Foundering

Album: Foundering (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jump, Little Children frontman Jay Clifford wrote this poignant track after a sailing trip with his dad opened his eyes to the ravages of time. The singer's childhood summers were spent making the journey to his grandfather's two-bedroom shack on the Rappahannock River in Virginia. When he tried to recapture the experience as an adult, he was shocked to find the road to the house under water. He recalled in a 2022 Songfacts interview:

    "Before my dad's 80th birthday, we decided to sail up to the house and do the same sailing trip that we did every year, which was from this little town Simonson, all the way down to Tangier Island, which is out in the middle of Chesapeake Bay. We sailed up to the house and walked down the road, and the road was under water. That never happened when I was a kid. No matter how high the tide was. It was about six to eight inches deep and it was a beautiful sunny day. It wasn't like there had been a storm. We took our shoes off and walked barefoot to the house and sure enough, the backyard where I played as a kid was under water. It really struck me. Obviously, I've been following climate change and how the world is changing, and I try to stay aware and do what I can to play my part. To see it so viscerally real was shocking.

    My dad was also going through some failing health issues. There was a unique connection there between how the nature of life is unstoppable and moves on. It was this pretty profound moment. That's what that song is about."
  • This is the title track of Jump, Little Children's final album, which marks the end of the band's 30-year journey. The decision to say goodbye didn't become clear until after they started working on the album and brothers Matt (multi-instrumentalist) and Evan Bivins (drums) announced they were quitting the band. The remaining trio - Clifford, Ward Williams (cello) and Jonathan Gray (upright bass) - forged ahead to complete the project to honor their fans and their departed bandmates.

    "We found ourselves in a very difficult position, which is wanting to respect Matt and Evan and what they wanted to do with their lives," Clifford told Songfacts. "We're all in our 50s, and it's a lot to go out on tour for a month and leave everything you're working on. We wanted to respect that decision, but at the same time we had this obligation to the fans who had been supporting the making of a Jump, Little Children record for two years. We had already written that record at that point. We decided to make the record as Jump, Little Children, do the tour as Jump, Little Children, and make it our last tour. That was the best path forward that respected Matt and Evan's decision and respected the fans and what they were promised."
  • After Jump's fanbase jumped at the chance to crowd-fund their 2018 album, Sparrow, the group started a Patreon page to give the fans access to behind-the-scenes goodies and a chance to get involved with the making of the next album. In January 2022, the fans voted on their favorite songs that became the tracklist for Foundering. Clifford told Songfacts about the selection process:

    "They voted on the songs and then we considered their votes like they're a member of the band. I had my favorites, the producer had his favorites, the members of the band had their favorites, and the collection of fans had their favorites. Then we made a larger decision based on that information. They definitely changed our minds on which songs to use."

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