BABEHOVEN

It’s the journey and not the destination, as the saying goes, but what happens when you do reach your destination? Is it met with relief, is it anti-climactic, or perhaps not the true place in which to reside after all? For New York duo Babehoven (Maya Bon and Ryan Albert), the destination is home. Figuratively and literally, as their latest record ‘Water’s Here In You’ extols.

An album that is deeply and harmoniously rooted in its location. The home is where the heart is, and this is true in more ways than one. Their upstate residence was the epicentre of the entire piece and the driving force behind the shape and feel of their sophomore record.  Birthed in the winter months and fostered by an enriching, peaceful solace, the album marks a line between where the pair were and where they are now. A stepping stone path that led to this point with original band member Bon, who previously lived in Portland and L.A., along with a full band, has now whittled it down to herself and (former) producer Ryan Albert whilst taking up an abode in Hudson Valley, New York.

Dating back to 2017, a collection of short releases paved the way for their first album, ‘Light Moving Time’. A record that received high praise from high places. Still in the developmental phase, the direction Babehoven moved towards was a reduced and consolidated approach which ‘Water’s Here In You’ embodies perfectly. Most notably with Albert, who, having previously worked behind the scenes as an instrumentalist, producer, and engineer, stepping forward into the limelight along with Bon to jointly pilot the ship.

The change in creative dynamic wasn’t a particularly hard transition, as Bon points out. “Working together collaboratively on the songwriting for this album happened fluidly. Ryan had been playing some guitar chords around the house that I really liked. I asked if I could write some vocal parts over them, and he was excited by the prospect. We’d then figure out a chorus together; I’d tweak his guitar part a bit so it would fit with my lyric flow/melody.” The output and volume of work produced were almost instantaneous in that their shared history and open-minded approach facilitated the new working model, as Bon reiterates. “We’re used to collaborating on all other musical fronts, so it felt like an exciting and easeful transition. Once we wrote one collaborative song, more and more kept bubbling out. We worked through the inevitable challenges that arose from writing together, exploring this new terrain with an open heart.” Tackling anything with a mindset such as this only ever pays dividends, and the twelve gorgeous tracks on ‘Water’s Here In You’ are a sonic testament to that fact.

As Bon emphasises, “Between releases, we continue to write, perform, explore, and enjoy music. Each album feels like a deep dive of one very particular part of the musical journey. The rest comes to light when we’re not in the studio.” Reinforcing the notion of progression, experience, and learning, the momentary snapshot in time that is enshrined in each body of work also highlights a constant state of flux in the eternal pursuit to arrive at new and grander terminuses in life. 

One of those monumental events was that of the pair’s purchasing their first home and the feelings surrounding that milestone moment in life. The significance of which was exquisitely written and eloquently delivered in the track ‘Dizzy Spin’ as Bon goes on to explain. “I wrote ‘Dizzy Spin’ after Ryan and I purchased a home upstate. It was a moment of dizzying complexity. We were immensely grateful, excited, and eager to settle into our home. And also, I was surprised to find that the most prevalent feeling I sat with was that I didn’t deserve it, that I couldn’t take it in, that the gratitude felt twinged by a feeling of overarching unworthiness. I envisioned myself sinking my feet into the earth after a rainfall, settling the spin as I ground myself as literally as I could. This lyric was a nod to Squirrel Flower’s lyric in Desert Wildflowers “I’m not scared of the flood, I’ll be there with open arms and my feet in the mud.” I recall hearing Ella perform this song in my yard, the first time I’d ever heard it, and I literally had to lay down onto the grass because it completely knocked me over with its poignancy. In these moments of transition, of turmoil, and change, I try to remember this stanza and try to root my feet in the mud alongside her.” Such moments in life often are surreal and never quite what one expects. Having journeyed long and far, the endless strive towards a goal, and its ultimate attainment, can be shrouded in doubt and feelings of the unreal. It was however, for Bon and Albert a time, connection, embedding, and place, all of which echoed throughout the entire album and indeed their lives.

