#wonderbloom

INTERVIEW: Becca Stevens.

Singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Becca Stevens has released a new full-length album, titled WONDERBLOOM.

North Carolina-bred, Brooklyn-based Becca Stevens again defies all expectation, this time dreaming up a groove-heavy, dance-ready sound infused with elements of pop and funk and R&B. With its bright textures and uptempo rhythms, WONDERBLOOM also finds Becca achieving a profound complexity in her lyrics, ultimately redefining what’s possible in creating music that elevates and edifies.

WONDERBLOOM telegraphs an unabashed joy that Stevens partly attributes to the project’s production. In a first for her, WONDERBLOOM was co-produced and co-engineered alongside Nic Hard (Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note, The Church), overseeing every aspect of the recording and claiming a sense of agency that had long eluded her in the studio.  

Recorded over the course of six months, WONDERBLOOM mostly came to life in Brooklyn, but Stevens also journeyed to Los Angeles, North Carolina, and France in order to capture certain performances.

We had a chat with Becca all about WONDERBLOOM, touring and much more. Read the interview below.

You've just released your new album WONDERBLOOM. What is the record about?

"I didn’t have an overall theme in mind when I set out to write the music for WONDERBLOOM, but not for lack of trying. Unlike my previous album Regina which was very much driven by a theme, the writing of WONDERBLOOM was much harder for me to distill into an elevator pitch. I found the more I tried to chase a “storyline”, the more my muse would rebel against it and lure me into the unknown. I did however have challenges set for myself that I was very committed to throughout the process of writing, like staying direct, enjoying the process, and serving the songs.

"Looking back, it’s clear to me that each song on WONDERBLOOM dances with struggle. The songs capture the fearlessness and wonder of holding difficulties up to the light to watch them flicker and bloom, like looking into the lens of a kaleidoscope.

"WONDERBLOOM taught me to surrender, to enjoy, to share, and inspired me to dig in my heals and work harder, longer hours in the studio than ever. Writing and recording this music also taught me the joys that could come from relinquishing control and finding a balance of trusting myself as well as my collaborators. I think I’ve tended to hold my writing process precious for fear of losing my voice in the final product, but this album has taught me that sharing the process actually stretches and challenges me, humbles me, makes the process more fun, while broadening my own voice."

What were your influences for the album and what does it mean to you?

"When I was writing the music for WONDERBLOOM, there were two pictures sitting on my Wurlitzer that I drew a lot of inspiration from. One is a piece of calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh that reads “No Mud No Lotus”. This reminded me daily that without going through the hard work and difficult emotions we will never have the beautiful bloom. Next to that was a photo of my grandfather, my dad’s dad, who passed away the year I was born. The photo had been taken just after his doctor told him he had terminal cancer. My grandfather wanted to leave a memory for his family of the way he looked before the cancer started to change his appearance so he had his portrait made. His smile beams with so much joy and warmth in the photo. While writing the music for WONDERBLOOM, if I was in a bad mood or taking myself too seriously, I’d often find myself gazing at the photo and thinking, “if he could smile like that knowing what he did, then I can definitely get over myself right now”.

"This commitment to finding joy amidst the difficulties is a huge reason that a lot of the songs on the record have dance grooves even though the subject may be brooding, or upset.

"This may sound cheesy, or cheap but the songs themselves were also huge influences on this album. My initial vision for this record was something way more stripped down, intimate, and simple. But from day one in the studio with Nic Hard, the songs pulled me in sonic directions that I didn’t intend. (And as I was going down those unplanned roads I of course found myself channeling elements of a multitude of artists that I’ve been influenced by since the moment I first started remembering music. Whoever you’re hearing I’m sure is accurate, whether it be directly or indirectly.)

"WONDERBLOOM’s title was inspired by the Titan Arum, a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The Titan Arum, also known as the “corpse flower”, spends 7-10 years growing before it finally bursts into a magnificent bloom that smells like rotting meat and lasts for 12-48 hours before wilting and beginning again. I’m inspired by the amount of time that this magnificent flower spends to bear fruit, beginning with dirt and ending with a massive, glorious bloom. “No Mud, No Lotus”. "

How is WONDERBLOOM different (or similar) to your previous releases?

"The collaborative element of WONDERBLOOM was not only a crucial influence in the making of this music, but a very different approach to record making for me. As I mentioned above, in the past I would have been reluctant to share the creative process too much for fear of losing my creative voice. If someone had told me on my first day of recording WONDERBLOOM that I’d end up having 40+ collaborators on it I think I would have ran the other direction. Sharing one’s process as a songwriter can be an uncomfortable situation, but I am a firm believer in investigating and pushing up against the vulnerable stuff during my creative process. What I found in the end was that the enjoyment and camaraderie that came from sharing this process far outweighed the creative vulnerabilities that I anticipated. Sharing the process helped me to get out of my own way, simplify, obsess less, and enjoy more.

