last project before his death in 2018, and the duo was honored to have the chance to work with him. “This record speaks to a worldliness and makes us feel tiny in the realm of the music overall. The record that was created is a massive sonic wall and we’re just so happy to have been a part of something so much bigger than us.”
The Grahams is Alyssa and Doug Graham. Kids Like Us is available nowvia 3 Sirens Music Group/RED MUSIC/The Orchard. Searching The Milky Way (the documentary short that follows the band’s Route 66 trek which inspired Kids Like Us) is also available now.
