FEATURE: Spotlight: Babeheaven — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Babeheaven

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THERE is quite a lot of information…

that I want to put in prior to getting to a review of Babeheaven. Home for Now was one of the best and more under-reviewed albums of last year. I am going to end with a review for The Line of Best Fit. This interview introduces us to a hugely promising and innovative band (whilst they are billed as a duo, I think they now play as a four-piece):

“The new generation of trip-hop has a name: Babeheaven. Through this unique artistic project, the two Londoners, Nancy Andersen and Jamie Travis, have managed to seduce us, in just a few tracks, with their melancholic groove and a definite gift for conveying strong emotions that give us goose bumps! A few days before the release of their first album, Home For Now (Awal), the duo gave us an exclusive interview.

La Vague Parallèle : Hi Babeheaven! For those who are not lucky enough to know you yet, could you introduce yourself in a few words (name, role, and even zodiac sign!)?

Jamie: My name is Jamie Travis, Nance and I write the songs in Babeheaven and I play keys live. My sign is Sagittarius, Virgo rising. The opposite to Nancy’s!

Nancy: My name is Nancy– I am the singer in Babeheaven and a Virgo.

LVP: How would you describe your music?

Nancy: We make “post-rave” music. The music you put on in the car ride back from a party, or at 6 a.m. when you’ve been up all night and are feeling a little fragile. It’s mellow but heavy!

LVP: What are the secrets of your creative process for composing?

Nancy: When we write normally, Jamie will start with a beat and we will find something we both like, then play some chords. We work through till we find something that evokes a feeling. Then I write melodies and hum parts I think will work whilst writing lyrics. The rest is history.

LVP: If you were told tomorrow that you could collaborate with any artist in the blink of an eye, who would it be and why?

Jamie: I think maybe Fatboy Slim, as I’ve always wanted to make a song like Praise You. Something that is played at a party and makes everyone dance. It’s been a dream of mine! So maybe the collab could make that dream come true. But there’s soo many people I’d love to collaborate with.

Nancy: I think I would choose James Blake. I like the way he writes hypnotic vocals parts that pull you in and builds up around them. It’s so simple but amazing.

LVP: Your album is a journey to the heart of the things that define us as human beings. For you, what does it mean to be human in 2020?

Nancy: Being human in 2020 is the same as it has always been for me. It’s staying in touch and not losing touch.

LVP: It’s difficult not to talk about the health crisis at the moment. How has it impacted / is it impacting your life as an artist?

Jamie: The positive for us during this crisis, is that it gave us the time to solely work on music without any distractions. We would meet up and work most days, and that led to us getting a lot done, and being able to move forward with an album sooner than if this had not happened. The album might not have come out till next year, for example. However the negatives are huge, like many artists we were supposed to play SXSW festival and then go on a 2 months tour of the USA. Financially we have lost a lot from the crisis stopping our touring, as well as the experience we would have had as people”.

There is a lot to love and explore when it comes to Babeheaven. Apart from one having to be a bit careful when Googling their name (!), their interviews and music are extraordinary. The Forty-Five spoke with the group last year. The group have been growing in various areas since their formation:

“The last five years have seen the band grow and develop both personally and sonically. While Jamie has been honing his production skills, Nancy, has been battling to overcome on stage anxiety.

“For our first shows, I would get so nervous and freak out,” she admits. “If I get overexcited, I get a migraine and I throw up – it’s really weird. That still happens sometimes if it’s a big show. But now I’ve figured out that I’ve got to go for a walk around the block, not talk to anyone for twenty minutes, try to not shout at anyone… I can be really mean sometimes! I get so in my head about performing.”

The support unit of the band has helped Nancy move past her early fears, knowing they are there with her at every show. “If it was just me by myself and I didn’t have them – Game Over.”

Musically, Babeheaven have been growing, too. When they started out, making music and performing for friends at house parties it was all a bit of a laugh. As time went on, they realised they had a shot at being a Proper Band, and started to aspire to bigger and better things.

“Access to more and more studios makes the sound develop.” Jamie tells us of the perks of hard work and getting noticed. “At the beginning, it was just my laptop.”

