The Young Fables just released their third album Pages and their journey from conception to release is nothing short of astonishing. I sat down with the Americana duo, Laurel Wright and Wesley Lunsford, to discuss the album, as well as their songwriting documentary.
If you’ve ever reread a book during a different season of your life, it may elicit different emotions than it did the first time. Similarly, music can have the same effect. The Young Fables named the album “Pages,” because each song reflects a different emotion and it’s like flipping through the pages of your life.
The album contains some previously released tracks like “A Thing Or Two,” “Wonder If We Did,” “Built For Breaking,” “Over You,” and “Look At Us,” as well as several new ones (full track listing below).
The Making of Pages
Surprisingly, the duo never planned to make an album the way that they made Pages. They began filming a documentary about the songwriting process and it grew into much more than that, after life-altering events happened in Laurel’s life.
“‘Daddy’s Girl’ is the reason we have the documentary,” Laurel explained, referring to a song on their second record. Initially, in 2017, their manager Patryk announced that he’d come into the songwriting session and film it to showcase their version of the songwriting process.
“The original idea was to follow one song from nothing to [a] finished song,” Wesley began. “We filmed it to the finish of the song, it just took a lot longer.” After they initially filmed the writing of “Daddy’s Girl,” the traumatic events occurred, with Laurel’s sister passing away a few months after and her dad passing eight months later, which completely changed the meaning of the song for her.
The Documentary
Patryk proposed that the project could be more than just a YouTube video and asked the duo if they’d be comfortable to continue filming. Laurel explained, “It became something so much bigger than we ever imagined.”
The premise of the film is about Laurel’s story of loss, depression, and grief, writing to have an outlet combined with the songwriting process and how songs can change over time. The audience will experience the early versions of some of their songs, which have evolved over time.
The documentary will undoubtedly resonate with and help a lot of people dealing with tough times. Laurel shared, “The most rewarding part is being able to share my story and the reasons why I wanted to continue with this film. There are so many people who haven’t gone through the exact same thing as me, but they’ve gone through the same kind of loss.”
In addition to expressing authenticity and vulnerability in the documentary, I shared how refreshing it was to see Laurel’s social media posts about how she’s truly feeling. While most people only show the positives in their life, she shares her raw emotions. Laurel responded, “I would give anything for someone to open up about how crazy they are, to make me feel a little bit more sane.”
Although she responded in a lighthearted tone, I’d argue that opening up on social media doesn’t make a person seem crazy, but more relatable. The world needs more posts like that.
“Wonder If We Did”
When they began writing “Wonder If We Did,” they wanted to ensure that the album included happy elements, in addition to the heavier songs.
“It came at a time that was a very hard time,” Wesley explained. “A friend of ours came over and we just wanted to write a fun song, because we had so many songs that dealt with things that we were going through.”
The song is like a daydream. It’s about a person imagining what things would be like if they were with a particular person. Spotting someone attractive from across the bar can be intriguing and entice a person to think of the possibilities.
Video
Their manager Patryk, dubbed the “third member of the band,” came up with the video concept and made the entire thing come together.
Wes had the opportunity to hone his acting skills in the video. Laurel commented, “He got to play so many different characters and he was really good at it. He shocked all of us!”
“I was scared,” Wes added. “I’m not an actor. At all.”
Watch Now
Pages Track Listing
- Wonder If We Did (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Helene Cronin)
- House of the Lord (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Dean Fields, Mindy Smith)
- Over You (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Monet Maddux)
- Look At Us (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Bo Armstrong, Patryk Larney)
- A Thing Or Two (feat. Liz Longley) (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Liz Longley)
- Built for Breaking (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Breann Young)
- She Was Mine (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Dean Fields, Mitch Dane)
- Been Here the Whole Time (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Helene Cronin)
- Buried Me Too (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Liz Longley, Patryk Larney)
- Nothing Like Your Love (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Chris Robbins, Michael Davey)
- Where Are You Lonesome (Laurel Wright, Wesley Lunsford, Bo Armstrong, Patryk Larney, Mitch Dane)
Connect with The Young Fables
The Young Fables will embark on a screenplay tour, where they will play a set of songs and show the documentary. Visit their website to get all the details of the showings and future events!