Of course, the album isn’t exclusively about home and one’s surroundings. Much of the subject matter is as varied as one’s life is varied. Incidents (and accidents) occur just as frequently as the serene and sedate moments do. Such events for example, are expressed on the track “My Best Friend Needs” centres around one of Bon’s friends who was involved in a motor vehicle crash, and the effect that had on Bon influenced not just the track itself, but the album cover art as well. Processing life events deeply and symbolically, Bon describes the event. “I pictured the blue veins of the human body; how in some ways, they mimic the blue veins of water flowing across the earth. No matter how ferociously the fires of life may burn, we carry the water within us.” An example of the profound ways in which Bon passes events through a filter of innate emotions and translates those through earthly constructs, which are ultimately distilled in song.

Amongst many of the themes on the album, those that feature heavily throughout include: the world, the cosmos, and all that resides within it. Which begs the question, do such epic constructs speak of Bon and Albert’s general outlook, or were there more minute and localised forces at play that precipitated the more elemental and philosophical leanings of ‘Water’s Here In You’? As Bon Clarifies, “A number of the songs on the album have lyrics that were inspired by the book series The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, which Ryan and I read while on tour with Skullcrusher last Fall. We were blown away by Liu’s depictions of alternate dimensions, of universal rules, and of waves of technological development. I was thinking a lot about the cosmos at this time, and those thoughts definitely permeated out into the songwriting.” Yet what is even more revealing is what the pair were exploring and tapping into on an interpersonal level at the time of writing.

What was being captured and laid down on tape were essences. Bon succinctly covers it by describing the overarching topics on the record as “Themes of darkness, the cold, candles, glimmering light are present. A motif of familial, romantic, and friendship love is present in the songs. I sing about roots, forgiveness, water, death, and the wish that I could give something to him to carry through the passage. Life is fragile and fleeting. I think about the thinness of this realm and the mysterious other, that one breaks open to the mystery, leaving this form of skin and flesh behind. I sing about capitalist detritus and the fractalized nature of life in the 2020s.” Blending post-modernity with the ancient and elemental, thoughts and experiences range from the most simple and basic as watching a naked flame, to notions of greed, excessive wealth, the saturation of material belongings, and what may lay on the other side when this world passes over into the next. Whimsical observations and contemplative constructs, when given the time and space to ponder, enter the mind’s playground.

Thoughts that are amplified when the world is quiet, and one is holed up in a snow-encrusted landscape. Written and recorded in the depths of winter, those ruminations and sensations are now forever enshrined in ‘Water’s Here In You’. A record that is firmly rooted in its environment. The emotional and spiritual connection Bon and Albert have to the land and the album has settled, whereby the combination of the two will forever hold a special sense of place and purpose, as Bon surmises. “This album feels very distinctly placed in last winter in my mind.” Yet on a broader scope, it is how Bon feels about the future of the album and its contents that really shines a light on what it means to create and share, as she goes on to say, “I am always open to the shifting perspectives that ensue as an album takes shape outside of its writing/recording period. As we listen to the songs, play the songs, and share the songs, they take on a new life and a new meaning. I look forward to finding those meanings.” Interestingly, the permanence of created works from a fixed location also allows the material to have no fixed address and will, from here on in, grow, evolve, and take on whole new meanings.

Taking on a life of its own, the work produced by Bon and Albert is like that of so many other artists, as Bon mentions when discussing her interaction with fellow creatives and the universal experience of being a musician. “I’m always having conversations with musician friends about songwriting, about performing and sharing. I feel a general gratitude for the conversations I get to have with so many friends who are following a similar path.” Equally, it can be a similar feeling for any artist, as it indeed is for Bon, when taking such deeply intimate feelings that had been previously locked away in the mind’s recesses and exposing one’s personal experiences in a live setting. As Bon honestly shares, “It can feel very expository at times, but I am often met with openness and gratitude from listeners which makes me feel more safe and held in the process.”

It is this acceptance and overwhelming embrace that clearly sparks joy and immense gratitude when contemplating the philosophical and incomparable gift music gives to her. “Music brings life, community, love, and connection into my life!” Indeed, what else could one possibly ask for when looking out upon the world, accessing its riches, taking only what is needed, creating something from it, and returning that handmade object that takes the form of music to reciprocate to the collective and the cosmos?