Staff photo / Andy Gray Kat Fitzgerald, who performs as Crash the Great, will have a release party for their debut album, “A New Name,” Saturday at Modern Methods Brewing Company

Crash the Great views their debut album, “A New Name,” as a look back to the person they once were.

“It feels like an elegy for someone who’s gone but who I’m paying tribute to and doing right by, which is my younger self,” said Kat Fitzgerald, who performs as Crash the Great as a solo act and also plays in the band Flowers for Bill. “My 20s weren’t easy. I’ve come a long way since then, and I want to honor that.”

Fitzgerald, who grew up in Youngstown and lives in Warren, will play a CD release show Saturday night at Modern Methods Brewing Company, and “A New Name” will be available starting Sunday on all major streaming services.

The album includes five originals and four covers. Fitzgerald wrote the originals between 2011 and 2017, and two were released as singles when they were signed to an independent label in 2016.

“It just wasn’t a good partnership,” Fitzgerald said. “They were inexperienced with what they were doing and so was I.”

Fitzgerald always wanted to give their early material the treatment they felt the songs deserved, so with the encouragement of Joe Carbon Jr., the drummer in Flowers for Bill and the producer of “A New Name,” Fitzgerald decided to do a “quasi-Taylor Swift thing” and revisit those songs.

“I wanted to release them as someone with a little more experience,” they said. “I’m a stronger musician now. I wanted to do them justice … It’s reaching back and hugging that person — ‘You were worth it. Your work was worth it. I know you didn’t feel that way at the time, but you deserve to be heard in the best way possible.’ It’s kind of saying goodbye to the younger version of myself and also embracing it as part of my history.”

They decided to do the album with just voice and piano and no other musicians. That’s the way they are played as Crash the Great when Fitzgerald performs at different venues in the area.

However, a couple of the songs Fitzgerald hasn’t played for years. “Route 80” was the first song Fitzgerald wrote and hasn’t been played since their first band. “Redemption,” a song they wrote the music for years ago using a poem by a friend, Fritz Houy, was only played once before to make a primitive recording of it as a gift for Houy.

“It’s a very dark song, very dark material, but I wanted to highlight my composition skills,” Fitzgerald said. “It was the first time I’d ever just written music for something, and also he’s a very gifted writer who hasn’t been given the opportunity to have his stuff out there in the public eye, so I wanted to take this opportunity to do that for us and for him.”

The dark tone of the originals carries over to the cover songs selected. The most famous is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which Fitzgerald fell in love with as a child after hearing it in the movie “Shrek.”

“It’s one of the first songs I learned on the piano,” they said. “It’s one of my favorite songs to sing. You can put so much power into it. It’s a tender song, but it’s also a really raw song. I know there are a million covers out there, but I wanted to contribute mine.”

Fitzgerald also covers “Tomorrow Is Today,” an obscure, early track by Billy Joel.

“That song was Billy Joel’s suicide note,” Fitzgerald said. “He attempted suicide in his 20s, and that (the lyrics) was his note. After he survived, he put it on ‘Cold Spring Harbor’ (Joel’s pre-‘Piano Man’ album). It’s kind of about giving up but also hanging onto that one little shred of hope you have left.

“At the time I really felt that in my soul, and that song’s always been precious to me. I love the lyrics, I love the piano part. He’s my favorite and a huge influence to me. I wanted to pay tribute to that and couldn’t think of a better song.”

Fitzgerald also sings “Echo,” which features lyrics by her Flowers for Bill bandmate Alyson Byerly Carbon and music by the bands 713 B.C. (the duo act of Alyson and Joe Carbon) and Amnesty for Astronauts (the Carbons’ previous group).

“Aly and I have a lot of the same family trauma, and that’s what that song is about,” Fitzgerald said. “She was like, ‘I feel you understand this song’ and was gracious enough to let me record it. One of the sweetest things she said to me, she told me, ‘Now that you sing the song, I finally feel like it’s finished after all these years because you get it.'”

“Hope” originally was written and recorded by the metal band Crucify the Hopeless, which was on the same label as Fitzgerald, who also briefly worked as the band’s tour manager. They created a solo piano arrangement of the song and got their blessing to record it.

“I hope it’s kind of a bright spot on the album,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s definitely got some spiritual undertones. I’m not a religious person, but I’m definitely a spiritual person. It’s not a happy, super-optimistic song, but it is a spiritually bright song, and I’m very grateful to Nick (Cheatle) and Derek (McGrath) for giving me the opportunity to record that one.”

Fitzgerald will play “A New Name” in its entirety at the release show with music starting around 9 p.m. Saturday at Modern Methods. Fitzgerald hopes the CDs arrive in time to sell at the event. If not, CD orders can be placed at the release show.

The start time was pushed back so as not to conflict with a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. in Sharon, Pa., for Pauly Likens, a 14-year-old transgender teen who was murdered last month.

While “A New Name” gives Fitzgerald a chance to reclaim their past, they also are looking toward the future. Fitzgerald has new songs in the works and plans to release one of them in the fall.

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