“Once you’ve hit that first target then you keep moving it up and up and want more and more. I’m greedy now!”, jokes Nancy. “That’s the main thing that’s changed.”

So now the album is out in the world – something that they were both really nervous about – what is next for the band?

“I think now we’ve got the first album out, then it’ll feel way easier to do the next one”, Nancy says optimistically. “But the first one – for some reason, I’ve just been like ‘No! I’m not doing that.’ But now that we’ve done it, I’m super excited to get started on the next one.”

“It would be great to tour all over the world with it – go to places we’ve never been and play, which would allow us to make the next record and keep growing”, adds Jamie.

“I want to go to festivals!”, says Nancy. “At the beginning, I was like “this is fine” but now I’m really starting to miss it.”

Listening to ‘Home For Now’, you can imagine it would be the perfect sunny afternoon soundtrack to a glorious day down on Worthy Farm, slightly woozy from a couple of 4pm ciders or a puff on something medicinal. Jamie agrees: “Playing Glastonbury would be so cool.”

Babeheaven might be home for now, but with a vaccine imminent, expect to see them fly the nest very soon”.

There are a few more bits I want to include before I wrap up. I have put social media links up for Babeheaven. They are definitely worth following. The Line of Best Fit spoke with Nancy Andersen about the much-anticipated debut album:

“It’s nice to be back,” beams Nancy Andersen as our conversation draws to a close. “It’s nice to talk to people about the music again. It hasn’t felt so exciting in a while to discuss stuff, and have a full body of work… It feels amazing because it’s got the first song we ever wrote, up to the newest song we’ve written, and it feels very special to be able to have that moment of my life in a box on my shelf — literally — in a record.”

Andersen is speaking about the debut album that was recently released by her dreamy alt-pop band Babeheaven. As she sits beneath an azure blue poster of celestial bodies that feature on the album cover for Home For Now, she is a flurry of excitement — operating in effervescent bursts and going on tangent after tangent. Whilst the album itself is by no means centred around the after-effects of lockdown, it is deeply rooted in a sense of introspection and self-discovery. There’s a vulnerability in the music which lies in direct contrast to the person who sits in front of me today.

Serendipitous are the beginnings of Babeheaven — vocalist Andersen met her musical collaborator Jamie Travis at football classes that her father used to coach when they were both just kids. Whilst they’d wax and wane out of each other’s lives, over the years, their friendship was eventually cemented when coincidentally working on the same street as adults. Though, how much can they really owe to coincidence? Once their musical endeavours got underway, and became more than just two friends killing time, there was always the idea of creating an album in mind. It wasn’t until they were afforded the luxury of time, this year, that the ball truly got rolling.

Soothing trip-hop melodies and use of organic field recordings create a lush soundscape for the listener to find solace in. As a new layer of vulnerability is uncovered in each listen, you feel closely connected to Andersen’s stories and the timeless relatability of the human condition. As such, Home For Now also takes on serendipitous meaning. Home is a transient place for both Andersen and Travis — it is an amalgamation of memories and cyclic happenstances that have brought the duo together, time after time.

BEST FIT: Congratulations on the release of your debut album — it's been a very long time coming. How has the reaction been? Would you say that it is scarier to have released it under the circumstances of a global pandemic?

ANDERSEN: I think it's less scary than I anticipated. I had a lot of pressure in my head about what I thought putting an album out would be, so it's kind of nice that it is done. Under the circumstances, it's a bit lame. I feel like we normally would be touring [and doing] that kind of stuff which is actually the fun of being in a band — not being able to do that, I’ve found quite difficult. In terms of making the album, it was kind of perfect because I couldn't do anything else. It was the right timing for that.

Luckily, Simon, one of the producers we mostly worked with on this album, was very much like: “If you've seen people, just tell me and then we can go from there” and was very open to working with us through the whole of the first lockdown. He was like: “I just want to be cautious.” I really appreciated that. It made everything work and run really well because we just had time. There wasn't pressure and there wasn't so much on our shoulders. It feels good! I read one horrible — really horrible — review of it, but I actually quite enjoyed it. You can't read all good stuff! They were like: “Even the name Babeheaven is bad…This is the epitome of coffee shop music for a new trendy coffee shop”, and I was like, I'm not upset, that's fine. Everyone can have an opinion! But it's been really nice, it's been really well received.

