THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Picturebooks’ new album The Major Minor Collective was born out of the insane idea of bringing together various artists who have either inspired the duo of Fynn Claus Grabke (vocals/guitars) and Philipp Mirtschink (drums). The idea was to have some kind of creative exchange in these crazy times, a bridge to fellow artists if you like. It also opened the musical range of the band in many ways and leads to the most varied musical work The Picturebooks have ever done in their career.
The guests on the album include Dennis Lyxzén (Refused), Neil Fallon (Clutch), Ryan Sinn (The Distillers), Dave Dinsmore (Brant Bjork), Chris Robertson (Black Stone Cherry), Jon Harvey (Monster Truck), Elin Larsson (Blues Pills) and Grammy winner Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), who was moved by her cameo on Rebel.
“This project came into my life at a time when I really needed it,” she says. “The pandemic stole a huge part of my life, and my identity. I was forced to look myself in the mirror and figure out who I am without that missing piece. I had to remind myself that no matter what is happening outside … the flame that burns inside of me is still alive. Writing these lyrics was like drawing a road map to guide myself back to who I am. No one can do it for me, no one can save me but myself. In order to do that, I have to start a revolution inside my soul, and be a rebel from the inside out. This song is my war cry. The instrumental music was so inspiring that by the third listen the melody naturally spilled out like some alien hybrid of all my influences. I am so grateful to The Picturebooks for bringing me into their world and giving me the freedom to express my personal journey of rediscovering myself. And I know that, in times like these, this song will bring the listener hope for the future and the confidence to survive whatever that future becomes.”
To which The Picturebooks respond: “It’s hard to put in words how excited we are about this collab. Lzzy has been the number one artist we wanted to work with when we started this project and bottles were poppin’ when she gave us the go to be a part of it. Honestly, the stuff she came up with for this song was beyond our expectations. When we wrote the song we knew that if we send this to anyone, it’s gotta be Lzzy. We knew about the potential of the song, but we didn’t know it could be this good. How in the world did she pull this off? Beyond excited, Beyond happy. Mission accomplished.”
