Rick Rubin is known for his unorthodox production methods, and it seems that the latest to experience them is singer-songwriter Beabadoobee (AKA Beatrice Laus), who swapped her bedroom for the spiritual surroundings of Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu for the recording of her forthcoming third album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves.
The new record is co-produced by Rubin and regular Beabadoobee collaborator Jacob Bugden, and the creative process began with Laus and Bugden working on a collection of demos. However, when Rubin heard them, his response was to make Laus go back and learn each of the songs acoustically so that they could compare the stripped-back versions with her vision for the finished record.
While some artists might have baulked at this, Laus was onboard with the idea. In fact, she told The Guardian that going through this process “really helped me look at the record in a much clearer light.”
“It really helped my confidence as a musician,” she adds. “When I heard the songs, just me and acoustic guitar, I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is actually a really good song.’”
Laus says that she and Rubin had been hoping to work together for a while, and that when they met, it was “like a therapy session”. Despite the great man’s influence on the new album, though, Laus stresses that it’s still very much her.
“I’m not gonna hide myself just because I made an album with Rick Rubin, and I’m just like, super super serious,” she confirms. “I’m still like, a crazy bitch - I’m still a crazy girl!”
Take A Bite, the first single from This Is How Tomorrow Moves, is out now, and the album will be released on 16 August via Dirty Hit.
