Hyper-melodic folk and shoegaze-inspired indie rock duo Babehoven, comprised of Maya Bon and Ryan Albert, found themselves in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection twice last year in very different settings… In March they opened an exceptionally quiet show for Naima Bock at The Lounge at World Café Live, while Halloween saw them opening for indie pop sensations Slow Pulp at The Foundry…
Well, next month Babehoven embark on their first-ever headlining tour, which kicks off May 6th in Washington DC and includes a stop at our very own Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday, May 18th. The dates are in support of Water’s Here In You, the band’s latest full-length and follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed Light Moving Time, which drops this Friday (4/26) on Double Double Whammy. And the LP’s latest single, “Ella’s From Somewhere Else,” is actually an homage to our good phriend Ella O’Conner Williams, better known as Squirrel Flower.
Water’s Here In You is the first Babehoven release to feature Albert (who has previously played the role of instrumentalist, producer, and engineer) alongside Bon as a songwriter. And the songs of WHIY have already drawn praise from the likes of Paste, Consequence, and The FADER, who said of the album’s second single, “Seemingly aware of the blandness that runs through most modern indie rock, ‘Birdseye’ opts for something more ambitious and strikes a balance between melancholic and soaring, jangley and ornate.”
Earlier this week I got a chance to chat with Maya Bon via Zoom, who talks about many of Babehoven’s closest friends in music and the arts, how the band’s experiences playing live have informed the ideas for this first headlining jaunt of theirs, and just how excited she and Ryan are to finally have a normal ceiling (Read till the end…)
Izzy Cihak: Since this is a Philadelphia publication, I have to ask your thoughts on the city, as you’ve played here a few times and even have a song named for the city! I saw you twice last year, with Naima Bock at World Café Live and with Slow Pulp on Halloween, which are very different shows and settings, but both great!
Maya Bon: That’s so crazy you were at the Naima Bock show! I feel like that show was a little cursed for us [laughs], but we generally love Philly. And we actually lived in Philly for three months.
Izzy: Oh! I did not know that!
Maya: We moved to Philly and then COVID hit, and we moved to Vermont after that. But we like Philly a lot!
Izzy: You’re just about to release Water’s Here In You. How do feel like the album compares to Light Moving Time, in terms of sound, themes, and just the process of writing and recording it? I know it’s the first time you were both actively contributing to the songwriting.
Maya: Yeah, I think that’s really the major difference. Like, Ryan and I co-wrote. He was writing guitar parts that I was really excited by, so I ended up asking if I could sing over them. So, I think the major difference is this sonic landscape that we created earlier on together. Because, historically, I’ll write the song, and then I’ll bring it to Ryan, and we co-write production stuff over it, he being the main producer and I have ideas that I bring up, too. But yeah, I’d say that was the major difference.
Izzy: You’ve already released a handful of singles from the album. Have you had any favorite reactions to the new music so far, whether things you’ve read about it or things that fans have reached out to tell you?
Maya: Good question… Favorite reactions? I’m drawing a blank [laughs]. I’ll say it’s just felt really good to receive positive feedback. And part of what makes releasing music feel so special is that people give you compliments and make you feel good about yourself [laughs]. So, it is definitely a good ego boost every time and we feel really grateful to have people excited about this record. We feel really eager to release it and are happy it’s coming out soon.
Izzy: I love “Ella’s From Somewhere Else,” and I’m a big Squirrel Flower fan, and have covered her a bunch of times. She actually has the distinction of being the last show I saw before lockdown! Actually, it was Upstairs at World Café Live.
Maya: Woah!
Izzy: But I know you also both worked on the music video for it, so I’m curious what is it that influences the visual elements of your work and if there are any visual artists, especially filmmakers, that you find to be particularly inspiring?
Maya: That’s a great question. I am really inspired by my friend Marieclaire Wyntreaux, who made the costume for “Ella’s From Somewhere Else” and also “Fugazi,” one of our songs from a while ago. And that felt really inspiring to have her be a part of this cycle again. That was kind of the main crux of the video, wanting to showcase this beautiful dress. But, in terms of visual artists I’m inspired by, there are so many that I feel like I’m drawing a blank again [laughs]. But I really love stop-motion animation. So, Olive Couri, who made the video for “Lightness is Loud,” I love her work. And there’s an artist called Phoebe Jane Hart who made a video for us like four albums ago. She also does incredible stop-motion animation. I would say those are the artists that are immediately coming to mind, but there are so many people that I love who are doing that.
Izzy: You’ve been signed to Double Double Whammy for a little while now. How is it working with them and being a part of that family?
Maya: It’s great! We love Double Double Whammy and we love the people on the label and feel very supported and grateful to get to release music with them.
Izzy: And, not to ask you to pick favorites, but are there any labelmates of yours that you especially love, whether it be people you’ve gotten to know or just people who make music that you think is totally rad?
Maya: We love Allegra Krieger. We love Al Menne and Charlotte Cornfield, who are touring together right now, which is amazing. We love Bread Pilot. We love Florist.
