Human connection.
With the ongoing reign of social media, it might be easy to believe connection is ubiquitous. After all, it’s at our fingertips. Isn’t it?
For Jen Deale and Chris Spicer of the new wave band Camp Crush, it is quite the opposite. Moments shared person to person feel like a rarity that should to be pursued and preserved in order to maintain the fabric of society.
To them, connection is revolution.
“The world is constantly selling us more ways to be alone through the guise of convenience,” says Spicer. “If we have all our meals and groceries delivered, watch movies in our living room, order all of our clothes and household items online, and go to virtual concerts in headsets, how do we see our friends and loved ones? How do we support local businesses? How do we become patrons of art and creativity? By engaging in the world, we create all sorts of ripples that extend from us and positively affect our relationships, our health, the economy, and so on.”
Camp Crush will celebrate the release of their new EP ‘Run’ at the Doug Fir on January 31The track “Speak To You” from their forthcoming three-song EP, Run (produced by Bryan Free and due out February 1), is an exploration of this idea.
“[It’s] about that deep pull you can feel towards another person,” says Deale. “Sometimes you need that intimacy with one person to help you pursue [a community].”
This concept became all the more important to the duo after the election when, suddenly, they’d found their community drifting away.
“Our relationships changed. We lost friends; best friends, even. Relationships within our family were strained,” remembers Deale. “Everywhere you looked, people were running from each other because connection wasn’t safe anymore. Run is a reflection of [our] desire to still connect despite differences, to bring love into the most difficult of conversations.”
During this time, the married pair found solace within their relationship by focusing on songwriting and performing together. In doing so, they deepened their own connection and strengthened their resolve to continue building community through music.
“Playing as a duo, we get to set up our instruments so that we face each other onstage,” adds Deale. “There's a special moment in 'Speak To You' where we look at each other during the bridge, and it always serves as a reminder that we're living the lyrics to the song at that very moment.”
In this way, it’s not them against the world, but for it. Looking for meaning face to face.
