Portland-based quintet Fruition will perform at Natalie’s in Grandview — located at 945 King Ave. — Friday. Credit: Courtesy of Kaja Sigvalda
Touring behind its first album in four years, the Portland-based quintet Fruition will perform Friday in Columbus.
The band will perform at Natalie’s Grandview — located at 945 King Ave. — on the Music Hall Stage at 8 p.m. The show, presented by Columbus-based promotion company Archie Fox Live, will also feature an opening set from New Orleans-based bedroom pop band Anna Moss & The Nightshades.
Kellen Asebroek started Fruition in 2008 with musicians Jay Cobb Anderson and Mimi Naja. Asebroek said the band’s current iteration also includes drummer and recording engineer Tyler Thompson, and electric bassist Jeff Leonard.
Asebroek said Fruition’s members all play a variety of instruments, including pedal steel, harmonica and mandolin. He said he “shares the songwriting and singing duties” with Anderson and Naja.
“Instead of one songwriter just bringing something to the table and everyone else playing it, one songwriter might bring just an idea to the table, or just this chorus, or just this melody, or lick, or this chord progression or even just a feeling,” Asebroek said. “Some of the best music, especially some of the best art, comes from that kind of collaboration and that kind of willingness to set your idea free.”
Bobby Miller, a promoter who founded Archie Fox Live in 2013, said in an email the various songwriters within Fruition help set the group apart from its contemporaries.
“It’s the combination of these different voices and artistic choices that makes the band special,” Miller said. “There are layers and elements of different genres — they dive in and out of blues and folk and bluegrass and gospel and even some rock and roll — to form their own proprietary blend of Americana.”
Asebroek said Fruition’s sound has “evolved and mutated” over the past 15 years, as members of the band have grown, changed and encountered different life experiences.
“Our sound is definitely uniquely ours, but it’s something that we’ve tried to craft over the years and also let be what it is over the years,” Asebroek said. “I think that, you know, it boils down to folk music and Americana music, but a lot falls under those terms. Americana can be soul, and rock, and folk, and R&B, and blues and all these different things.”
That free-flowing approach to Americana, Asebroek said, can be heard throughout Fruition’s latest album, “How To Make Mistakes.” Released Aug. 23, the album is the band’s first release since the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the band’s tour in spring 2020, separating its members for over a year.
Asebroek said although the tour cancellation and subsequent lockdown hit the band hard, this gestational period allowed him and his bandmates to explore new ideas and branch out as songwriters and musicians.
“By the time we were ready to record, we had a ton of music to throw down,” Asebroek said. “So, we went into the studio and recorded as much as we possibly could with the time that we had. We actually had enough for two albums.”
Asebroek said while recording the album, the band wanted to capture the organic energy and communal atmosphere of its live performances. He said most of the songs on the album were recorded live over a six-day period.
“The tempo might fluctuate a little bit, and there might be a flubbed note here and there, and that’s what our live show is too,” Asebroek said. “It’s real, and when it’s over, it’s over, and it’s ephemeral in that way. We wanted to try and make that magic happen in the studio, sand the polish off a little bit and show people that real, raw music still is alive and well.”
Asebroek said Fruition’s earliest shows involved the band busking on the streets of Portland, which is how the band made a name for itself. Asebroek said the album is a return to those roots.
“The music industry world is just trying to get people to pay attention without begging for their attention, and doing that on the street is maybe one of the rawest and purest forms of that,” Asebroek said. “There’s no pretense of, ‘It’s a concert,’ or ‘I paid to see it.’ No one has to stop and listen, so you just try and play something and sing something that’s compelling. We did that, and people stopped to listen.”
Miller said he thinks Friday’s show will be a “special night” for all who attend.
“They put on a great show,” Miller said. “They have a magnetism about them. They’re fascinating to watch, and their music elicits a wide range of emotion, from optimistic and amused to dark and introspective, nostalgic to heartbroken to ecstatic and everything in between.”
