The Los Angeles-based Americana singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Our Wild America releases a dreamy and cinematic single entitled "Beard of Bees."
Our Wild America is one of those artists who holds a mirror up to society, reflecting everything that makes up our fifty states. Carving cinematic Americana music is what he's best known for, while also fueling his music with themes of love and madness, which lingers across America and makes us who we are.
Currently planning to release a new single on the last Friday of every month throughout 2021, Our Wild America recently released their buzzing single, "Beard of Bees." While inducing a dream-like state onto any listener who graces this single, Our Wild America makes our experience all the more memorable with his poetic lyricism that lingers the mind long after listening.
Buzzing into the single, "Beard of Bees," the song tenderly opens with soothing acoustic guitar strums and a gentle string section. As Our Wild America begins vocalizing his poetic lyricism, he delicately touches on wanting someone to let him into their life while he buzzes around their bedroom door. Once the downtempo drums make their appearance, the song transitions into this feel-good and passionate ballad that's bound to sweep anyone off their feet.
We love the emotion that Our Wild America placed into this single, as he paints all sorts of passionate images and scenes while basking in the cinematic appeal of his bright instrumentation. Not to mention the reappearance of a chilling string section, a thumping bassline, and light piano keys, the song later comes to an end with boundless heart and desire at our feet.
Find Our Wild America's latest romantic single, "Beard of Bees," on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Our Wild America. What an emotional and chilling experience you've delivered with your recent single, "Beard of Bees." What inspired you to create this passionate single?
It really came from that simple groove and the first lyrics about “sugar don’t taste so sweet”. Once that got going, it leads to a focus on bees and springtime and all the sexual metaphors that go with it. It’s funny, the narrator of the song is almost dispassionate, resigned to his “cold cup of tea” and people “taking what’s mine for free”, but he’s essentially begging the object of his affection to make him feel alive again, just like the spring. “Stir me up I’m a beard of bees”… it’s like he can’t do it on his own, but once he gets going he can be intensely passionate. It’s not just love and sex, but also feeling anything.
What sort of message did you want to convey through your poetic and descriptive lyricism within "Beard of Bees?"
It can be exhausting striving for what you want or even what you need. It’s easy to get cynical, to be resigned to one’s fate. To tacitly accept what should be outrageous. Keep your head down kind of stuff. You look at the industry of the bees, foraging for pollen and nectar all day just to have their honey taken from them and mixed into someone’s tea. I wanted to firmly place that resigned feeling in this sweeping spring day soundscape as a reminder of all the beauty and mystery that we (or at least I) find so easy to forget about as we dwell on our disappointments.
Did you create the sweet instrumentals yourself within "Beard of Bees?" What was your creative process like when crafting the song's instrumentals?
Around the time I was writing Beard of Bees I was moving away from the heavier sound of our previous records. I wanted to incorporate more orchestral elements, communicate the themes in the lyric through instrumental means, so the swirling organs and buzzing strings felt like they’d be a great companion. I really like the intro, where the instruments are almost tuning up like an orchestra before the concert. We were going for that hot, late-spring morning feel when the dew is burning of the grass and the bees start buzzing in the flowers.
Lots of great musicians helped with this song. Ward Williams of Jump Little Children did the incredible string arrangements, where the violins and cellos really sound like bees buzzing in the fields. Todd Caldwell getting a great piano and swirling B3 sounds like pollen on the wind, and some backward electric guitar from Will Hensley making everything feel like the blossoms are opening and closing at once. And then all of that gets locked down with Konrad Meissner’s drums, Jeremy McDonald’s bass, and my nylon string acoustic. John McGrew directed the vocals and really helped get those sunbeam harmonies to shine during the bridge.
We've heard that you plan on releasing a single on the last Friday of each month throughout 2021. Do these singles share anything in common? Or are they all somewhat different?
Some go along with each other, some stand out on their own. Releasing singles for us is more about letting each song breathe and have its own life rather than being buried in an album or an EP. Each of the songs we’re putting out is worthy of that time and attention. I believe we may release an EP about space later this year or early ’22 because it’s part of a cohesive story, but for now, these singles are independent of each other enough to have their own time in the buzzing sunshine.
