I wrote Cityview a few months into quarantine.  One of the last gigs we played before things shut down was Folk Alliance International, a giant convention that took place in New Orleans in February of 2020.  That year, Ani Difranco was talking to Ann Powers of NPR, and she answered a question with, ‘Beyond the eyes, the trains and the angels…’  I whipped out my phone, and the guy standing next to me said, ‘Yeah, you definitely should write that one down.’   A few months later, we did an online show in-the-round with Anna Tivel, and I fell in love with the way she writes songs tapping into untold stories.   I decided to write this song about other people's stories. Everyone you know is struggling with something, accepting something, working on something. They are all a reflection of our own fragility. How we react to things defines how we see ourselves. Becoming self-aware changes your perspective of the people around you.” The whole Vessel album is about perspective, how widening your perspective can help you see things clearer, help you focus on big picture instead of being consumed by details.  Cityview is the most stripped down, singer songwriter, Americana song on the album, it's also the most vulnerable song. Thanks to everyone that helped us make this video. Director: Brian Michael Raetz Editors: Brian Michael Raetz, Broderick Steele Composer: Savannah Shyan Buist Performed by The Accidentals https://www.theaccidentalsmusic.com #TheAccidentals #Cityview

We've been touring since we were 17, major label deal by 21. Sometimes it feels like life moves incredibly fast for us, and we have to remind ourselves: “You still have time.”  This became the refrain for a song I started writing while we were driving home through a massive snowstorm after a really long tour.  My parents had called to let me know my dog was passing away and I wanted to get home in time to say goodbye.  The miles just seemed to drag on. The snow kept falling. I kept telling myself, slow and steady, you have time. The song title stuck around to remind me to be present.  It’s hard to say what any day will bring. There are fewer regrets if you’re fully engaged when you have that opportunity. You're where you're supposed to be. - Katie

"Go Getter" is about mental health packaged between pop melodies and a video about goats. We collectively lost friends to suicide in 2020 and it was a heavy couple of years, Go Getter began as a way to process the grief. Sometime songs are written in dark times but they evolve to take on different meanings. Go Getter became our mantra for life.  There's a Tony Bennet quote in the chorus that I picked up watching the Amy Winehouse documentary. He say's "Life will teach you how to live, if you live it long enough". That stuck with me. The takeaway is the remainder for the chorus "pull it together, shake off the pressure". Maybe that can be the message here. Don't take life so seriously all the time. That's where the video comes in. It came from telling Sav to stop singing "Goat Getter" in the recording process. The idea was born. Michael wrote the treatment and we all watched the Goonies for homework. Brian Raetz and Brody Steele dropped everything last second to help us record it and they edited the video so well, we couldn't get through it without laughing - that's how you know it's done. http://vevo.ly/3xLxtn

Night Train might be one of our favorite co-writes. We wrote Night Train with Dar Williams. It’s rare you meet a story-teller as gifted as Dar. Dar was there (in a way) when I was born. The story is, her song, Beauty of the Rain, was playing on the portable speaker by the hospital bed. When we were just starting to tour, we were seventeen and eighteen and we had the chance to open for her at The Birchmere. She asked us to sit in on strings with her at the end of her set. That night truly felt full circle. When we knew these co-writes were going to become the TIME OUT EP, we reached out to her and asked her to write a song with us. We were absolutely blown away when she said yes. Over many zoom calls, we were enthralled by her stories of a train ride she took right before the world shut down. She wove a tale about the towns she passed through, the people she met, the landscape, the possibilities. It was so healing to listen to another musician talk about traveling and the power of community. We know the kind of magic you experience in meeting strangers, finding common ground, becoming friends in one conversation, and coming to the realization that we are more alike than not, and there is more goodness in the world than we might believe. Night Train became an anthem for our small towns, communities, our country, for the work we have to do, for the hope and light that exists. It’s about healing and investing in our future. It’s the rally call. This song seems really simple but it was one of the hardest to record - we ended up stripping down the drums at the last minute to let Katie's vocal and the story speak a little louder. In the final hour, middle of the night we were working on this tune and felt like it needed something to fill out the bridge so we sent it to Sav's dad and asked him to lay a piano track. Thank goodness he is usually available at 2am. We spent a little extra time on the vocals on this one - really trying to create a flow that felt natural. This is one of those songs that feels like it will stand the test of time. TIME OUT EP coming May 7th.

