Nefesh Mountain released their most recent album, Beacons on January 31. The release saw the husband and wife duo of Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff breaking new ground with a double album. Half of Beacons leans toward acoustic string band music while the other half is electric Americana. However, no matter how different the two sides of the coin are, a thread of hope for a brighter tomorrow ties them together.
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Recently, Nefesh Mountain sat down with American Songwriter to talk about the new album, the songs, the thread that runs throughout the project, and more.
[RELATED: Exclusive Premiere: Nefesh Mountain Carve a Fresh Path with New Single “Race to Run”]
Nefesh Mountain Reflect on “Race to Run”
I first spoke to Eric and Doni last year when we talked about the single “Race to Run.” It’s a song about the toxicity and competition bred by social media and overcoming that by clinging to the things that are important in life. That’s where our conversation about the new Nefesh Mountain album started.
“I feel like it just keeps getting worse, in a way. So, I feel like the song is helping me remember what’s important,” Zasloff said when asked if the track feels more poignant now than before. “Between everything going on in this country and in the world, it’s just unbelievable how much information and bad news we’re getting every day. There’s just so much going on,” she added.
“We never want to be political,” Lindberg began. “We have our own thing and how we feel about things. But I think whatever side you’re on, the shift of presidents is so polarizing. You can’t get away from it and social media just adds to that,” he said. “Some people are living a completely different narrative than others. It’s just a rough existence and I think social media makes it worse. It puts us in bubbles.”
Getting Honest on “Regrets in the Rearview”
Nefesh Mountain packed Beacons with 18 top-notch songs. “Regrets in the Rearview” stands out from the others. It’s also a deeply personal song for the couple.
“That one is definitely a highlight for us. I wrote that one for Doni to sing in like half an hour,” Lindberg said of the track. “I was thinking about the record and I had a stack of tunes written already and I wanted to write a bluegrass traveling song and put our spin on it,” he recalled.
“I’m always struck by how resilient she is. She’s been through so many things. We have three kids, I have two stepkids. We’re a blended family. She’s been through a lot in her life not unlike many folks but I know her story and I wanted that song to be about us and that resilience,” Lindberg explained. “You just get in the car and get on the highway. You don’t necessarily regret your past but you keep those things in the rearview. Keep them visible but move forward.”
After a pause, Zasloff opened up about what the song means to her. “I just celebrated 20 years of sobriety. I’ve been really private about it. It’s not something that I’ve really talked about before,” she said. “But over the last year, I just realized that I wanted to start talking about it and come out with it because my life got so great and I got so many gifts from sobriety. I struggled a lot in my past. I feel like it could maybe help some people if they knew I was sober so I decided to come out with it,” she explained.
“Back when I was using, I never thought that I could ever be on stages and travel and live a big life unless I was high or drunk,” she recalled. “I thought that was part of living large. So, to be able to live this big beautiful life in sobriety, I feel like if anyone is out there struggling I would love for them to just know it’s possible. And I realized that just keeping it to myself is not really doing anybody any good.”
A New Format for Nefesh Mountain Albums
Beacons was an experimental album for Nefesh Mountain. They wanted to see if they could successfully release a double album containing the varied sounds they enjoy listening to and playing. In their eyes–and the eyes of fans–it was a successful experiment.
“I don’t know yet but it’s what I’m thinking is our new format–experimenting with both sounds,” Lindberg said when asked if they would release another double album. “It’s not that we’re shifting from one to the other or we’ll stop doing bluegrass. We’re going to keep doing all of it. I’m already writing some stuff and I kind of think that the next album might be a double record. We’ll just have to wait and see,” he added.
Finding Cohesion with Beacons
The two sides of Beacons are sonically very different. However, there’s a line of cohesion running through the tracks that makes it work. Eric Lindberg, who writes most of the lyrics and music for Nefesh Mountain, shared how he found that line.
“I think I go a lot on faith and knowing that I’m pretty hard on myself as I’m writing. Both of us are. We’re hard on our lyrics and melodies. Very few things come and I know right away that they’re great,” he revealed.
“The only thing that I follow–the only kind of musical compass I follow–is things ring true to me or they don’t. When they ring true and there’s a thing here that feels right–something about the feeling of it or the sound of it or the way the melody and harmony hit–as soon as I know it’s that thing for me, it works,” he explained.
“Beacons, the title is about light,” Lindberg said. “We want every one of these songs to be a light in a way-too-dark world.”
Beacons is available to stream across all digital platforms today
Featured Image via Nefesh Mountain
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