New York duo Babehoven‘s second album, Water’s Here In You, is out today via Double Double Whammy. You can hear it below, and for more on the album, Maya Bon and Ryan Albert took us track-by-track through its 12 lush, folky songs. Read what they had to say below.
TRACK-BY-TRACK BREAKDOWN OF BABEHOVEN’S WATER’S HERE IN YOU
“Birdseye”
“Birdseye” is about the fragility and mystery of life, forgiveness, and reconnection. The bird’s eye view with “one long arrow pointed at you” represents love from afar, a cardinal direction. It is a song about warmth, represented by the aromatic spices ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon in the heat of a stew. Steeped in a perfumed simmer of care, we move through the pain and find a way to forgive.
“My Best Friend Needs”
I wrote “My Best Friend Needs” after a friend of mine got into a car accident. I felt the song emerge like a swell, wishing I could have done something more to avoid the crash. In this song, I found the title of the album: Water’s Here in You. This phrase hit me deeply in the heart. I felt that it encapsulated the meaning of loving through the pain, of seeing into the core of someone. No matter how ferociously the fires of life may burn, we carry the water within us. We can find the coolness, the slick, a moment of refreshment inside our own bodies. I pictured the blue veins of the human body; how in some ways, they mimic the blue veins of water flowing across the earth. This song is about singing into the meaning of friendship, of showing admiration even in moments of deep despair, of embodying care even when I can’t be the exact solution to someone’s pain. My best friend needed something more than I could give.
“Dizzy Spin”
While writing this song, I envisioned myself sinking my feet into the earth after a rainfall, grounding myself literally and emotionally. 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.” In moments of transition, of turmoil and change, I try to remember this stanza. “Dizzy Spin” also interestingly foreshadowed a dizzy spell that hit me a couple months later that lasted six weeks, which was oddly nerve-wracking after having written a song about dizziness.
“Millenia”
“Millenia” is about capitalist detritus and the surreal nature of life in 2023. I was envisioning the Los Angeles River with an immense flood rushing in over a burning pyre, broken glass, aluminum cans, with light reflecting off of these left-behind items in all directions. I was thinking about how much time I can imagine in my mind and the word ‘millenia’ swept in. I googled it and the first link that came up was the town Millenia, Florida with an image of an elaborate Cheesecake Factory facade illuminated by glaring parking lot lights against the most intensely dark blue sky. What does it mean to be alive in this particular moment in time? The fact that the word millenia, when Google searched, brings up this image of a Cheesecake Factory in Millenia, Florida is a perfect, microcosmic example of life in 2023; how the authentic is now a mere fractal of itself, how we all are swimming in the soup of the hyperreal, the Millenia, Florida of this millenia of time.
“Lonely, Cold Seed”
I wrote this song after looking out of my window overlooking a winter scene in my yard. A cardinal sat on a birch tree looking right at me. I looked back into its eyes and we shared a long moment together. I thought about the dormant seeds nestled in the freezing soil. I thought about the loneliness of winter. I felt as if the cardinal was asking me who I was going to be today, asking how we can find root together in this cold and dark season. I felt connected to the cardinal as it took off into the sky, imagining what it might look like if it had three wings instead of two (a random but challenging image to conjure).
“Chariot”
“Chariot” is a song about finding that special thing inside us that can make it possible to sparkle through the chaos. I sing “float into the room, mean it. I mean it. I think you’re onto something” as a wish to find the gem inside me that will allow me to walk through a room confidently, to feel held and cherished. I pictured the gem: it appeared as a cherry hued chariot. Wooden, rounded, slick and swollen with water. It glides within me and through me. I glide alongside it and inside of it, too. I light it and it flames, it glows. It is both dripping wet and aflame.
“Cherry”
“Cherry” was an instrumental, stripped back version of “Chariot” that was initially the ending of the song. We decided to split them apart so that “Cherry” might be enjoyed separately. We wrote this song by taking elements away from “Chariot” and enjoying the way it sounded, allowing for instrumental space.
