Welcome back to Origins, our recurring series that gives artists a space to discuss everything that went into their latest release. Today, Been Stellar takes us through “Sweet,” the latest single from their upcoming album. Shout out from New York, NY.
The post-punk resurgence is stronger than ever, and Been Stellar is quickly rising through the ranks of the scene with recent openings for Fontaines DC and Shame. Now, they are ready to release their debut album produced by Dan Carey.Shout out from New York, NYwith the latest single, “Sweet.”
The song plays perfectly into the post-punk ethos the band comes from, but infuses it with a spacey, shoegaze vibe. This is intentional, as they took a lot of inspiration from Mazzy Star, specifically “the way David Roebuck is able to string together relatively simple chords with open strings underneath gives this kind of feeling of infinite longing that is fascinating.”
Lyrically, the song struggles with stagnation in a relationship, but ultimately reconciles it. There's a notion of anguish in lines like “It won't always be like this,” but also of intimacy expressed in the chorus: “Feel at your roots/ That I need you.” The song ends on a sweet note: “Can I be here without you?” developing its themes to a rewarding conclusion.
Like most of the Shout out from New York, NY, the vocals for “Sweet” were recorded by singer Sam Slocum in a single take. “When recording vocals for the album, we discovered that Sam's best takes came at night,” says Been Stellar. Consequence. “Dan Carey had the idea of inviting close friends into the studio and having Sam do a vocal take of the album from start to finish… The environment we created injected a certain urgency into Sam's voice.”
Watch the music video for Been Stellar’s “Sweet” below, followed by the breakdown of the song’s origins below.
After wrapping up a tour with Dirty Hit labelmates The 1975, Been Stellar is scheduled to play festivals like Shaky Knees and Lollapalooza this summer. Grab your passes here.
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