Polaroid Collective - Polaroid Collective Vol. 1 (2023)

If co-writing songs is an alchemical art, Polaroid Collective has discovered the Philosopher’s Stone, and used it to transmute the red dirt of west Texas into musical gold. Polaroid Collective is a songwriting cooperative of artists from across North America, bonded by
the time they have spent together in the arroyos and scrubland beneath Texas’ Chinati Peak writing and playing together.

The 11 writers who comprise Polaroid Collective all met at the Crooked Crow songwriting retreat, an annual gathering near Presidio, TX, organized by Johann Wagner. Crooked Crow brings songwriters together from around the globe to bond over a shared love of music, lyricism, and poetry in a spirit of collaboration and experimentation. Some writers take songs away from the desert for their own projects. Some songs never leave the desert. Collective member and album executive producer Brett Serrell envisions bringing a batch of these co-creations out of the desert with their full complement of writers intact, and creating an album to forge 11 distinct and separate voices into one group and one record that reflects the spirit of love and cooperation that birthed its ten songs. That project is Polaroid Collective’s debut release, “Volume 1”.

The styles and voices of 11 writers and musicians blend together seamlessly on “Volume 1,” although distinct genres emerge from the blend to enhance the collection’s enormous diversity. Austin singer Hayden Butler provides an emotional country kick-off with “Lighter Now,” while Canadian troubadour Tommy Charles follows it with a touch of classic soul on “You Know How It Is,” a track truly written by the collective so that no one musician can lay claim to any
particular part or line. Austin’s Brett Serrell takes the lead on “Easy Eyes,” which runs from intricate folk guitar stylings to mystical sea shanty. “Arabella Blue” features three-part harmonies
from three different states, blending the stellar voices of Whitefish, Montana’s Cara Alboucq, Austin’s Lori Ellen, and Taos’ Audra Rodgers into a gorgeous folk symphony supported by Rodgers’ haunting mandolin work. Austin songwriter William Wallace duets with Cara Alboucq on the rocker “Ragged”, supported by The Lonesome Heroes’ Rich Russell. Austin’s Ali Holder takes on a wistful country romance with Tommy Charles in “Morning Light,” and the record ends on a beautiful, haunted note with the Austin area trio of Aaron Huff, Ali Holder, and Brett Serrell urging the listener to lean just a little closer on the album’s closing song “Shiver, Shake.”

The group gathered in early 2023 in Austin at Matt Parmenter’s Ice Cream Factory Studio to record the album, turning two or three person co-writes into larger collaborations as each musician brought their harmonies and musical talents to the collaborations. The effect is
an album that feels like one band, one vision, but with 11 different voices lifting their stories out of each song and giving them life through the power of the collective.