Songwriters never quite know why, when, and how a song will arrive. It often feels like a cosmic aligning of fate. And that was most certainly the case for country duo The Jensen Sisters. Their new song “Beat of a Bad Habit,” paired with an animated lyric video, premiering today, initially revealed itself to musician and songwriter Kendra in a dream. To hear her tell it, it was lightning in a bottle, a destiny she was always meant to fulfill.
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“The dream started off with us performing on stage, but not the kind we were used to. At this point in our careers we hadn’t set foot on a stage bigger than six feet wide,” she explained, “but the one we were playing on in this dream was huge. Halfway through the dream I froze, realizing I had forgotten the entire setlist, so I turn to Kansas and frantically ask, ‘What’s next??’”
“To which she replies, ‘Beat of a Bad Habit’ ─ a song that didn’t exist!”
Kendra soon realized she was dreaming and woke herself up. “I abruptly jumped out of bed and wrote [the song] on a napkin lying on the hotel nightstand,” she continued. It’s the kind of tale you might not believe unless you were there, really living it and seeing it with your own eyes.
But the song sort of faded away for a while, as the Minnesota sibling band moved on to other songs. They did try to write it, several times, over the next few years, but “nothing ever felt natural,” said Kendra. “Eventually the hook fell off our radar.”
When they began actively writing for their new album Yellow Frames, expected October 2, “Beat of a Bad Habit” came back into view. “I was sitting on the front porch of our home in northern Minnesota, as I usually do in the morning. Out of nowhere, I hear these stacks of harmonies in my head singing, ‘I was born to the beat of a bad habit,’” she recalled. “It honestly kind of startled me.”
Later that evening, Kendra and Kansas took the song’s contagious, honky-tonk hook and the new melody to co-writer Jason Hamor. The trio then polished it up in 40 minutes. “I was born to the beat of a bad habit / I’ve been falling since my feet hit the ground,” the chorus carries a hefty, timeless rollick. “I’ll keep rolling, I’ll keep stumbling / I’ll keep turning, I’ll keep running / ‘Cause There ain’t no way to slow this train wreck down / All I know is I’m addicted to the sound.”
“Beat of a Bad Habit” fits snuggly into the new record’s themes of shedding the past, acceptance, and transition. Yellow Frames is the follow-up to 2019’s EP, Highway Hippie.
Watch the “Beat of a Bad Habit” lyric video below.