After tour came to a halt in March 2020, it took a while to settle into a new pace. We found ways to play virtual shows, and through livestreaming we met one of our musical heroes, Kim Richey. Together we co-wrote Wildfire about the newfound isolation we were facing. In some ways, Wildfire is a metaphor for consequence. We didn't see it coming. For over 6 years of constant touring and moving through life at breakneck speed, we had worried about "getting there" instead of being present in the journey, and in the quiet we realized the extent of what we'd lost. What we still had was 5 hard drives with 100+ hours of footage Charlie Steen and Jake Burgess captured while touring with us between 2015 - 2019. Looking back through the candid moments and memories with fresh eyes, we could see all the hugs, tears, laughter and connections that were a blur at the time. This video is a collection of that footage, set to a song that's hopeful about fertile regrowth in the future.

We originally wrote How Many Hands for the No Distance Festival #Getoutthevote​ edition. The dance project collaborated with Headcount and IVoted to encourage people to vote in the coming election. Dancers around the world worked together remotely to create a work of art that represented the power of unity. It was an honor to contribute the music to that project. This song was, in a sense, therapeutic to write. It's been a tough year for all of us. This is one we will read about in the history books. We are living it. We can't let it consume us. There's a lot of work to be done to preserve our future. We are all tired. Some days we wonder if it is even worth the effort. It is. We can leave it better than when we got here if we make a conscious decision to work toward a common goal. The urgency of the song reflects the deep emotional toll of an uncertain future. Our generation will be called to rebuild the resources of a planet that currently sustains 7,800,000,000 people. We're feeling the weight of that unrelenting reality. We tour the US year-round and last year we encountered an unprecedented number of wildfires, tornados, hurricanes, whiteouts, extreme weather from all corners of the US. It was terrifying. We live in Michigan, home of the Great Lakes. Rolling back safeguards and defending big oil companies that are not taking their pipeline privileges seriously is unacceptable. We are all science podcast nerds and by the end of 2019 Global Warming and water-preservation were the most talked about topics in the van. We poured that anxiety into a musical landscape, creating an exasperated call for action through a series of questions ending with “How many hands does it take to get a grip?” We have to work together, it’s every voice, every hand reaching out, every vote is necessary. If we put our heads together we will find the answers. We must elect people to positions of power that take science, protecting our resources, and climate change seriously. Please vote, even if you don't think it matters. You never know if your vote will be the tipping point.

If you see it, you believe it, you do it. This year we want to be the "see it", that encourages the "believe it" that supports the "do it". When we were in high school a female string duo called Moxie Strings came into our classroom and rocked out on their electric cello and violin and Katie and I decided "we can do that?!" That is how we became the Accidentals, which in turn altered every part of our lives. It gave a couple of shy kids the confidence to create and relate. We were inspired to play guitar by St. Vincent and Kaki King, violin by Scarlett Rivera, and write songs by SEVERAL female artists. In November we spent a week in Moab, UT teaching alternative strings, songwriting and improv to the middle/highschool students leading up to the Moab Folk Festival. I remember waking up and wondering when it was going to rain- every day the sky was clear and blue behind the mountains. On our day off we drove around town looking for a spot to pull over and record a cover of one of our favorite Big Thief songs, and eventually found this open patch of land next to a dusty dirt road we thought looked safe to use. We've gotten into trouble recording videos like this (our cover of Andrew Bird's song Capsized almost got us kicked out of Arches National Park for instance), so our hearts sank when we saw a car pull of the road and park next to where we were setting up. To our surprise- two high school boys jumped out and said "aren't you The Accidentals?" They said they seen us at one of the school assemblies and asked if they could watch us film our video. They make a cameo about halfway through, along with our sound engineer, Evan Klee- Peregon. iPhone video credit to Kacee Womack. :) Audio filmed with Shure microphones, Takamine acoustic guitar, and Ruach cajon. #womancrushwednesdays #playyourparagon #changethestory

Forty-five shows including an epic SXSW and West Coast run complete. From the Sony Music Stage to Austin City Limits to great venues like Great American Music Hall, The Teragram Ballroom, Wonder Ballroom, Nectar Lounge, Music Box San Diego, etc. This tour recap is a combination of the 20 shows that Charlie Steen captured in the Tour Stories series - a real behind the scenes look at what it is like to be a young, indie folk rock band on tour. You can watch all of them here. Follow The Accidentals on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/5JqJWTzD2wSWAp7UmFSP5x Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theaccidentals Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theaccidentalsmusic/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/moreaccidentals VEVO - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpAyQcmsHwwEb4QwEz-8jA/videos