![]() ![]() “That was inspired by a script that Michael Showalter sent me for a pilot he was directing/producing called ‘In The Dark,’ explains Stevens, referring to the actor/producer who directed the Oscar-nominated 2017 film The Big Sick. Proving her ingenuity as a songwriter and performer, Stevens transforms those struggles into a triumphant pop epic, channeling a radiant confidence in her vocal delivery and embedding the song with soul-stirring gospel harmonies - which is actually just 64 layers of Michael Mayo singing in 50 different personalities/vocal timbres.Ī far more darkly toned track, “I Will Avenge You” shows the immense depth of Stevens’s imagination. “It’s a song about things I’ve gone through in my career, and the struggles that so many women face in this industry,” Stevens says. ![]() Co-written with Grammy-nominated musician Kaveh Rastegar, WONDERBLOOM’s lead single “Good Stuff” represents the album’s autobiographical component, emerging as a distinctly timely anthem. “Some of the stories are very personal, some are from other people’s lives, and the rest are a bit more like fantasy,” she says. In selecting songs from the dozens of demos she’d recorded in recent years, Stevens landed on 14 tracks rooted in her finely detailed, emotionally layered storytelling. Even with so many collaborators, the end result feels more honest than ever.” And each time I did that, I was rewarded tenfold by what we all created together. “But going into making this one, I made a rule for myself that anytime I had the instinct to turn inward and tough it alone, to instead stay open and share the process. “My earlier records were all written by me, arranged by me, then performed by me and my band,” says Stevens. In another major departure, Stevens purposely brought a communal sensibility to the making of WONDERBLOOM-an undertaking that resulted in more than 40 musicians contributing to the album, including Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong, longtime collaborator Jacob Collier, and all of her Lighthouse bandmates (keyboardist Michelle Willis, Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, and David Crosby himself). “Nic and I truly worked as equals, trusting each other to get the job done, and it was an incredibly empowering experience for me,” she says. In a bold new turn for her musical career, Stevens co-produced and co-engineered WONDERBLOOM 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. But despite its brighter textures and uptempo rhythms, WONDERBLOOM finds Stevens achieving a profound complexity in her lyrics, ultimately redefining what’s possible in creating music that elevates and edifies.Ĭentered on the captivating vocal presence she’s showcased as a member of David Crosby’s Lighthouse Band, WONDERBLOOM telegraphs an unabashed joy that Stevens partly attributes to the project’s production. In her latest musical endeavor-WONDERBLOOM -the North Carolina-bred, Brooklyn-based artist again defies all expectation, this time dreaming up a groove-heavy, dance-ready sound infused with elements of pop and funk and R&B. Since making her debut with the 2008 album Tea Bye Sea, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Becca Stevens has tested the limits of musical identity, mining everything from jazz to Irish folk to indie-rock in her striving for complete and authentic expression.
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