When Jay Cobb Anderson, singer, songwriter, & guitarist of Fruition moved to Portland, Ore. he had no idea what kind of sacrifices he and his band members would have to make to push themselves to the top of the music scene; but he knows now.

“It’s tough, you know, its hard to really make a living out of it these days.” Anderson confesses who lived mostly out of his truck this past year. “I was homeless, or as I called it, home free.”

Labor of Love, the name of their latest record, and first song on the album, is a song written about the experience one endures when striving to make their passion and dreams become reality, Anderson explains.

“I feel so good about finally getting to a point where I can support myself. And now it is turning into a living. “I’m like upper lower class right now,” Anderson jokes.

We asked, “How tough is it to experience life differently compared to the lifestyles most people lead?”

“It’s one of those things sometimes I think how much do I actually sacrifice, but when you do what you love it can easily just swallow everything else in your life; and you forget about some of the small things. Maybe I want to find a girl and start a family someday. That would be nice. At the same time its not really on the agenda. It’s seems like a possible thing, but it would take the right woman and thats a hard woman to find, to put up with all the traveling, and stuff like that,” Anderson says chuckling.

The kind of “stuff” Anderson may be referring to is the debauchery that only happens in the rock and roll world.

“We’re non stop idiots on the road. We’re constantly joking and giving each other shit, we’re like sarcastic assholes and we like to live like that. It makes for a happy journey when everyone takes things with a grain of salt.”

With all the handwork it takes to make an album and a band successful, its no wonder the gang has to let loose occasionally, and what better place than on tour.

We asked Anderson if he could tell us a particular story about such adventures.

His response…“We try to have fun, especially if we’re opening up for bands, we try to have fun with the other bands.”

When asked to expand, Anderson told us about a little tradition the band started at the famous Westcott Theatre in Syracuse, NY. “It used to be a movie theatre and the green room is actually up the stairs and behind the crowd. There are these little box windows up there that they used to put the projectors out of, to put the movies up on the screen, where the stage is now.” Anderson explains.

“Now, we first played this theatre with Greensky, and when I found out what the green room looked like, I had this idea, I was like hey, when they’re playing, I’m gonna moon them through the window.” Anderson says laughing. “So I mooned Greensky, and we had someone stationed at another window waving their arms trying to get the bands attention. At one point the whole band saw us and it was just hilarious.” Anderson recounts while full blown laughing.

As if this story wasn’t good enough already, Anderson drops us another gem.

“And so then we open up for the Stringdusters in the same place and Mimi (Fruition band member, songwriter, singer, & Mandolin player) insisted we continue the tradition. So, while the Stringdusters played we did the same thing.”

Anderson explains that they do stuff like this all the time. To keep the morale up and get through the tough times on tour.

“We’re always messing with each other trying to make each other laugh. We go into dumb mode on the road.” he says.

Were looking forward to hearing more fun stories from Fruition but were also looking forward to hearing some of Anderson’s new guitars on this fall tour. He may not have spent much on rent this past year but he has purchased 5 new guitars. Among them, the Gibson SG, a perfect addition for their ever evolving sound.

“We’re really stoked about our sound right now. Like any band, our sound is always evolving with whatever is inspiring us at the moment.” “In the last year or two we’ve shifted away from the folkier and bluegrass side into more rock, indie, and soul.”

Labor of Love definitely showcases a sophisticated melding of their americana roots with these new styles, along with a reinvigorated sense of energy. “Santa Fe” boldly introduces a heavily soulful feel, with fine use of organ and bluesier work on guitar, while “Falling On My Face” is beautiful reassurance about their foray into this indie style.

Other tracks, like “The Way That I Do” and “Death Comes Knocking” harken closer to that stripped-down, folk sensibility at their core.

Anderson’s new Gibson SG is a great compliment to this shift. Eric Clapton played a Gibson SG Standard, and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath owns several custom Gibson SGs. With rock legends like these two on a similar guitar, we can’t wait to hear what sound emerges on this fall tour and Fruitions next album.

With so many different sounds, and influences, and three songwriters in the group it’s amazing how fluid and crisp the band’s sound is. Jay contributes their success to the band’s ability to work together.

“In the end we try to make it a concise sound. We string it all together with our vocal harmonies. That’s really the bread and butter of what we do.” Anderson says.

In their time as a band, Fruition has made remarkably swift progress in influencing and winning over the scene with their unique sound and character. For people who’ve never seen them, Anderson tells us what to expect.

“We’re not like a lot of the bands you’ll see at some of these festivals, we’re more song oriented. We’re more about that than we are about jamming.”

“I hope that when people walk away after hearing us for the first time, they go with songs stuck in their head, thats our main thing.” says Anderson.

In the end Fruition sacrifices so much. They demo-ed over 50 tracks for Labor of Love, before they whittled it down to the final album version. They give up time, love, and every day run of the mill stuff Anderson says to get to where they are now. They give up normalcy as most of us know it, and they sometimes they even sacrifice their pants. Guess it’s all just a part of the labor of love.

“And in the end its totally worth it.” Anderson says.