Like its sprawling hometown of Dallas, Texas, cinematic indie rock band Beekeeper Spaceman’s self-titled debut album 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 (Dallas Observer, Central Track) and national literary publications (Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Virginia Quarterly Review, LITHUB). Brownderville is editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Southwest Review and author of three books of poetry, while Kenney fronts a solo electro-pop project under his own name and is involved with a variety of acts on the Dallas-based Dolfin Records label.

Today Beekeeper Spaceman has shared “Beebe,” one of the bigger standouts of the debut, set to drop on November 3.  Brownderville said, “This song has its origins in two sources. One of them is a mysterious English nursery rhyme called ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence,’ which begins like this:

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie.

The other source is a disturbingly mysterious thing that happened in the small town of Beebe, Arkansas, on New Year’s Eve in 2010. As midnight approached and 2010 gave way to 2011, approximately five thousand red-winged blackbirds fell out of the sky, covering the town of Beebe. I saw this with my own eyes. Dead blackbirds everywhere—on roofs, in ditches, in children’s wading pools, in the ruts under swing sets: everywhere. For some reason, this weird event in Beebe mixed in my imagination with the nursery rhyme and conjured a deathly feeling of being haunted by lost love. From the start, I’ve thought this song should come out during the Halloween season, and here we are, releasing it in early October.”

Kenney added, “‘Beebe‘ is a song that sparks inspiration in you when you hear it. Part of that is the backstory behind the name. I spent some time reading different local news articles about the birds that fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, the unsolved mystery staying with me in the back of my mind. The result was an interesting mix of the catchy and almost bouncing beat with the brooding textures and harmonies that float on top. There are a lot of golden moments in this tune, but the one that stood out for the both of us was the almost triumphant guitar melody at the end as Greg sings ‘and I fade away . . . ‘“

Brownderville and 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 (Dallas Observer, Central Track) and national literary publications (Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Virginia Quarterly Review, LITHUB).

Creative wonder, however, abounds on Beekeeper Spaceman’s debut, where handcrafted folk tunes blossom over and over again into strange and engaging electro-pop songs stuffed with synthesized sounds, exposed roots of acoustic guitar, surreal stories and intriguing arrangements that feel like vibrant little worlds unto themselves. 

“I wanted to incorporate the idea of a ‘wonder soldier’—someone who builds their life around it,” says Brownderville. “This feeling of endless adventure, if you can manage to keep it alive. When people have given up on the idea of adventure and joy, I find that to be truly heartbreaking.”