Big Harp Lets Love See Them Through On Runs to Blue
- Josh Kitchen
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / May 18, 2026
Much has changed in the 13 years since Big Harp released an album. While Stefanie Drootin and Chris Senseney, who play together as Big Harp, haven’t put out new music together in that time, Stefanie and Chris have both stayed busy making music, touring, and starting a family. But the root of what makes Big Harp so good is the real love between them — something that, in talking to them, feels elemental. Like it has always been there.
That makes the songs on Runs to Blue feel all the more prescient and timeless. In 2022, Senseney’s mother passed away unexpectedly, and he began writing the album opener, “Kill It Kill It Kill It,” a song he tells me is “about how difficult it is sometimes to put feelings into words without feeling like you completely butcher the thing you’re trying to get across.”
The songs were also written before Stefanie’s breast cancer diagnosis in October of last year — a diagnosis she received an hour before Big Harp were set to play a show in New York. They played the show anyway. Luckily, she says, it was caught early, and she has since gone through radiation treatment. The album rollout, the shows, and everything that comes with putting out a new record have been, as she puts it, a “welcome distraction,” as Big Harp begins to navigate the new normal that comes from a life together — one worth the pain and hardship when you also get to bask in the glow of love, family, and community.
That was something she felt in New York: “Honestly, I don’t think it could have been a better place for it to happen because we just went and hugged people, and there were some tears and laughs. Playing the show felt normal.”
On Runs to Blue, Big Harp lets us into a world only they could live in and create — and it’s a world any listener will appreciate even more when they learn just how much of its magic comes from the love and joy Stefanie and Chris find in making music, raising a family, and moving through life together.
I think what strikes me about it more than anything is this is a record that Big Harp could have only put out now. as a duo, a writing partnership, husband and wife, family — your life has been lived between the first record and this one. you couldn’t have made this until now.
Chris:
I think it would have been hard — yeah, I mean, I think a lot of life happened in between the records, and I think a lot of it made its way into the songs.
Stefanie:
We didn’t necessarily completely take a break. We were working on other little projects. And I think it took some time to ruminate. It seemed like we were being a little bit more playful and having fun for some years, and then, yeah, some serious life stuff happened. And I was touring a lot while Chris was not, and I think a lot of these songs were written while I was probably away too. I’d come home between tours, and we weren’t necessarily working together on stuff. It was like break time, you know what I mean? Chris wasn’t on break.
Right. Songs are going to happen no matter what is happening in your life.
Chris:
Yeah, that’s true. And I think also, for the first little bit of that break the band took, I think maybe when we first took that break, I wasn’t even really trying to write songs or do anything. But kind of like what you were saying, songs do just kind of crop up from time to time.
I love hearing the playfulness in these songs. In these songs, I hear your life happening, and life being different than it was 10 or 15 years ago for you and for everybody, your listeners as well. You sing about about wanting to trade in the "Subaru for the 15 passenger van." You're raising children now.
Chris:
I think that’s one of the main things about the record, is that the songs, they’re all pretty real. They’re all rooted down, even to some of the smaller details, in our actual lives, which I feel like we hadn’t exactly done before. On our older records there was a little more fiction.
I love the lyrics in the title track: “You don’t have to know what you are long as you know what you’re for.” It’s almost like an ethos, a statement on being.
Chris:
Yeah. I feel like especially when you’re younger — or at least when I was younger — there is some kind of urge to figure out what kind of box you fit in and to figure everything out. And I think as I’ve gotten older, that kind of goes away, and you almost realize that would actually be terrible. It’s better to figure out what it is you’re doing. What do you want to do? That’s more important than what do you want to be?
I know the inception of this album kind of started at a backyard hangout, right? Talk to me about that and the evolution of the new record.
Chris:
Yeah — just kind of playing some songs. And then our friend Pierre was like, “You guys should record some of these songs.” At first it wasn’t like, “Let’s make a record.” It was just, “You guys have songs, let’s throw them down on tape real quick and have a document.” Then we did that. We went in for a couple hours and recorded maybe four or five songs, and then it became, “Maybe let’s do it again. Let’s make a record and do it like that. Let’s not do any overdubs. Let’s just play live as the two of us and see if we can do that.”
The opening track on this is “Kill It Kill It Kill It.” what an opener. That song is intense, but at the same time it’s very rooted in tenderness. After you say “kill it, kill it, kill it,” you almost take a step back from that violent verbiage into something more tender. Talk to me about that as the opener.
stefanie:
We didn’t really have a discussion about it. We both just knew it was the opener. It was one of the first songs we worked out together, and it just feels like the opener, even though it is a heavy song.
Chris:
And to me, one of the main themes of the whole album is trying to communicate as clearly and plainly as possible and to be as authentic as possible. And that song — one of the things the “kill it” is about — is how difficult it is sometimes to put feelings into words without feeling like you completely butcher the thing you’re trying to get across. So I think it makes sense to start the album with a song that acknowledges how hard that is to do and then tries to do it anyway.
Stefanie, I know you were diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, and that’s obviously extremely heavy, but from what I can tell, you’re not letting it define you, as they say. You guys are putting this record out, and it’s such a refreshing sound and set of ideas on this record that, coupled with this major thing that’s happened to you,I wonder if it almost feels like a relief to put these songs out.
stefanie:
It is. It was a little bit of a distraction, even starting from the day we got the diagnosis. We were in New York for a show, and I was kind of waiting for the call because I knew I was going to get the biopsy results while we were there on vacation. I got the results about 40 minutes before soundcheck for a show with a bunch of friends there. Honestly, I don’t think it could have been a better place for it to happen because we just went and hugged people, and there were some tears and laughs. Playing the show felt normal. While playing, I felt really good and normal. And throughout the rest of it, it’s just been a nice distraction. We’ve been busy. We haven’t been able to put as much toward the record as we would have liked. We wanted to do more shows and stuff before, but you know how it goes with treatments and all that. But we still worked on the lyric sheet and visuals and got it all together. We made the video during it all. So yeah, it was a welcome distraction.
Did any of the songs kind of evolve in a way after all of this started? What I mean is, do any of these lyrics or songs kind of mean something different to you now?
Chris
Yeah, because all the songs — the record was done before the diagnosis. I definitely think I feel a lot when we play them, and that feeling could come from anywhere. It doesn’t have to be from whatever the feeling was when the song was written. I’m curious what will come up.
I feel like someone seeing the show and knowing what you've been through will mean a lot to them. Just seeing you crushing it on stage and showing it’s possible to get through it. with everything you've been through — it still feels very celebratory. That’s how I see it.
stefanie:
Oh, I love that. It feels like that to me.
Chris
I feel like that too. The record definitely has heavy things on it, but I don’t think it’s a dark record. I tried not to write the darkest, most extreme caricature of a feeling, or the sunniest version either. Just trying to keep it to what felt the most real.
what else is inspiring you these days?
stefanie:
Probably partially because of what we’ve gone through this year, but I’m just so inspired by walks, being outside, and nature right now. I feel really inspired by that in a way that I don’t think is normal for me. I always liked going on walks, but now I crave it and want to be outside as much as possible.
Chris
As far as inspiring us musically or to write, I really just think life is full of inspiration and things that happen. I feel like you don’t have to look very far outside your own life to find plenty of big things happening all the time.
stefanie:
And we also really love writing together. Even today, Chris was like, “Hold on a sec,” because I was saying I think I’m ready to work on some new songs. We’re always thinking about it. And I know this is going to sound cheesy, but I think we inspire each other because we like playing together so much.
Chris
Playing together is the most fun. And our dog.
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