Ravinia 2023 Issue 5

ZOE PRINDS-FLASH When they play Ravinia’s Carousel Stage on August 26, they’ll be bringing a passel of new tunes with them from Brambletown —their latest album, released in March. It marks some- thing of an evolution for the Brothers, nature lovers who previously spent a lot of time outdoors as inspiration for composing. Their first three releases form a conceptual trilogy dubbed the Adventure Albums, so named because they spent a month outdoors, then channeled that experience into the storytelling and themes of each release. They paddled the Mississippi River for Can You Canoe? , hiked the Appalachian Trail for Through the Woods , and rode horseback along the Continental Divide for Saddle Up . But Brambletown began differently, and then the pandemic caused it to evolve in even more unexpected ways. “Instead of going outdoors, we’re going into the forest of our imagina- tion,” Lansing explained in a recent phone interview. “It’s an archetype of a place where you go to find darkness and wonder, like Hansel and Gretel going deep into the forest. We decided it would be an interesting place to go, though we had no clue where it would take us.” That process began in early 2020, shortly before the pandemic hit and everything changed. They live in separate cities now—Lansing lives with his wife and infant son in Denver, while Mailander lives with his wife and 6-year-old boy in Minneapolis. Despite that distance, in the Before Times, “if we went a month without shows, that would be pretty crazy,” Lansing says. But once everything shut down, it would be 15 months before they performed in concert again. And of course, they went many months without actually seeing each other. When facing adversity, the Broth- ers know how to count their blessings and press onward. “They say life is hard, and they’re not wrong / So keep that hope machine runnin’ strong,” they sing in the aptly titled “Hope Machine,” a song they released in May 2020, speaking directly to that strange time of isolation. With no road trips and performanc- es on their agenda, they dug deeper into songwriting from their respective homes. “Through the challenges of the pandemic, we came to understand what the forest means,” Lansing says. “We had more time to sit with our- selves, to be in the forest, to learn and write, to make really good art.” The result, released into the world three years after the shutdown, is a complex collection of 17 songs. Some contain the trademark Okee Dokee whimsy, while others tread carefully into deep emotional territory. Ex- ploring the forest theme, the Brothers wrote songs about the inhabitants of the woods—rabbits, birds, possums and more—who embody different parts of the human experience. “We think kids connect with these critters better than they connect with human characters. Animals do something to draw kids in,” Lan- sing explains. As the pair spent time developing the album, “we found all these different characters who had a way of guiding us through the forest, including some darker and more dan- gerous parts of ourselves. We wrote these songs with characters at the forefront, embodying the songs, but some of them have pretty challenging themes. “As the Okee Dokee Brothers, we’ve honed in on a way to have fun while talking about serious subjects,” he continues. “We think it’s very im- portant for kids to learn how to han- dle challenging themes, and to learn with their parents how to process art.” One great example is “The Fox and the Hare,” a beautiful, wistful ballad about two young animals who fall in love, but the relationship doesn’t last. Meanwhile, the eponymous “Old Badger” playfully addresses addiction when the badger can’t get enough maple syrup, and “The Mycelium Underground News” uses a network of fungi as a metaphor for spreading the word about ecological crisis— but there’s a bit of tough love in the chorus: “Tell me, what’s the use of a headline /When no one cares if there’s a deadline?” “ WE’VE HONED IN ON A WAY TO HAVE FUN WHILE TALKING ABOUT SERIOUS SUBJECTS . WE THINK IT’S VERY IMPORTANT FOR KIDS TO LEARN HOW TO HANDLE CHALLENGING THEMES. ” RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 27, 2023 18

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