Artist Interview: Young Heirlooms

Abby Holliday

Young Heirlooms is a harmony-driven folk-rock band based in Cincinnati, OH. Young Heirlooms started making music more than 10 years ago and is timeless and honest, reflecting on the self. We at Inhailer Radio are delighted to have them join us on August 21st for Visit Cincy presents 513 Airwaves at Fountain Square. Before the show, we sat down with Kelly Fine of Young Heirlooms to discuss how their music has evolved over the years, how they process demos, and how they are feeling about the performance.

What feels different about the music you're making right now with the last Young Heirlooms record?

Our last record came from a very different period in our lives. We were living fast and furious, playing constantly, traveling, connecting with other touring bands and trying to build a life around making music. A lot of those songs were about work, grit and perseverance. “Bury Me With My Hammer” was essentially saying, you might as well bury me with my tools because I'm going to keep writing songs and doing this work until I die. Even “Silverglade,” which is about escaping the monotonous grind, is still reflecting on the necessity of the work. Looking back, it was a very working-era record.

The pandemic created this strange chrysalis between that version of Young Heirlooms and what we're making now. Our lives changed tremendously during that time. We came back to writing as older adults with very different experiences and much bigger questions about the world around us. These songs are wrestling with power, inequality, courage, faith, history, fear, parenthood and what it means to try to live a decent life in a world that can feel increasingly complicated and unjust. We're talking about things we probably wouldn't have known how to write about when we made the last record.

What's interesting, though, is that our fundamental approach hasn't really changed. We're still two people sitting down together and trying to turn whatever is written on our hearts into music. What's written there now is different.

Can you describe your demo process?

Our writing process really varies from song to song, and I think that's part of what keeps it interesting for us. Sometimes I'll come in with something that's almost a poem; a really intricate lyrical idea or a collection of images around something I want to talk about, and musically it might just be a few cowboy chords. Other times, Chris will start noodling on a guitar part and we'll begin pulling it apart together, stretching sections, looping things, reshaping them and molding the song almost like clay.

And then there are those great moments when Chris starts playing something and the words just come. Something clicks, and suddenly I know exactly what the song is about. We've been writing together for a long time, and I think the question underneath our process has always been pretty simple: What's written on your heart, and what exactly does it sound like?

When working with the band, we perform the refined duo version of what Chris and I wrote together and open it up to our bass player and drummer for their creative input. We often discuss the song's meaning, the feeling we hope to communicate, and if there are any influences we want our band to consider when arranging the full band version of the song.

What is your live performance experience like?

Connection has always been the most important part of performing for us. We want someone listening to feel like the songs we're singing could just as easily be their songs; that something we're putting into words resonates with something they've experienced, worried about, hoped for or carried around themselves. Performing the newer material has been really liberating for me. These songs give us somewhere to put some of the existential questions we've been wrestling with instead of bottling them up. Some of the subject matter is heavy, but I don't think the ultimate feeling is hopelessness. It's more like: You're not alone. We can do this. We have this one life. That's the kind of connection we've always wanted people to feel at a Young Heirlooms show, whether we're playing something we wrote 10 years ago or something we finished last month. 

Anything you would like to promote right now?

Absolutely! We're really excited to bring this new chapter of Young Heirlooms to 513 Airwaves at Fountain Square on Friday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. The show is free, and we'll be playing a mix of Young Heirlooms material, including some of the newer songs we've been talking about here. We're in a really creative period right now, writing and developing this new body of work and figuring out where it wants to take us next. We're excited to let people hear these songs live while they're still becoming part of the Young Heirlooms story.

Catch Young Heirlooms at Fountain Square for Visit Cincy Presents 513 Airwaves.

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