Izzy: I love Florist. Actually, the last time I interviewed them, they were talking about you and how much they loved you!
Maya: Really?
Izzy: Yeah!
Maya: That’s nice! When was that?
Izzy: It was not that recently… It was like maybe a year and a half ago, or closer to two years… It wasn’t the tour they did with Skullcrusher. It was the one prior to that.
Maya: That’s so sweet!
Izzy: Yeah, they were like, “We’re always listening to Babehoven!”
Maya: Awww, that’s really nice! Yeah, we love the Florist crew. We actually live with Rick, who is their bassist.
Izzy: You have a lot of upcoming shows, playing a variety of venue types and with a variety of different artists. Are there any shows you’re especially excited about, whether because of the lineup, the venue, or even just the city itself?
Maya: I’m really excited to play Chicago again. I really love Mia Joy and she’s playing the show with us. I’m just so excited for that show! I’ve never gone to see Mia Joy perform, which I think is crazy, so I’m super stoked about that one! We’re really excited about our record release show in New York at Baby’s All Right, with Knifeplay, who are also just so great and really lovely. I’m excited for Philly! We’re playing with our friend Amelia Cry Til I Die and Greg Mendez, and that’s just gonna be so sick and we love Johnny Brenda’s. I don’t know, I feel like there are so many others that I’m excited about, but that’s what’s coming to mind.
Izzy: What can be expected of the live experience when you play Johnny Brenda’s next month, in terms of setlist, production, and just the general vibe of the night? I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you headlining before!
Maya: Yeah, we haven’t! This is our first headlining tour. For Johnny Brenda’s, we’re definitely gonna be playing a lot of new music. We actually have new-new music, that’s not even gonna be on this album. We’re also trying to feature the Water’s Here In You songs as much as possible. And we’re also incorporating kind of a show, like we’ve been discussing opening with an ambient piece, and then I’ll come in doing kind of ethereal descending vocal runs, and then the full band will come to like a big moment, and that’s when the light will come on.
Izzy: That sounds amazing!
Maya: This is like our plan [laughs]. We’ll see if that actually happens [laughs]. But we’re super excited. I think we’re gonna try to play for like an hour each night, or like 50 minutes and really go into our catalogue. A lot of the time when we’re opening, we’ll focus on the poppier, or more accessible, songs that will really catch someone’s ear who might not know us. But, for this tour, we’re gonna do like a lot of the more minimalist, experimental, weirdo songs…
Izzy: Like I was saying, you play a pretty wide variety of venues, from listening rooms to quite big nightclubs and theatres and also these intimate, sweaty, standing-room barrooms like Johnny Brenda’s, so I’m curious how you like playing shows in spaces like that, in particular?
Maya: I love playing Johnny Brenda’s. I think Johnny Brenda’s is a very beautiful venue. Sometimes the sweaty, standing venues can also be kind of gross, but I think Johnny Brenda’s toes that line really nicely, where it’s like aesthetically beautiful and just nice. We’re pretty malleable in terms of performing in different venues. We try to be cautious about playing soft, intimate music to like a thousand people that don’t know us [laughs]. Like, opening for Slow Pulp, it was like, “This is not the time to pull out the acoustic guitar for seven minutes.” Like, we’re not gonna play “Twenty Dried Chilis,” for example. So, we try to be cautious of what this bill is and who knows us, because it’s really new that anyone knows us at all, so we’re excited to kind of see what we’re able to do this tour.
Izzy: Finally, what’s next for you? What are you most excited about in the second half of 2024? I mean, you mentioned already having some new music.
Maya: Yeah, we’re recording, and we also just announced today that we’re going to Europe in the fall, which is the first time we’ve ever done a Europe tour. And it’ll be special, too, because Ryan has been to Europe once on a work trip, but it’ll be the first time he gets to travel around. And my dad lives in Croatia, and they’ve never met, so it’ll be exciting, he’ll get to “meet my dad” and travel. I’m so excited about that trip! And other things are like recording and summer. Like, we’re excited for the warmth and it’s beautiful out right now where we live. And it’s been really nice to clean…
We definitely did the big spring-cleaning moment today. We painted our ceiling, which has been like the kind of thing that… We had a leak in our ceiling three years ago, and then we repaired it, and then it happened again, and we patched it, and then recently we were like, “We need to fucking paint the ceiling!” and then we had to patch it again because the leak happened again! And we just never painted the patch. So, we’ve had this like huge ugly patch in our ceiling forever, and last week I was like, “This weekend we need to paint our ceiling!” And Ryan was like, “Okay, we’re gonna do it…” And we did it! So now, I’ll show you [turns webcam to the formerly patched ceiling], we have like a normal ceiling!
Izzy: Oh, wow! Yeah, it totally looks fine!
Maya: It looks so good! So, I’m excited for that, that I get to have a normal ceiling [laughs].
*Get your tickets here.
