Indie pop artist Beabadoobee says Rick Rubin made her relearn all her demos acoustically before they recorded them for her new album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves.

The forthcoming album marks her third LP and is due to land on 16 August. This is the first time Beabadoobee – real name Beatrice “Bea” Kristi Ilejay Laus – has collaborated with Rubin, who’s produced huge records for the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay-Z and more, and it wasn’t planned either.

• READ MORE: “I’d love to sit with Rick, chew the cud and push him on his opinions”: Jacob Collier wants to have an in-depth discussion with Rick Rubin on the nature of good art

In an interview with The Guardian, Beabadoobee says, “It came as a surprise. There was no conversation about it, and I just didn’t think an opportunity like that would ever happen to me, [with] someone as legendary as Rick.”

For the record, Bea had begun working on demos with her longtime collaborator Jacob Bugden. The pair bought them to Rubin, who then made them strip them all right back to their acoustic bones, so they could really get to know them and also compare them to a finished product later on.

She tells the outlet the experience “really helped me look at the record in a much clearer light”: “It really helped my confidence as a musician – when I heard the songs, just me and acoustic guitar, I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is actually a really good song,’” she says.

Pretty much any artist who’s worked with Rubin comes away with a pocket full of stories about the experience. Beabadoobee even recalls his nonchalance about introducing her to Nick Cave. She remembers, “He’s like, ‘Before you start, can you meet my friend?’ And then Nick fucking Cave walks in! And I’m like, what the fuck?”

Similarly, pop artist Kesha also summed up her experience of working with Rubin as “everything everyone thinks it is and so much more” in a 2023 interview with Dazed in regards to her album, Gag Order.

“He really allows for the artist to go fucking mental and almost walk through the madness, and the music is a safe place to do that,” she said.

“I begged him to let me put auto-tune on a couple of things and it was really helpful and impacted me a lot to have him insist that I didn’t need it. I’m so happy he encouraged me not to use it. Because in the slight imperfections, that’s where you find humanity. Humanity is where you gain compassion. And with compassion there is connection.”

Beabadoobee’s This Is How Tomorrow Moves arrives on 16 August, and you can pre-order it now.

The post “I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is actually a really good song!’”: Rick Rubin made Beabadoobee relearn all her demos on acoustic guitar before recording her new album appeared first on MusicTech.