Song Exploder - Beabadoobee - Coming Home

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Beabadoobee is an award-winning singer and songwriter from England who’s been releasing music since 2017. Her third album is called This Is How Tomorrow Moves. It came out in August 2024 and went to #1 on the UK charts. She made the album with her bandmate Jacob Bugden and with producer Rick Rubin at his studio, Shangri-La, in Malibu. And for this episode, I talked to Bea about a song from that album called “Coming Home.”For more, visit songexploder.net/beabadoobee. 

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. Bibadubi is an award-winning singer and songwriter from England, who's been releasing music since 2017. Her third album is called This Is How Tomorrow Moves. It came out in August 2024, and it went to number one on the UK charts. She made the album with her bandmate, Jacob Bugden, and with producer Rick Ruvin at his studio, Shangri-La, Malibu. For this episode, I talked to Bee about how they made a song from that album called Coming Home. My name's B. B. B. Badubi.

I was in a hotel called The Thompson. It's in Hollywood. And I had like a little break before the next leg of the Eros tour with Taylor Swift. And I was like on my bed, quite sad. And not to say that it wasn't really fun playing those shows. just every time I go on tour, I get very homesick. I had been in that hotel for a couple of days now, and I've had very lonely mornings. I just felt like I really miss my boyfriend.

I think we had just said goodnight. We had a really long conversation. So after this phone call, I realized I was alone again. And every time I have a feeling, I always pick up the guitar. I just put my fingers on the strings and see what happens. I definitely matched the feeling I felt at that moment. I was missing someone I really loved and I was missing home. There was a longness to the sound, the guitar made

every time I pressed my fingers on the strings. I love the idea of singing about mundane things and making it sound pretty, like doing the dishes and doing the washing up. And I always thought of Adam Sandler, you know, the wedding singer. When he sings on the intercom of the air, to Drew Barrowmore and he's like, I'll even let you hold the remote control. That was one of the first songs I'd ever covered and I always thought that was sweet and I wanted to make a song like that one day. You do the dishes, I'll carry the load.

It felt like I was writing a letter to my boyfriend. saying I'm sorry if I'm... Me and Jacob bugged him. He's a bandmate of mine, but also is a main collaborator of my music. We went to the studio the next day and recorded some demos. I recorded the guitar first. And that studio had these two massive doors that led out to a big balcony. And we left those doors open.

It was a hot day. So all those sounds naturally bleed in with whatever you're making. You could hear little birds chirping in the back. I really fell in love with those sounds and I wanted to keep them in. It suited what this song felt like. And then we moved on to vocals. And one of my favorite lines in that first verse is The Trash to the Brim, I'm scared of it, but you always know what to say.

The trash to the brim and I'm scared of it, but you always know just what to say and I'm sorry if I'm coming home too late. And it is mundane. The trash always gets up to the rim of the bin in my house because everyone, like me and my boyfriend, are terrified about putting it in the bin outside. But I was that far away from her

that I wanted to take the trash out really badly. And like I was in a hotel for such a long time. It almost feels like a little prison. And that's, I think, where the lyric, I'm waking up to the gap in my blinds, peaking sunlight, and wishing you were there. That lyric kind of stuck to me. I'm waking up to the gap on my blinds, peeking sunlight. I do anything just to be with you to sit and watch you slowly waking.

I'm sorry if I'm coming home too late. I always felt the need to make up for things because I was busy and away from home a lot. And I felt like I was losing time with someone I truly, truly loved. And I felt like I was wasting it. Like there was almost like a time limit. There's some part of my brain where it feels like things don't last. And so I have to use up every single second to make it worth it. That's what made being.

Away from home, so frustrating for me. Yeah, I'm sorry if I'm coming home to... There isn't a solid chorus, which I was always self-conscious about, but that's how I wrote it, and I didn't want to change the way I wrote it. You know, there's just a moment in the middle of the song. Uh, come down, I'll be with you. My drama was staying in LA too, but he could also play some beautiful piano. His name's Luca Caruso.

