(SOUNDBITE OF GREAT GRANDPA SONG, "TOP GUN")
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A new album by the band Great Grandpa is called "Patience, Moonbeam" and it's required a lot of patience. It's been six years since their last album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOP GUN")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) I'm a loose one. I'm coming undone. Not quite sure how else to paint it. Why do I always have to be the one to say it?
SIMON: The five-piece band from Seattle started work on a new album before the pandemic. Then life got in the way.
PAT GOODWIN: We sort of shelved things for a while and decided when we came back to it that a lot of it didn't necessarily speak to our current taste or just didn't feel representative of where we were at. And so we went back to the drawing board for most of the record.
SIMON: That's Pat Goodwin, who writes most of the songs and plays guitar, piano, banjo and bass. He and lead vocalist Al Menne told us about what went into their newest album, including drastically changing the band's sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOP GUN")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) You were sitting shotgun. I'm a black hole sun trying to wash away the rain.
AL MENNE: The transition from a grungier sound into a more folk-y, indie sound was just sort of a natural progression. And I think it just sort of came with age and integrating new tastes into each of our listening worlds.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOOM")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) Violent screen, petty, demur. As it rolled through the morning, all eyes feather downward. Anxious...
GOODWIN: There's definitely a thread that if you've been a longtime listener, that you can sort of parse out, you know, like, while the arrangements have changed, and maybe the sophistication of the, you know, studio production has changed, that I think there's a core heart that is visible across our whole discography.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TASK")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) Saw you at the party. We called you by your new name. You had changed, ooh, but the heart of you was still the same.
MENNE: You know how sometimes you'll hear a melody or a sound and it doesn't really need any words, and you just sort of feel that visceral, like, I don't even know what this is conveying to me, but it feels so familiar and real and raw.
(SOUNDBITE OF GREAT GRANDPA SONG, "TASK")
MENNE: Kind of wanted to stick to that theme. It felt like such a pivotal moment starting to dip my toes into what would become my transition. And there was sort of just a crossroads of all these major coming-of-age feelings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TASK")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) It's out of mind, those things that hurt me. It moves right through. Only light remains. It's like there's...
MENNE: As we've grown and shifted, and as my voice is literally changed as I've been transitioning and been on testosterone, I've had to reconfigure physically where I sing from in my body. And it's been really fun to find a sort of middle ground of I have this whole new range. And I can still access those parts of my voice that felt so empowering and like a major part of my identity for a long period of time, while also uncovering this entire new space. As my voice continues to change, we have had to change keys a few more times, but it's more like a fun game to me now than it is a frustration.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNIOR")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) I know what you're thinking, right on time. Tore through the sheets. Crossed the yard to see it happen with my eyes. Ah, he's all right. He's fine.
GOODWIN: I've debated talking much about the lyrical content literally just 'cause I've always been a fan of, one, leaving it up for interpretation, but, two, having things be a bit of like a puzzle or like a mystery for people to kind of unfold.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNIOR")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) Then he grabbed me by the scruff and pulled close. Light crimes with my buddies all night, baby.
GOODWIN: I definitely try to have, like, a cogent narrative, you know, whether that's debatable and up to the listener to decide. But for me personally, yes, everything I'm saying has significant meaning to me, at least.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNIOR")
GREAT GRANDPA: (Singing) But I knew you there at first sight.
SIMON: Al Menne and Pat Goodwin are in the band Great Grandpa. Their new album "Patience, Moonbeam" out now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNIOR")
GREAT GRANDPA: ...(Singing) Wild. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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