We chatted with Kate and Brendan about their debut album, "One Year Since," How they make the band work while living bi-coastally, and what's coming up next for them. This was a really interesting conversation and we learned so much!

Kate (fiddle) and Brendan (cello) first started talking about making an album together during the bright, shimmery post-pandemic summer days of 2021. Despite living on opposite sides of the country (Kate is based in Portland, OR, and Brendan is based in Brooklyn, NY) they had built a musical connection through their shared appreciation of innovation and groove. Over the next several years, they performed at venues on both coasts of the US, playing tunes and singing songs from American Old-Time, Irish, and other traditional music styles. They also began writing and performing original material, much of which became the tracks for this album. Kate wrote the title track, One Year Since, in her basement during the pandemic. She recorded a voice memo of the tune and then forgot about it, only to discover it again one year later when many things about the world and her own life had changed. Fiddle in the Attic is for Kate’s fiddle, which was found in an attic in Scotland after anticipating its next tune for who knows how long. By December of 2024, Kate and Brendan were in the studio in rainy Portland with mostly original material written in the old-time fiddle style, one song Brendan composed from a poem, and one song by Emmylou Harris and the McGarrigle sisters. One Year Since is Kate and Brendan’s first EP as a duo.

Be sure to check them out at: