Us The Duo hosted a special event for the release of their new record Public Record EP on Wednesday (December 14) at The GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles.
The event was very special to husband and wife Michael and Carissa Alvarado, as this was the first time they were able to perform songs off the EP to friends, family, fans, and story submitters. The couple also hosted a Q&A where attendees were able to learn more about the stories behind making each song.
“We’re really excited about this event because it’s so unique,” Carissa told us exclusively before the event. “I feel like it’s really intimate and we’ve always loved super intimate shows.” Michael added, “Carissa’s family is going to be here tonight because they’re LA based. My family is in North Carolina, but I know they really support us and they were really excited about the EP.”
Wow… such an incredible night. We got to play the #PublicRecordEP in front of #UsTheFamily & the story submitters at @TheGRAMMYMuseum! 😍
— Us The Duo (@UsTheDuo) December 15, 2016
For those of you who don’t know, Public Record‘s songs are inspired by Us The Duo‘s fans. Michael and Carissa reached out to their listeners to submit real life stories of love, life, struggles and happiness to create a completely crowdsourced and fan-inspired new album. In addition, each story is partnered with a non-profit to raise awareness for the various topics covered in each video. After receiving hundreds of requests, the band narrowed it down to five stories, which was a difficult yet rewarding process.Â
“Honestly, we didn’t know what we were looking for. I don’t think we had a specific type of story,” Carissa tells Celeb Secrets exclusively. “We kind of let the stories choose us in a silly way, but we just read and sifted through a bunch of them. Those songs that we picked just struck a chord in our hearts and we were like ‘oh wow.’ We might have not gone through these things that they’ve gone through, but we feel like someone else can be inspired by the story or it can help someone get through their troubles.”
Although fans learned many things about the making of Public Record during the event, they did not, however, hear ALL the behind-the-scenes secrets.
“These songs were so emotional to us, so we actually cried a few times while recording which is pretty rare. It just felt so real and reminded us of times before that have happened, what we have gone through, or even things that will happen to us in the future. Michael will deny it, but he and I did cry a lot during the sessions,” Carissa spilled.
“I think for me my only secret about the album is that I played pretty much most of the instruments on the record other than drums and bass,” Michael shared. “It was the first time I really let loose in the studio, and I kept telling myself ‘I want to try this and this and pick up this random instrument from Africa bang it around see what happens.'”
You can listen to Public Records on Spotify below. Keep up with Us the Duo by following them on Twitter at @ustheduo.
