Beta Radio

For the last couple of Beta Radio releases, Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman have been gleaning important lessons in how to better serve the song. Most of it has to do with learning to let go of preconceived ideas or unfounded fears, a difficult in-studio rite of passage in which the artist learns to get out of the way. Yet somehow in that process, moving out also means moving in—getting closer than ever to what the song wants to be.

On the duo's latest album, Waiting for the End to Come, Beta Radio is operating with a "new energy", says Mabry. It stemmed in part from co-writing sessions in Nashville, but it continued well into his own writing corner where the songs for a new album were composed. And for the first time ever, Mabry explains that he's in a real "flow state" that he doesn't want to interrupt.

In our latest conversation with Beta Radio, we sat down with Mabry to hear more about the new album and the growth curve for one of the most thoughtful bands in roots music.

Analogue: The press materials around this album talk about a songwriting retreat in Nashville serving as a catalyst for the new songs. Can we start there? What was happening?

Benjamin Mabry: We went to Nashville and worked with new songwriters which was very stimulating and illuminating to do for the very first time. When you work with someone, you develop a flow of your energies in how you get work done. You also make a lot of agreements over time that aren’t even spoken about the way you work. So when you bring someone in, it’s like adding a new ingredient to a stew that only has two ingredients. [Laughs] You’re going to notice it.

Being in Nashville was a catalyzing event in the way it shook things up. With that, I began to notice that there was this momentum to tap into that was predicated not on the previous modes or modalities that had always served us. It was demanding that we work in a new way. So even after we left Nashville, there was a different sort of energy unfolding in the writing process.

I think part of it was saying yes to the unknown. Both Brent and I for a long time had rigid ideas about what we were doing and what music we were making. Whenever we got to taste not knowing what was going to happen to the song because you were introducing new elements, whenever I didn’t have a vice grip on what a song was going to be, then songs just started happening much quicker.

It felt like there was this expansion happening. This record came much quicker than anything we’ve ever done before. Part of it was working with other people but I think that also raised our own ability to take the reins off, if that makes sense.

Analogue: That’s interesting because the last time we talked, you said you were feeling more sonic freedom than before when you were working with Bryan Devendorf of The National on your Afraid of Love EP. Now you’re even more on that side of that creative journey.

Benjamin: Yeah, now that you mention that, that is true. Let me put a finer point on it. When we were recording, we were making the record over two weeks. We’d never done that before. We’d always made records over a long period of time. For those two weeks, I was in the studio with all of these guitars and instruments that were meant to vibrate and I felt like I was vibrating.

There was less separation between myself and the song—and this is going to sound very metaphysical or whatever—but the songs wrote themselves. Something came online and made it work. It was easy. I feel like I got to tap into a boldness I had not known before and it also translated into my own life. I found confidence in making decisions—like “even if it’s the wrong decision, let’s let it be the wrong decision and see what happens next.”

I’ve never known that before. I’ve known it in fits and starts, but when you realize you’re in a flow state, if you think too hard about it, you’ll pull yourself out of it. [Laughs] But I’ve been finding myself more and more in those flow states. It doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything. Instead I’m just there to watch it happen.

Analogue: Is that about being more confident or being less precious about your work?

Benjamin: Maybe that’s the same thing. If I’m precious about my art, maybe that’s because I’m not confident about it. When I’m giving myself fully to something and I let it be whatever it is, it’s no longer this precious little thing because I don’t need it to be anything other than whatever it’s going to be. That felt very risky, at least in some capacity, to not try to control it, to not try to make a Beta Radio song.

Analogue: Does the energy or confidence carry you into the release of the music to the marketplace?

Benjamin: Social media is not something we did a whole bunch of prior to this. I think there was an energy that came along with this record that brought a lot of momentum. When it was time to start pushing the record and that meant more social stuff, it was an interesting dance. We do the work to make these 10 WAV files and then the job becomes creating more and more content to support the 10 WAV files. We’re creating content to push someone to more content. It’s a strange game.

Sorry, I have ADD. As far as the energy, it was tied to the raw creation of something we love and now the task is convincing people that they should listen to it. So I don’t love that. I’d rather if someone wants to listen to it, let them listen. And if not, then don’t.

Analogue: Let’s go back to the new songs. What struck you most about the sessions here?

Benjamin: I think this is the best record we’ve ever made because it didn’t feel like work over time. It just felt like something was being born that wanted to be born. It didn’t feel like I had a lot of say over it. It just happened.

It feels like we left room for the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost just showed up. I was singing more from the true place inside of me instead of trying to sound like I was trying to sing from that place. I could show up confidently and do the work of making the music and know that no matter what we chose, it was going to be great because I’d let go of any notion that it could be anything other than that.

Analogue: What about lyrically?

Benjamin: I think the lyrics on this record, I was able to speak clearly and articulately in a way I haven’t before. Previously in my lyric writing, and over time, this has changed, but I was always afraid to say certain things because of how it would seem. That has faded over time, but on this record, I didn’t have that catch inside of me that was like, ‘You could have said this more truthfully.’ All of the boxes got checked.

VISIT: Beta Radio

*Photo: Amanda Holloman