THE MUSIC: This one’s been a long time coming, folks. We actually began writing and arranging this piece five years ago, and we’ve been waiting for the right time to dust it off and send it out into the world. Principium is a four-movement song-cycle that explores human relationship, flourishing, degradation, and redemption. We call it Principium because we believe it to be a foundational story, a story of first or principal importance. A story that’s universal to who we are as people, and rings true in a fundamental way.
And it’s Latin, so that’s cool.
“Four-movement song cycle” sounds pretty pretentious, but basically these are four tunes written in consideration of one another, and though each one is unique and distinct, they follow a common musical, lyrical, and narrative arc. They go together, and are in conversation with one another. As you might guess, this was a challenging project to tackle together, given its form and its scope. Looking back, we were probably writing a bit beyond ourselves when we began working on this in 2015, and it’s fortuitous we had some time to grow into this piece in order to serve it well, and to serve its audience.
THE PLAN: There are a lot of things about this project that set it apart from the other work we’ve done up to this point. As we’ve already mentioned, this piece tells a single story; additionally, its movements are thematically structured around the four seasons. Consequently, our plan is to release the project one song at a time, each during its corresponding season! Pretty cool, right? We’ll essentially be sharing the story throughout 2020 in chapters, if you will.
Something else exciting us about this project is that we’re planning to create a short film component to go along with the music. It will similarly be released in four parts throughout the year, and will have a more narrative, cinematic feel, rather than a standard music video. We’ve never done anything like this before, and we’re pumped to see how it manifests! We’ll be partnering up with an incredibly talented filmmaker and director named Greyson Welch for this part. He’s done some AMAZING work for our friends Oh Jeremiah, and we are so stoked to collaborate with him. You can find links to some of his work below!
Website: https://www.greysonawelch.com
We’ll ALSO be filming and releasing live performance videos for each movement throughout the year. So big picture, we’ll have a four-phase rollout for the project: song, live video, film chapter, REPEAT. On this schedule, we’ll share content monthly from April 2020 through February/March of 2021.
THE TEAM: We loved the process of getting to work with our friend Evan Redwine on our previous record, Finch in the Pantry, and we couldn’t be more excited to return to the studio with him to crank this one out. We’ve already begun the work of recording and mixing, and we’re thrilled with where things are going and how it’s all sounding. He’s bringing the heat, you guys.
We have some new faces in the string section, and we are endlessly impressed by and deeply grateful for their contributions to this music. For the recording of Principium, we’ll have Bailey Warren on fiddle and vocals, and Erik Coveney on the upright bass
THE BUDGET: We’ve set a goal of $25,000 in order to:
Since this is our third effort on Kickstarter, we wanted to do a couple things to make this campaign feel extra special. Within twelve hours of making a pledge, you’ll actually receive a streaming/download link for the first song from Principium, “Spring: Wake.” Immediate gratification, baby. And throughout the campaign, we’ll post backer-exclusive video updates containing in-depth discussions about the conception and creation of the music.
We are so excited and eager to share this music with you. It’s been a challenging and rewarding process to create it, and we’re eager to see how it all really unfolds this year. Thank you for supporting our work. Thank you for encouraging and lifting us up. Thank you for helping us write a good story. Let’s do this.
Gratefully,
Isaac & Lincoln
TAW
We’re creating and releasing this project independently. That gives us a lot of freedom to do things how we really want to, but it can also be tough to manage oneself and keep things moving at a good pace. But the specific nature of this music is unique, and part of our vision is to keep our work rhythm in synch with the changing of the seasons throughout the year. Our timeline will be pretty aggressive, especially on the front end, but we are confident we’ll be able to deliver on these promises and stay on schedule.