Home (and away)

I have a new song out today, called “Home.” It’s a duet with one of my favorite musicians, Jay Som. You can listen to it here. I also made a music video for it—my first time directing on a set, with a crew and cast and everything, which was exciting and a bit terrifying. You can watch that music video here.

I’m also thrilled to announce some tour dates that I’m doing with my dear friend Jenny Owen Youngs later this year. Those are below. But first, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the new song, the video, and how it all came together.

“Home” was written a year after the pandemic started, and about six months after my mother passed away. Except for the week I traveled for her funeral, I had spent the entirety of the previous thirteen months with my wife Lindsey in the small house we'd lived in for eight years. I was daydreaming about living somewhere else, leaving behind the tight confines and sad memories that now filled that space. But eventually, my mind would wander into the happiest memories we'd made in that house, and the excitement and potential it held when we'd first moved in — how vast it all seemed. I started thinking of the little apartment we'd lived in before that, when we first moved in together. I associate so much of the joy and disappointment and pain and contentment that we've experienced with the places we were at those time, but the truth is, we carry all of it with us. There's some invisible architecture that connects two people in a relationship; it gets built out of those experiences, like scaffolding that keeps expanding. I wanted to write a song about all of that: an ode to my wife and the life we've lived together; to the homes we'd lived that life in; and to the home we still hoped to find someday.

I wrote “Home” with my friend and collaborator John Mark Nelson, and after I recorded the demo, I thought about the song's structure. It was a story about two people, laid out in two halves—the past and the future. I thought it would be fitting for it to be sung by two voices, so I wrote to Melina Duterte from Jay Som. Her voice is tender and melancholy in a way that perfectly evokes the feeling that I was trying to capture. She said yes, and recorded her vocals at home and sent them to me. Even though we only live a few miles apart, because of the pandemic, we finished our work on the song without ever meeting face to face. But hearing her voice alongside my own made the recording finally feel complete.

The music video for “Home” features portraits of real couples who have spent decades together. I wanted to capture, in the simplest way possible, how two people can co-exist as an intertwined collection of memories and time, and how home exists as an idea that runs through that history. When you just see the faces of these people together, I think their shared history is palpable.

Even though Melina from Jay Som couldn’t be there on the day I filmed the video, there’s a little cameo from her and her partner Annie towards the end. (Lindsey appears in the video, too.)

There’s more music coming later this year. And hey! I’m going on tour! I’m doing ten shows with the wonderful Jenny Owen Youngs. Jenny and I have been friends since we first started writing songs together, some years back. We’ve collaborated on a lot, including the last song I released, “Between There and Here.” For these special concerts, we’re doing a combined set, performing our songs on stage together, and sharing some stories about what those songs are about.

While regular people can’t buy tickets to these shows yet, as an elite member of the internet’s best snack club, you can use the presale code HOME to buy tickets now. (For everyone’s safety, proof of vaccination and masks are required at all of the shows.) Here are the dates and ticket links:

Fri Mar 18 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA

Sat Mar 19 - Washington, DC - Miracle Theatre

Sun Mar 20 - Saugerties, NY - Orpheum Theatre

Mon Mar 21 - Brooklyn, NY - Bell House

Wed Mar 23 - Boston, MA - Crystal Ballroom

Fri Mar 25 - Portland, ME - Space

Sun May 8 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre

Mon May 9 - Portland, OR - Polaris

Wed May 11 - San Francisco, CA - Independent

Tue May 17 - Los Angeles CA - Lodge Room

So, I hope to see you in real life sometime soon. But in the meantime, I’ll see you in the next newsletter. It’ll be another installment of Snack Club, with a special guest snack curator: Samin Nosrat.

Until then!

Hrishikesh

ps - here’s everything else that I’m up to.