As someone who grew up around music, and had been singing for years, what was the decision behind taking your first singing lesson just before the first lockdown?

I'm lucky because I've never had to sing take a singing lesson, and that's amazing, but before lockdown, we've gone on tour, and I've had the same thing that always happens — stage fright. We were on tour with Rosie Lowe, and my manager was like, “She has an amazing singing teacher. It's not to teach you how to do scales or anything like that, it's more so you can feel comfortable on stage.” So, I went with a very open mind, and it was almost like therapy. He watched me sing for five minutes and was like, “You know that you haven't really breathed the whole way through this?” And I was like, what?! He told me to just walk around the room, and I was so uptight, I was stood by a piano and he was like: “Just walk around the room and sing what you see in the room.” Because I'm so obsessed with hitting the right notes and making sure everything sounds perfect, I kind of lose the joy of it, so it was nice to try and figure out how to find joy in performing and singing. I know I have it and I would enjoy doing it, but in the moment, I won't breathe. So, that was really interesting, and I really liked it a lot — here's the thing — it was like having therapy! It's kind of crazy.

The album was created during lockdown, and as you said earlier, it's a blessing to be afforded that much time to do exactly what you want. Was it stressful to share and record your ideas whilst being cautious of the lockdown rules?

We weren't planning on the album; it kind of came in response to lockdown. We were supposed to be on tour in America and doing lots of shows when our manager called us halfway through like: “You're just wasting time if we don’t do this now, so let's just do it”. We'd done a couple of sessions just before lockdown started — I find it really hard writing when I’m not in the room with everyone — I think most people find it really easy, but I like to be there. “In My Arms” was the first song we wrote at the very beginning of lockdown, and it took us to the very end of lockdown to write it because we started writing and sending things back and forth between each other. I mean, we didn't write all together straight away, we waited quite a while as we were super cautious. Three-quarters of the way through we're like, “Let's just get back in the studio!” Also, Jamie has always lived about a five-minute walk away from me, so I know if he's locked in his house and I’m locked in my house, we can go and see each other. I mean, I was very careful about the rules.

We did a little bit of back and forth but I find it so hard. That song was like a proper journey. I think it’s the longest we took writing songs. We wrote the first verse then changed everything; all the beats, all the backing track. Everything just got changed over and over again — even the guitar solo. It was like a week before the whole album was meant to mixed and we wanted to put a guitar solo in, and Simon was like: “I cannot add anything else. There's got to be a point where we stop!” That was [during] the biggest lockdown. It was like a relay race where we were passing everyone stuff all round. It was really a lot.

Topically, it definitely doesn't seem like a lockdown album even though it’s quite introspective and retrospective; diving into love from many different angles whilst dealing with anxiety and self-love...

Like you say, I didn't think it was good to write a lockdown album. Van Morrison’s written a bunch of lockdown songs and it’s so crazy but we didn't want to write any of those. I think I'm just quite introspective anyway so the first lockdown didn’t bother me that much —actually, I had an amazing time. The weather was good, I live in a very nice house, and I was watching really great films and listening to great music. You know, I did all the banana breads and sourdoughs – I didn’t really do that stuff – but I had a good time! I don’t think it affects the music, it just meant that we had time and space.

I feel like because the album is called Home For Now, people thought it's about lockdown, but actually, the name is completely irrelevant to that. It's kind of just how I felt; I think both how me and Jamie felt at that moment where we had to name the album. I was just thinking about words that I wanted to put together and Home For Now seems like it's just quite like us actually. The album cover — which we were trying to figure out the same time — I was just thinking about putting things together so it's like a box which opens. Inside the box, in all those cubby holes, there's all things that we've had and have carried with us when moving from home to home. So, the whole cover and title was all inspired by that.

