The last time we spoke with Major Murphy in 2018, our topics included The Beatles, their recently released debut album, No. 1 (which took three years in the making), and Benji, Jacki and Jacob’s one year old son. Now, another three years later, the band has found themselves amidst upheaval, like many of us have, an obstacle that inspired their second record, Access, out April 2nd, 2021 on Winspear. It all started when Jacob picked up a piece of silt fencing, left out as garbage, from a leftover construction site on the sidewalk, a literal manifestation of their surrounding disruption. Despite these moments of turbulence, Major Murphy have still been able to find moments of reflection, as heard in Access’ nine poetic tracks. Below, Jacki and Jacob talk the value of home and space (a topic we’ve all paid notice to recently), disruption, and how the idea of construction seeped into the making of Access.

Jacob: We are at home right now in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We live on Benjamin Avenue, South East on MLK Park. It's good to be home.

Jacki: It's good to be home.

Jacob: Should we talk about the value of space and environment?

Jacki: Well, I think as people that do a lot of work, creative and otherwise, at home, it's extremely important to have a home space that feels good, that feels inspiring and feels cozy and private, but still connected to parts of the world that you love, people that you love.

Jacob: What's your sign, Jackie?

Jacki: I'm a Taurus. Taurus Sun, Virgo Rising.

Jacob: How does a space feel good to you?

Jacki: Texture, good natural light. A lot of lamps—soft dimmer lamps in the evening.

Jacob: I can see five lamps from where I'm sitting right now.

Jacki: I kind of have a thing for lamps and chairs. Kind of a lamp and chairs freak. I don't know, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think, too, as a renter, it's an extra challenge to make a neutral kind of sterile blank place, feel like a home. So I think it requires even some overcompensation to make it feel extra vibey and cozy when it's not a home that we own. There are certain things that I can't change, so I compensate with the chairs and the lamps and the artwork and the plants.

Jacob: I think you would probably still have a lot of chairs even if this was our home.

Jacki: That's true. Those are all really important things to me. Like I said, especially because we spend a lot of time here, we work from here, we're a family here. It's kind of everything to me.

Jacob: To me it's very valuable. It's kind of like fashion where I don't really like spending money on clothes, but I also care about what I wear and I feel like similarly, you're really resourceful. You find stuff on Facebook marketplace—basically my point is that fashion is unavoidable. You could try to not have a style and then in doing so, that would become your style. It could be like, I'm only going to wear non-branded things.

Jacki: And then you're norm-core all of a sudden.

Jacob: No matter what you do, you're going to end up with a style, so you might as well embrace it.

Jacki: How has your space changed throughout the past year due to quarantine? Well, our space has changed a lot because we actually moved in the middle of quarantine, unexpectedly. We needed to move, and it was kind of like a long, harrowing process of getting new housing.

Jacob: Our need to move wasn't related to the pandemic. We moved in September of 2020 and this is the first place we've lived where there haven't been any roommates and or housemates. It's a single family home and that's been absolutely huge for us, especially because we are a family. The privacy is crucial. I think for a while we wanted to believe that we wouldn't be the typical American folks that wanted to live in their own little place, but it's really so important for us now. We can make music and listen to music at home so much more freely. There's a basement here that is dry and decent size. I'm able to set up my drum set down there, I've got my microphones and I've got my interface set up. It's been so amazing and inspiring to be able to have a place where it's just always there. When inspiration strikes, there's actually a place to turn to.

Jacki: We also got a TV, but that was even right before quarantine.

Jacob: Oh, thank God.

Jacki: Yeah, I always said we would never have a TV, but then Jacob's parents gave us a TV, a hand-me-down TV, and it's been a great blessing (laughs). That's been a change. The space also changes, not because of quarantine, but because we have a four year old and his needs are always changing. So, now he has his own room, he doesn't have a high chair anymore, the kinds of toys he's into changes. We don't have to have baby gates up. He's doing virtual preschool, but he doesn't really even have a dedicated space for that.

Jacob: How has touring impacted your perception of home and space?

Jacki: You definitely learn to not take it for granted.

Jacob: You never realize how much the little things add up.

“I think for a while we wanted to believe that we wouldn’t be the typical American folks that wanted to live in their own little place, but it’s really so important for us.”

— Jacob

Jacki: The simple pleasures, your own… everything. You come home from tour and you're like my towels, my kitchen...

Jacob: It's insane how much you miss that stuff. Those tiny little comforts.

Jacki: Having access to a kitchen, being able to cook in your pots and pans.

Jacob: It's just being aware of the creature comforts more.

Jacki: Yeah. It makes you aware of how special it is to just be home. How there's truly no place like home. But also, in my time on tour, I went to some really incredible, weird places that I think I've drawn inspiration from, like a weird hippie punk commune. DIY spaces, you know, that's forever part of me and my aesthetic.

Jacob: I think about going to places like that. And this is probably one of the the bigger ways that touring has impacted my perception of spaces and stuff is, you become really aware of... I don't know how to describe this, but you might show up at someone's house and they've got a really cool decoration going on, cool couch, or you go into a warehouse... There's a lot of times we go into a place and it seems really cool, and it is. But then you wake up the next morning and it's like, woah, there are roaches all over the place, you can see beneath things... Makes you have a keen eye for cockroaches...

