Photo by Tim Gebauer
Cara Louise had a plan for her latest batch of songs, a five-track EP called Fragile Heart, which debuts later this month.
“Definitely,” she says. “With this release, I wanted to experiment outside of the more classic country stuff that I was doing. Even trying to reach out from the Americana umbrella that’s become a super-broad genre. So I wanted to get out of that box with this one.”
To do so, she called on the aid of David Beeman, who serves as more than an owner-operator of Cherokee Street’s Native Sound Studio. There, he's something like the creative director of an ad agency, taking on projects with varying degrees of involvement. For this release, his stamp’s for sure there, as he helped Louise craft tracks, be it actual songwriting, lyrical encouragement, or production embellishments. While one of the cuts on the EP dates the better part of a decade, two others, she says, were “essentially written in the studio. I’d had some chord progressions and ideas, but they were collaborative.
“[Beeman] works on things that he wants to do,” she says. “He takes his time. He’s patient and he’s got an impeccable ear and taste. I think it was easy to see all that after just meeting him and going up into his studio. We did a demo day, about 16 live takes. And he said, ‘I think about three of these are going to work.’ [Laughs.] I always have ideas and it takes a while for some to fully develop. My husband and bandmate Adam Howard Donald had written a song, a complete song, ‘Fragile Heart,’ and he loved it. That’s the first one where David said he wanted to record this. ‘Turn Tears Into Rain’ was the one that I was most excited about. I’d actually written it seven years ago. It had all these different chords and a different melody; it was written for my first-born nephew, the first baby in my family that I’d been close to. I’d changed two chords and created a melody around that. With those two chords, there was so much chance for production, backing vocals. He brought in Sam Golden for string arrangements. It turned out beyond my wildest dreams.”
(Her press release suggests, quite correctly: “The 5-song collection separates Louise from her past work with Cara Louise Band as she navigates a 1960s yé-yé-inspired production by introducing synthesizers, drum triggers, and ethereal vocal effects to her otherwise alt-country sound.”)
The idea of collaboration is one that she’s been embracing more as of late. Not only true of the mini album’s creation, but also of the time since the EP’s been wrapped. For the upcoming release show, the band will be augmented quite a bit, with extra instrumentalists allowing the songs of Fragile Heart to sound just as they do on disc. Backing vocalists will be added, as will strings. Longer range, she’ll also aim to have each of the five songs produced as a video, with a different videographer in each case.
“For whatever reason,” she says, “with this EP, I’ve found more confidence in reaching out to people, asking to collaborate. It’s something I’d been fearful of in the past. I’ve really been actively talking to singers and performers and filmmakers and photographers that I’ve admired. I’m sure there’re a million things that I haven’t even heard of yet. There’re definitely venues I’d love to play. There are people in the community I haven’t met before. Now, I’m not just sticking with the people I’m already close to; I want to get out, meet new people, see what they’re up to.”
The Fragile Heart EP release show will be held October 25 at Off Broadway Music Venue with support from Bendigo Fletcher (Louisville, Kentucky) and St. Louis' Essential Knots.