You’ve spoken about coming to terms with being a person of colour and performer in an alternative band, and learning how to be comfortable with occupying that space. In light of the BLM movement that was going on over the past few months, would you be comfortable talking about whether there was any of these struggles in your upbringing, and how the past few months have helped you go through that process of accepting this.

I grew up in West London — my mum passed away when I was young — but she's the black side of my family. I felt quite isolated from that side of my family and kind of had to come to terms of being who I am quite a lot later in my life. Because I didn't have that figure teaching me who I was and how to be in the world; how I should act or what I should be doing — which is kind of quite liberating when you're young. When you get older and start realising things, it kind of changes and you start realising that things might be a little bit different for me. I think in terms of being in a band and being the front woman — having the backing band as all white guys — I think people didn't really understand what it was, how we want to be seen, and what we were trying to make.

It's kind of made things quite confusing, because everyone always wants to put us in a [category]. You want to categorise music when you hear it, and when you see it, even more. I never thought of it as a hold back but then one day I kind of woke up and I was like, maybe it would be easier if I was just like a white girl or white guy standing in the front of this band? People would completely understand what it that we were doing, and it's so boring, but that's how people look at stuff. They see it and want to look at me and be like, “She makes R&B. She's curvy; she's brown — that's an R&B girl.” And I'm like, No, not at all. Not that I'm not interested in that, I love it, but I don't want to be completely categorised and put in that space”.

Just before coming to a review, there is an interview from Fizzy Mag that really interested me. I like how there is a question about the importance of album sequencing:

“Some of your songs have been about loving pizza, others have been about loving people and are more personal. Do you find that writing one is easier than the other & is there anything that you won’t write about?

N: Hahaha, funnily enough, I didn’t write the pizza lyrics, Jamie did. He really loves pizza a lot. I find it easiest to write from the heart; it’s the only place I know to write from... so generally I write about my own experiences small or big. I don’t think anything is off-limits but I guess one day I’ll find out.

Jamie, you compiled a lot of sound recordings that you’ve made over some years from your life and put them into the album. Can you give us some examples of what you included?

J: There are things like walking early in the morning and the sounds of birds in the street, being with friends, and little snippets of conversations. There are also some beach sounds with waves, and I recorded in France and also the Ganges in India. At the end of "Craziest Things", you can hear some seagulls.

Did you look to any producers for a lil bit of inspiration for the album?

J: Geoff Barrow is a big source of inspiration for me, reading interviews and trying to take little ideas from him has been fun on this album. Also, Derek Ali, who did the Kendrick Lamar albums was a good source for tips and tricks for producing stuff. There are soo many though, too many to mention, but you try and listen and learn from what they have done and replicate and put a spin on it in your own way.

I feel like the importance of sequencing tracks in albums- so they tell a bit of a story- has been lost in a lot of modern music with streaming. Was the sequencing of the tracks in the album important to you? Also, some earlier songs like "Friday Sky" made it in, how did you decide which ones made the cut?

J: It was quite important to us, we sat down with Simon Byrtt who helped produce the record, and went through and sequenced it. We made little subtle transitions in between some songs and timed how long we wanted there to be a break between each song or if we wanted it to come straight in. Little things like that we did spend some time on. We decided what stayed in by listening to it as a whole thing and seeing what made the most sense to us.

Has making something as personal as music together ever affected your relationship, or is your friendship one of the reasons you’re able to write together so well?

N: I think our friendship is the reason we write so well. It’s hard to be so open with someone you don’t know, it is also very embarrassing trying to sing really personal things to a stranger.

What were your top 5, 2020 artists in Spotify unwrapped?

J: Just checked, they were Bill Evans, Okay Kaya, Boards of Canada, Johnny Greenwood, and Laura Marling. Apparently, I was in Johnny Greenwood's top 0.5% of listeners. I listen to a lot of his scores, especially when I’m reading etc, the same with Bill Evans. Laura Marling's album was incredible and I listened to that a lot and I think I listened to Okay Kaya while I was traveling somewhere.

Apparently, Paul McCartney likes to have 6 leafy plants in his dressing room before a show, what would your dream backstage set up be? (+ snacks)

N: Lots of tea, water, whisky, and comfy chairs.

