Even though they’ve not been touring at all, the past few years have been full to overflowing for the Weepies — a new baby and a battle with breast cancer kept them off the road. Somewhere between going through all of that and coming out the other side, the husband-wife duo of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen found the time and energy to make a new record. They didn’t just stand by and watch it happen; they captured the experience in all its beautiful and painful glory, and set it to music.
Aptly titled Sirens, the collection tracks their journey guided by the sirens of both ambulances and creativity. Though the album features a slew of guests — including Pete Thomas, Tony Levin, Rami Jaffee, Meghan Tooey, Matt Chamberlain, and more — at least one song was better served by a simpler approach.
“’Crooked Smile’ was written in between records, which is usually when new songs die — there has to be a reason to keep playing it. We’re not sure what it’s about, exactly, but it kept tugging at us and we kept coming back to it. We even played it out a few times on the Acoustic Tour in 2011. So it was in our bag, and we recorded it on mid-winter’s day when everything just seemed to work. It couldn’t have been easier… maybe because it had been around so long. We wanted to record it super simply — build it around the voices. It seemed to fit with the uncertainty, doubt, and hope of the rest of the record.”
Sirens drops on April 28 via Nettwerk.