“Lightness is Loud”
“Lightness is Loud” was inspired by the book series The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. I was thinking about the dark forest theory; that emitting light to contact other beings in the universe is fundamentally dangerous. The phrase “your lightness is loud” popped into mind. I liked the idea that something visible could be synesthetically considered audible. The image of the cold wind blowing outside with candles glowing in the house reflects a moment Ryan and I shared last winter. Dusk was approaching, we turned off all of the lights in the house and lit candles surrounding us. We rearranged the living room so that we could lounge while looking out the window and we put on Advance Base’s live Christmas Special, watching the snowy outside world turn a brilliant, cerulean blue. With the coral and the snake curling inside you, I intend to evoke protection. The “soft wool” is the warmth one can find with connection. The “rough blue” is the scratchiness of the wool that can make us seek refuge away from one another. And the “pearl inside you” is indicative of the belief that we all contain a special gem within us.
“Perfect”
This was the first song Ryan and I co-wrote. He was playing guitar around the house and I thought it was so beautiful and captivating that I started singing along. I envisioned an old oak grove, bringing me back to my childhood in Topanga Canyon. I thought about growing amongst the oaks with their long, twirling limbs reaching, stretching out. I thought about a painful regret I have in my life. I thought about how desperately I yearn for repair, the way I carry the pain in my chest, making it so hard to breathe at times that even breathing out can be a challenge. I wished to be able to erase it.
“Rocket”
Ryan was inspired by the chord arrangement for Taylor Swift’s song “Teardrops On My Guitar” while writing “Rocket”. I was thinking a lot about winter and darkness during this song, seeing light in the sky, how much a flash in the sky can fill us up with wonder.
“Good to See You”
I wrote “Good to See You” after connecting with an estranged family member after many years. I was overjoyed, elated, ready to move through the struggle. I felt that a curse had been lifted on me, that I no longer needed to live in a haze. It is a song about relief, about aging and finding kindness, about walking in the Fall with a friend.
“Ella’s From Somewhere Else”
After getting home from seeing Ella O’Connor Williams of Squirrel Flower perform last winter, I found some quiet space alone. I lit a few candles and kept the lights off. I began thinking of all the places Ella takes me in her songs. She takes me to specific memories of my childhood. She takes me into the magic and the pain just enough so that I can keep my grounding. Ella is also the name of my childhood dog who supported me through my teens, who I think of as a best friend. I began blending the two Ella’s in the song and they morphed to have a double meaning altogether. Not only is Ella of Squirrel Flower from somewhere else, but Ella the dog is from somewhere else. They both take me to that somewhere else place together.
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Babehoven will be on tour through the spring and summer, including dates supporting Wednesday and Horse Jumper of Love, and headlining shows with Knifeplay, Greg Mendez, and more. Before their tour begins, they have an in-store performance and signing at Brooklyn’s Fire Talk Shop tonight (4/26), and they’ll be back in NYC for a show at Baby’s All Right on May 7 with Knifeplay. See all dates below.
BABEHOVEN: 2024 TOUR DATES
5/6: Washington DC – DC9 ❁
5/7: Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right ~
5/8: Boston, MA – Rockwood %
5/10: Montreal, QC – La Sotterenea ^
5/11: Toronto, ON – The Baby G ^
5/13: Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club ^ ∞
5/14: Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry ^
5/15: Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village ^ ∞
5/16: Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups ^
5/17: Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe ^
5/18: Philadelphia PA – Johnny Brenda’s ^
6/8: Phoenix, AZ – Linger Longer Lounge *
6/9: Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
6/10: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop *
6/12: Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall *
6/13: Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret *
6/14: Seattle, WA @ Barboza *
6/30: Burlington, VT – Foam +
7/1: Portsmouth, NH – 3s Artspace &
7/2: Portland, ME – Space +
8/6: Troy, NY – No Fun #
❁ w/ Grocer and Aunt Katrina
~ w/ Knifeplay
% w/ Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love) and Hello Shark
^ w/ Greg Mendez
∞ w/ Mia Joy
* w/ Stephen Steinbrink
+ w/ Lily Seabird
& supporting Wednesday
# supporting Horse Jumper of Love