J: I think I’d like to have like 15 types of drinks - tea, coffee, orange juice, apple juice, kombucha, whiskey, beer. I can’t think of any others right now but I’m sticking by 15. Some plants would be nice as Paul says, a really comfy sofa made of towels would be nice also. Nice lighting is also pretty essential as a lot of places just have supermarket strip lights and that can make you feel pretty horrific. I’d appreciate some nice lamps. Maybe a lot of big pillows on the floor to layout on. A painting of the band on a wall above a fireplace would be good. A bathroom that has a sauna and a nice shower could be cool for a little pre-gig refreshment. Maybe a projector to watch a film on as after soundcheck you normally have like 7 hours until the show. I could go on but I’ll stop there”.

I am excited to see where Babeheaven head next. The Forty-Five had their say on Home for Now. It is an album that deserves a lot of time and appreciation:

“You’re in the back of a car, you’re tipsy, it’s dark, and city lights flicker past the window, bright and brief and fuzzy at the edges. Babeheaven’s debut album sounds a lot like the way this feels: a steady stream of barely rendered impressions that might, should you slow down and exit the car, sharpen into real scenes. There’s more to ‘Home For Now’ than first meets the ear: the record places as much weight on the physical experience of listening as the music itself. “I’m getting closer to the bones of you,” Nancy Andersen croons, and you feel like you could tell her everything.

Babeheaven are long-time friends. Nancy – vocalist – and Jamie Travis, instrumentalist and producer. The London pair have been piecing together a full album since the runaway success of their 2016 single ‘Friday Sky’ – playing headline shows and support slots for Cigarettes After Sex, Nilüfer Yanya, and Loyle Carner in between – but lockdown compelled them to finish the project, signing off with a title that sums up the year’s conditions.

If you listen hard to ‘Home For Now’, amid beats last heard on a Dido album, and traces of Tirzah, Portishead, and Massive Attack, you’ll also catch a range of found sounds – birds, water, alarms, laughter, camera clicks – that help to create full soundscapes. ‘Through The Night’ opens like the twin to Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ but casts that aside for fleeting birdsong in a landscape of fluid, driving synth. Stand-out tracks ‘In My Arms’ and ‘Jalisco’ similarly up the pace, but these moments are easily lost to the overall swirl. Though many of the tracks are already singles, ‘Home For Now’ works best consumed whole, as if it were a mixtape. Yet there’s a touch of the lo-fi hip-hop or ‘mallsoft’ playlist about it, an enveloping lull that risks dazing its audience entirely.

Being immersive is not a total crime, however, when the songs are spacious enough for Nancy’s voice to flit between disaffection and sultry intimacy. Emotion passes like a baton between her vocals and Jamie’s production. She’s aloof on ‘Cassette Beat’, where a swell of instrumentation contains the real feeling. But on ‘In My Arms’ her voice vibrates with intensity as she asks, “What’s inside your heart? I really want to know…”

It’s as if Babeheaven find strands of swoony fifties pop lyrics floating on the breeze from a radio, and let them settle them in a new, smoother context. Bald, ambiguous lines like “every time I fall / how do I get back up for more” echo around the tracks: each song a skeleton sketch you colour with your own experiences, from the early crush of ‘Friday Sky’ to a tired, painful resolution on ‘November’. Babeheaven seem to encourage personal analogy, as if they’re the real listeners here, giving you space to fill with your own stories.

Never once breaking its unruffled countenance, ‘Home For Now’ is almost too sedate. The record goes easy on its listeners – but without being easy listening. Babeheaven don’t force you to take part in their spaced-out world, they just subtly enfold you in it – and when the moments of high emotion arrive, you’re either too dazed to notice, or you feel them intensely, as listener and participant. ‘Home For Now’ is not an obvious album – it emerges gently, as Babeheaven continue to perfect their sound, getting closer to the bones of their groove”.

I am fairly recent to Babeheaven. I am sure they will go a long way. With such a great debut under their belt, I feel the group will grow even stronger and more accomplished. So many people are looking forward to Babeheaven putting out…