If there ever was a profound inspiration behind a song, Beekeeper Spaceman undoubtedly earns a medal for its Greek mythology allegory. On their new song “Locusts and Honey” that Glide is premiering (below), the voice in this song is John the Baptist’s, or to use the scriptural language: ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”
“In ‘Locusts and Honey,’ the prophet-singer knows he’s about to be beheaded, but he stands there, ten toes down, and taunts his feasting murderers. In the second verse, he says, ‘Who’s got the platter? Baby, get the dagger. I got the laughter.’ Then in the chorus he reminds his killers that, just like Orpheus, he’ll keep on singing even after death: ‘Dancing money can’t unsing wild song.’ It’s quite a mic drop for wild John,” says primary songwriter/ singer/guitarist Greg Brownderville.
And while that story is just the beginning, Beekeeper Spaceman’s self-titled debut album (out Nov. 3) evokes a never-ending collision between bucolic bygones and the urban present.
Born out of an online multimedia project called Fire Bones, the duo—primary songwriter/ singer/guitarist Greg Brownderville and producer/multi-instrumentalist Spencer Kenney—have shared bills with artists like Erykah Badu, Leon Bridges, Shakey Graves and Black Pumas, and have been lauded in both local music outlets and national literary publications.
To fully appreciate Beekeeper Spaceman and its music, it’s helpful to understand Fire Bones, a self-described “go-show”—released in 2021 and optimized for mobile devices—that uses poetry, video, podcasts and visual art to tell an epic story about a fictional town in the Arkansas Delta. The band’s name is taken from a key character in the tale, but Brownderville and Kenney didn’t initially set out to make an album, or even to form a musical project together.
“We connected through a mutual friend and I started working on music for Fire Bones,” says Kenney, who is originally from New England but moved to Texas as a kid. “I don’t know how we decided to make an album. I don’t know that we really did. It just kind of started happening.”
With its cinematic flair and prog tenacity, Beekeeper Salesman will certainly find listeners in fans of The Decemberists, Midlake and The Flaming Lips. “Locusts and Honey” is a broad and vast song statement that unravels in the descriptive flow of a musical novel.