Jacki: And pubes.

Jacob: Any specific environments that you go back to that are of great importance? Maybe that you physically go back to or maybe just kind of think about.

Jacki: I go back to grandma's house. I've dabbled in minimalism and it's not for me. I've gotten into that at different phases and I've been attracted to it and sometimes I think it's necessary, but I kind of always go back to I guess, cottage core. I think of my grandma's house and how it felt to be there and it wasn't immaculate, but it was cozy and inspired and really personal and kitschy... I guess going back to, "how has your space changed throughout the past year due to quarantine", I think I've leaned into some of that more. Kind of the cozy kitsch, embracing the maximalism and embracing that we like to have records, books, and chairs.

Jacob: I can just return in my mind to the vibe in my grandma's living room. I was probably four years old in this mind's eye moment, but the vibe is very palpable, so you just kind of try to reconnect with that and organize your home in a way that could evoke that kind of vibe again, even if it isn't exactly the same.

Jacki: Yeah, I want to be stimulated at home. I think for a while I wanted my home space to be really bare, minimal. Kind of this empty space that I could retreat to. Now I think I'm accepting that the real me wants to be surrounded by shit that sparks joy, stuff that inspires me.

Jacob: I like the home as a museum of sorts, of all the stuff you've accumulated throughout your life.

Jacki: We're sitting in a very cluttered room right now.

Jacob: Yeah, I don't think I'm a minimalist either. You talked about being a Taurus, my needs for space are maybe a little different, I'm a little more stoic than you are. I'll live with the same gross blanket on my bed for 20 years. It's not gross, it's just maybe not the coolest, freshest piece.

Jacki: It's not fresh.

Jacob: What environments or spaces inspire you musically?

Jacki: The great outdoors.

Jacob: Yeah, definitely. Being outside, not necessarily even in nature, just, I would say, being outside, period. But I think I definitely get inspired at home, too. I get very inspired on a Saturday afternoon when you don't have anywhere to go and you're just getting the vibe going, getting on the drum set. I also think about when we were out in L.A. and went to Malibu, went to Matador Beach. I think I finished some lyrics I had been working on after that experience because it was just such a huge impression.

“I like the home as a museum of sorts, of all the stuff you’ve accumulated throughout your life. ”

— Jacob

Jacki: Yeah, driving, just driving through a landscape is inspiring to me.

Jacob: Well, [Access] kind of all started with, talking about going on a walk, and I found that piece of material that was just garbage on the sidewalk. That's kind of where the album really started. Before that I had a few of the songs maybe written, but I think at that point most of the songs written that were going to be for LP two didn't end up even making it, but the album I was thinking of was a completely different name and everything. Then I found that piece, which is like a piece of silt fence from a construction site just sitting on the sidewalk and I picked it up without thinking about the album or music at all. I thought it was really cool, hung on to it and somehow it made its way into being. I thought it would be cool to scan it and have it be the album cover and then it obviously evolved a lot from there. The name itself is connected to that... Do you remember when the name Access came along?

Jacki: No, I don't.

Jacob: I don't either, it was probably in 2018, if I had to guess? So that's a big point of inspiration, is that piece of fence on the sidewalk. I think the sidewalk in general was kind of a big inspiration and the street... roadsigns and the kind of construction, concrete rubble... We're still using that warning sign kind of emblem, the space of construction and work, and I think that's coming from commuting. I was walking to work a lot and biking.

Jacki: At the first place we lived together, there was constantly construction going on. Across the street on the school and the houses on both sides of us.

Jacob: The road was ripped up.

Jacki: Every single morning it was the sound of construction.

Jacob: Yeah, maybe in some ways I was getting drawn to that. I'm sure there's a lot of reasons, but the record is very tied to our own personal space being disturbed a lot.

Jacki: We've had many housing.

Jacob: Just at a very basic level, we've moved how many times...? One, two, three, four, five times in the last four years? And some of those moves had kind of subtle moves within them.

Jacki: Yeah, move inception.

Jacob: Yeah, the kind of upheaval of the construction site spoke to me.

Jacob: I've got Benji now. Can you say hi, Benji?

Benji: Hi.

Jacob: Benji, what are your favorite rooms maybe in this house or just anywhere in the world?

Benji: The kitchen and the basement, and the room that we're in right now.

Jacob: Yeah, the living room.

Jacki: What do you like about the kitchen?

Jacob: It's fun in the kitchen. It's where we have all our yummy food.

Benji: And the room that we're in we can play and do anything.

Jacki: What do you like about the basement?

Benji: There's a bunch of racing cars, that's my favorite thing to do a lot.

Jacob: Yeah, the basement is kind of a play zone. Are there any other rooms you can think of that you've been to that you really like it when you're in that room?

Jacki: It can be in somebody else's house too.

Benji: Dane's room.

Jacob: Do you have a favorite chair or object?

Benji: The furnace. I know they heat it up.

Jacob: Yeah, that's our radiator. Do you have a favorite chair in the house? Where's your favorite place to sit?

Benji: On the couch. There's three cushions so three people can snuggle up.

Keep up with Major Murphy. Access is out April 2nd, 2021.

Jacob Bullard and Jacki Warren of Major Murphy on the Ever Changing Construction of Home