"The way the collaborations unfolded was very natural, and somehow still very authentic to my process. A big part of that was due to the collaborators being thought of in the moment as a response to the needs of the songs as Nic Hard and I were building them in the studio. Another reason was more personal: that I’d set a goals for myself going into this record to challenge my tendency to turn inward and control the process, and instead share and collaborate as much as the songs asked for along the way. Nic Hard, my co-engineer/co-producer and I would be tracking and editing and a missing element would arise, at which point we’d think of someone who would be perfect to record on the song, and text them right away. Most of the people we thought of were miraculously able to either come by during the recording process, or send stems from their home studio. This fit the goal of being joyful too as the communal vibe was just more fun!

"Lastly, because I was way more hands on in the editing/producing process on this album, I was able to very much maintain the feeling and aesthetic that all this information was coming through my lens. As I was editing everything myself, and choosing all my favorite bits, it was sort of like making my own painting with a palette of brand new colors."

Were there any musical influences or sounds that you were able to incorporate on this record that you hadn’t previously?

"Synths, effects, and pedals galore. Being more direct and raw in my vocal delivery that ever, to the degree that it was like torture some days to find it."

You mentioned working with Nic Hard on the album. What was it like working with him? What sort of things did you learn from him and vice versa?

"Nic was an unbelievably generous/selfless collaborator, showing me exactly how to execute any task that held me back, so that by the end I had capability to run a session/track vocals/edit takes/manipulate sounds etc. from another room while he was mixing or working on something else. This was a very empowering for me, and also added to the personalized feeling of the end result of the album. For example, for every collaborator that did twenty takes of an improvised idea, I took the time to listen through and choose the moments and takes that best served the song or the feeling of the song, so even though the collaborative element was higher than usual, the final product still feels very “me” when I listen back.

"Nic started out as an acquaintance and over time became one of my most trusted collaborators. He pushed me in the studio in ways that I never had been before, especially during the vocal tracking process. There were songs where we even pushed the limits of traditional recording styles in order to get certain sounds that served the songs. I tracked laying on the floor on my stomach to replicate the sleepy/depressed sound from one of my early demos of a song. One song was tracked in a whisper room, screaming into a hand held mic to get a more edgy/dirty/loose/angry sound. One song I tracked completely alone in the control room (no headphones, playback at a low volume in the studio monitors) in a handheld mic to get a natural/uninhibited sort of on stage feeling to the vocals.

"The biggest things I took from the 9? months I spent working with Nic were:

1.) How to listen more “globally” as a producer rather than zeroing in on specific sounds… listening to the song as a whole and asking if the story and energy is being served rather than focusing on how my voice sounds 2.) How to know the feeling of when I’m serving the songs in a vocal take, vs. just “singing pretty” 3.) How to run a session on my own, tracking someone else or myself etc   4.) Leaving the whole experience feeling like I can confidently call myself a producer.

"I have so much to thank Nic for. He was so patient, and so calm yet competent, ego-less, and I always trusted his ears, and he mine. Even though at times it was really difficult and at times we drove each other crazy spending long days working in small spaces, I wouldn’t change a thing. He truly awakened a lot in me during the process of making this album."

What was your favorite part recording WONDERBLOOM?

"Hard to choose one, so I’ll list 3:

1.) Learning to run Protools from Nic Hard, and the satisfaction of engineering and producing my own sessions when special guests came in to collaborate. 2.)Tracking vocals, being pushed by Nic to reach deeper to emotional places I didn’t think were possible, 3.) Experimenting with sounds and textures, and the feeling of complete freedom in the studio — no stop time. no sonic limits. The “No time spent on the record is wasted time” mentality. It was such an inspiring time."

What do you hope fans will take away from the new LP?

"I hope they find solace, inspiration, originality, authenticity, humanness, fearlessness, grounded-ness, spirituality, and raw emotion."

You are planning to return to Europe on tour dates to support the new record. What do you love most about touring and being on stage?

"The connection with the audience. It’s such a small part of being on the road when you break it down. Most of the day is spent traveling, loading in and out and sound-checking, but the time spent with the audience makes it all worth it."

Will there be any changes to your live show? Which of the new songs are you excited to debut live and why?

Before quarantine I had been touring the new music with a second guitar player, which has given me a lot of freedom to focus more on singing and feeling grounded in my movements for sections or entire songs. I’ve always wanted to give myself the freedom to dance more on stage. Now’s my chance!"

If there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?  

"That art is valued to the same degree as something like medicine. It is a medicine for many people, so why shouldn’t it be valued in a way like that? I wish that when an artist put in the hours (years!) and creates something that is deeply connected and thoughtful and important and serves the people, like a a well studied doctor, that it was valued like that, monetarily and otherwise. It would be nice if we weren’t expected to give everything away for free. It would be nice if female musicians could be treated equally to male artists. And man oh man I wish we were all taken better care of on the road. Road life is absolutely brutal."

And finally, what's one non-musical goal of yours for 2020?

"To dance more. Well, I guess that’s musical too. To finish 'The Artist’s Way'...I guess that’s also kind of musical. To hug my friends again."