It All Goes Up is the new release from St. Louis-based singer-songwriter Beth Bombara and her first for the Black Mesa label.
Released on August 4 the set features a blend of styles that range from the hefty, smoldering “Give Me a Reason,” to the pop perfection of “Everything I Wanted” and the hypnotic “Get On,” resulting in an LP that’s refreshingly varied and which spotlights Bombara’s equally refreshing voice, one free of over-emoting and acrobatics but never short on purity and clear-eyed observations.
Co-produced by bassist and partner Kit Hamon, the record stands as Bombara’s finest to date and a worthy follow-up to her 2020 recording, Evergreen.
Speaking with KMUW via Zoom, Bombara fielded a range of questions, starting with one about a classical guitar she rediscovered and which, in part, led the way for the material that would become It All Goes Up.
Interview Highlights
In some ways this record starts with a classical guitar that you had.
I hadn’t even thought about that guitar in so long. Being stuck at home and reorganizing the closets, I came across it and said, “Oh yeah! Here’s this thing and it feels way different than electric guitar.” [The classical guitar] has a whole different feel to it. It did dictate and change my writing style a bit.
The strings, the neck. It’s all different.
The tension on those strings is so much looser than on a normal acoustic and, in playing an electric guitar, I was playing using a pick most of the time. For the first time ever I found myself writing without strumming with a pick. I was just picking with my fingers. That informed the writing of a lot of the songs on this new record but it also changed [how I play overall]. A lot of the times now when I’m playing electric guitar I’m not using a pick. It was a growth experience for me for sure.
Within that was there a song you wrote that showed you the direction the rest of the record would take?
I think “Moment” and “Lonely Walls” were the first two that I wrote and I felt like those gave me permission to write in the way that I was. One of the things that shapes the record for me is that I take songs that were written in a similar time frame and use them. So I’m in the same headspace and that informs the record, so it’s more of a subtle thing instead of an intentional thing to write about certain things. It’s more about, “Well, where am I at in life right now?” “What am I thinking about?” “What am I feeling right now?”
How did you land on “Lonely Walls” as the first single?
It was the label’s favorite song. They said, “This might not make a great single because it’s slower,” but I thought about it and said, “No, I feel good about putting that out there as the first song because it’s not an in-your-face radio single but, for me, it sets a tone for the record.”
One of the things I love about the album is the way that it eases the listener along. It’s not about overwhelming us.
I’m glad that you feel that way about it. There were certain songs where I wondered, “Can I put this on the record? Is it too different?” But I kept coming back to the idea that I wrote the songs at a similar time so I think that in and of itself sort of makes them hang together. Although some of the songs do veer a little bit outside of what I normally do, I think they still fit. I’ve had people tell me, “Oh, I love records [that are varied]. Why would I want to listen to the same song for a whole record?”
It's funny because in my notes I had “Give Me A Reason” as the album’s heavy metal song.
[Laughs.]
It also comes at the right moment on the album. It takes just in the right different direction at the right time.
It was hard for me to sequence this record. I put it in a lot of different sequences and listened and listened again. Finding the right place for songs like “Give Me A Reason” was difficult but I think where it ended up feels good.
How do you go about sequencing a record? Do you make CDs to listen to while you drive? Listen to it while you walk around town?
I made playlists and I would go take a walk or go for a drive or just sit in the studio. Various locations. I’d listen to the whole thing and just go on my gut. I’d change the playlist, listen to it again; it’s very time consuming. So the pattern I got into was to listen to the beginning of the song, listen to the end of the song, then listen how the end of the song goes into the next song.
Once I got more familiar with that, I could figure out how beginnings and endings fit together. Then I’d redo the playlist and listen to all the songs again. It’s a whole process but that’s how I did it. Lighting some incense and pouring a little bourbon! [Laughs.]
I really like the song “Curious and Free.” I feel like that almost feels like something from the pre-rock era.
I started playing in bands when I was about 16. I was thinking back to that time in my life and how wonderful and open the world seemed then. Obviously, I’m much older now but I wanted to write a song that brought me back to that feeling. I wrote it and it was more major-sounding and less wistful. I sat with it for a while and thought, “This is fine but what if I throw some minor chords in here? What would happen then?” I ended up rewriting the song. It changed from a more upbeat/positive thing to a darker, more reflective vibe. The moment I started singing it the new way it felt right to me.
“Everything I Wanted” has this very cool Christine McVie feel in the chorus.
Thank you.
There’s a part of the record that’s reminiscent of the ‘70s not just in terms of the sonics but the length. Were you in that frame of mind when you were making it?
I was in that frame of mind and some songs more than others. With “Everything I Wanted” I was trying to get to a place that felt a little like that, that felt a little ‘70s but was very easy to sing along with. I’m very happy with the way that that one turned out. I struggled for a while to get the music write. We made a couple of different demos and it didn’t have the right vibe. I wasn’t sure what was missing and then, one night, Kit [Hamon, bass] and I were playing through it and I said, “What if you, in the chorus, just hang on one note? Stay on the C.” One we did that, I said, “That’s it! That’s what the song needs!