End of da. That line is so specific to me and my boyfriend. Because I think we had our first ever, like, argument in a bar on a roof in L.A. And I think it was me feeling overwhelmed about being away so much and feeling confused about, like, am I meant to be in a relationship right now? Like, am I meant to be doing this? I remember when I played him the song and he heard that line, I don't think he's ever gone out with a musician. before so he was like, whoa, I didn't realize you'd write about specific things like that.

I loved the song, and I loved it more after we made the demo. The idea of working with Rick Rubin never crossed my mind just because I didn't think would ever happen, but we had been meaning to me. And when I finally met him, I went up to Malibu, and then towards the end, I actually played him that demo on my phone. And then I think a week later, his manager hit mine and said that he wanted to do a record with me, which was mental. But it was honestly working with Rick and going to Shang La where I really started to believe in myself. For the first time ever, we didn't start over because there was a charm to it and then you didn't want to change.

So it was like if we needed to re-record something, we'd work from that demo and re-record whatever instrument we were doing. And then Jacob had this really cool idea where at first he was like, there should be drums. And I was like, really, drums? And then he said, you know, those little monkeys with the kind of like marching drum sound? Like he wanted to recreate that sound. And I thought that was awesome. And Jacob isn't a drummer. But sometimes it sounds better if someone who doesn't play drums plays it.

I think he almost did like a monkey as well, banging the drums with both his hands. It's not perfect, but I think the same. song doesn't have to be perfect. You're talking about real life things and the song has to sound real and you have to hear the mistakes because all I'm singing about in the song is about mistakes, forgetting to do the dishes and forgetting to do the trash. There's a beauty in the mistakes you make. I love when artists release their demos, like the Beatles, their anthologies came out and

you see them like figuring out songs and there's like a realness to the demos. that and it almost feels like you're in the room and I wanted coming home to feel like that. And a scene on a plane only shows that we're miles away. I love when Jacob does back and vocals. Jacob's voice is so different to mine but if you pair it together, there's like a slight weirdness to it, but it makes sense in my brain. There is something so nostalgic about. and something quite creepy about it almost.

I don't know, it sounds like a soundtrack to an old ride in an old theme park. A hotel room soon it can stay makes you feel so far away. There's a beat or song with a muted trumpet in it and I was like, that's the vibe I want to go for. So this man called CJ Camerary was an amazing trumpet player. And he harmonized with his trumpet take. I mean, that sounds beautiful. Rick's main thing was that he wanted to keep the meaning and the songwriting at the forefront. And so in terms of the production, the simpler it was, the more it made sense.

I'll do the dishes, we'll carry the load. Because we have time, I emptied the trash like I said I would, and you'd never guess what I'd have to say, I'm not sorry, because this time... When I write music, I always want there to be a hopefulness to it, despite maybe not feeling it at the time. So in that last verse, I wanted to say, we'll carry the load because we have time.

And I don't have to be away this much. You know what's strange is that I still have the same feeling that I had when I first wrote it? Because I'm in L.A. right now, and my boyfriend was actually meant to come, but he couldn't because he's working. So I really feel it. I really feel it now. Yeah, it sucks. She'll probably go and write another song about it. Coming up, you'll hear how all this came together in the final song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th.

It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists,

including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin,

and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. And now here's Coming Home by Biba Doobie in its entirety. Do the dishes I'll carry the load to make up lost time the trash to the brim and I'm scared of it But you always know just what to say and I'm sorry if I'm coming home too late Sunlight I do anything just to be with you to sit and watch you slowly waking I'm sorry if I'm coming

To learn so far This time Girls that were mine This had I ate the trash like I said I would Guess what I'd To learn more Visit songexploder.net

You'll find links to buy or stream Coming Home This episode was produced by Craig Ely Theo Balcom Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan and myself Our production assistant is Tiger Biscope

The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma And I made the show's Theme music and logo Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at Radiotopia.fm. If you'd like to hear more from me, you can sign up for my newsletter,

which you can find on the Song Exploder website. You can also follow me and Song Exploder on Instagram, and you can get a Song Exploder t-shirt at SongExploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi-Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening. Radiotopia.