“Calico,” the album Ryan Beatty returned with after taking a three-year break from music and social media, includes a reason for his absence on “Hunter,” the sixth song on the tracklist: “I’m not seeking a shelter, but I’ll be gone for a while and I don’t wanna be found.”
Under the golden tint of the Zuma Beach sunset, Beatty returns to the refuge of Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studios in Malibu to detail his sessions there, where three out of nine of the songs on his lyrically unabashed and meditative “Calico” were born. Backed by a pianist and a pair of guitarists, Beatty delivers an intimate set comprised of tracks from the album (released via Elektra US/Atlantic Records UK in April), including singles “Cinnamon Bread,” “Ribbons,” “Bruises Off the Peach,” and “White Teeth,” on the lawn of the Shangri-La.
“I worked on a bulk of the record here… when the record started to take shape, ” Beatty said in the Q&A portion of his episode of “Live From My Den.” “The outdoor space is incredible. It’s nice to just work on the song, come out, sit in the grass, cook in the sun, and work on the record more.”
He continues, “No studio session is the same as the next. It’s all kind of just as it happens. Sometimes it really just comes out of me. Sometimes it’s really easy… I’m pretty specific with word choices and that can take a long time. I remember spending literally 12 hours on a verse here just taking things in, putting things in, trying different words. It can be really taxing but so worth it. I feel like when I go through that process of breaking myself open — it’s taxing, but really freeing.”
Places like the Shangri-La vibrate with the type of welcoming energy Beatty was searching for after his hiatus from not only music but social media. “It’s funny because that space allowed me to make this record. I don’t think I could have made ‘Calico’ if I had just jumped right into making a record after [his 2020 record] ‘Dreaming of David.’ It’s important to know when to lean in and then fall back out. Artists can just completely unnecessarily hurt themselves to make something that they feel like they have to. But I don’t know… I think it’s important to just chill for a second sometimes.”
Beatty is currently back on the road after a four-year hiatus from performing for the “California In Every Color” tour, a limited run of North American headline shows that kicked off Sept. 13 in San Fransico. Check out his future dates here.
This season of Live from My Den is made possible by Hard Rock and in partnership with Fujifilm North America Corporation.
