Spotlight: Bekah Bossard
Story & Photos By Henry Ager
POETIC AND DEEPLY EMOTIONAL - Bekah Bossard’s music explores her feelings, creating a release and coping strategy for her. Her sad dream pop is a combination of her poetry and self-taught guitar that has led to beautiful songs that connect with listeners.
Growing up, Bossard was a young carer for her mum and didn’t know the best way to process or talk about it, except through poetry. She shared “it’s a release of all the things I didn’t really want to talk about, and I couldn’t talk about” making many of her poems deeply personal and in the moment. Her poems therefore have an inherent sadness which Bossard didn’t realise could still be beautiful until listing to James Taylor, she shares, “I realised you could write about something really sad and it be really beautiful”.
This inspired her to combine her love of the guitar with her poetry, creating music. Originally her music was written for the self, however she felt it didn’t belong to her, she shares,“Some point of art, some point of music is to connect with people and to find solidarity and to find community.” Bossard’s decision to share her music with the public was a hard one, especially when performing particularly emotive songs, however she says it’s worth it when people say they appreciate, get comfort and can relate with her music.
Bossard’s first single “San Diego” originated as a poem that naturally evolved into a song. Centering around the theme of meeting someone you can’t hold onto, she notes it touches on the “contradiction of meeting someone and finding a beautiful connection but knowing it can’t last”. The process of writing was a very quick one as it written over one evening. Remaining pretty much the same since its initial creation, the track sways from Bossard’s typical creative process as she often alters her songs. When recording, she was aiming for a “floaty” sound and had the time to perfect it. Using her friend’s studio, Bossard had the whole summer to experiment with ideas to add to the single. Taking inspiration from the depth of Phoebe Bridgers’ sound, she added lots of backing vocals and invented sounds to add to the recording. The result is exactly as Bossard intended; a very floaty sound that draws you in as the song progresses and increases its depth.
This summer Bossard will be recording her next EP with more of her graceful sad dreamy pop songs that explore her ideas of loss. She explains her focus during recording will be on “putting the songs in the right position to be experienced in the best ways”, which will involve perfecting the sound so as not to take away from the live experience. Bossard plays live solos with just her guitar as she likes the performance to reflect the original writing of the song, however Bossard wants the recordings to sound more ethereal and add more “colour”.
Bossard’s upcoming music will have influences from the surroundings she has been in whilst writing, with spaces needing to offer “room to create”. She feels London, where she is currently based studying music, provides this for her, offering beauty all around you when you stop and take it in. Being surrounded by musicians has helped Bossard to approach writing differently. When writing for herself it is a very personal process with the purpose to release something and process things, however when writing with others this has helped her to enjoy writing as a craft than can be worked on.
Keep an eye out for Bossard’s upcoming music, out late this year.
