Bonny Light Horseman - Contemporary Traditionals

To mark the release of the third album by Bonny Light Horseman, I met musician and producer Josh Kaufman on Zoom. Together we talked about some of the songs on “Keep On Your Mind/ See You Free” and the peculiar choice to record the first take in an Irish pub with an audience present, as well as retracing some milestones in the band's history. Since Kaufman produced two of my favorite albums of recent years – “Off Off On” and “An Overview On Phenomenal Nature” – I couldn't help but ask him for a few memories of working with Kate Stables and Cassandra Jenkins. And, for me, it felt a bit like a circle closing, since I'd already had the chance to speak with both singer-songwriters.

During an interview with Paste Magazine, Eric said that your “first album was made up of old stories made to sound new”, while your second record was made up of “new stories told as if they were old”. When and why did you start writing new songs for this project?

Many of the songs on our debut album are interpretations of traditional songs, mostly from the UK and Ireland. For “Rolling Golden Holy”, though, we tried writing our own songs following those same models and drawing on the recurring themes of that vast historical repertoire. Working on “Bonny Light Horseman” moved us deeply, and we found it exciting to write songs that could carry the same timeless, humanistic core you find in the traditionals, songs able to enter into dialogue with them.

How does your new double album fit into the band's history and intentions?

For this new record we wrote much more starting from our own personal experiences. While our older songs focused on the idea of an emotion, now the focus is on our lived experience: our lives are placed at the center of the album.

I really like how the album's title suggests a circular movement: it feels like the songs at the edges echo one another, as if they're in dialogue in some way.

I think both dimensions of the title coexist in every song. On one hand there's the desire to stay connected, to remain in other people's hearts, and on the other the wish to see yourself free and happy. It really is a circular movement, but it happened very randomly, without us planning it.

Have you ever tried listening to the album starting from the end, following the opposite movement?

No, but that's actually an intriguing idea. Eric is really good at sequencing the tracks, and I remember at one point we tried putting "See You Free" at the start of the record. But "Keep Me On Your Mind" felt like the right choice.

Also because ending with the guitar solo on "See You Free" offers a truly cathartic farewell.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but it actually mirrors how we structure our live shows too: a slow build of tension with a final release through an instrumental crescendo.

The album was recorded half during a live performance at a pub in Ireland, but afterwards you added some instruments and details in the studio. How did you decide when to add something, and what to add?

Generally, I like to record live performances and try to leave them as intact as possible, but a bit of studio magic can add small details. One example is "Old Dutch", whose music video is actually just the live performance at the pub. We felt something was missing that could fully capture the energy we had in Ireland. One of the additions is Anaïs's acoustic guitar part, which I find rhythmically pushes the whole song forward. In general, it's like having a second chance to try to say something more and add emotional nuance to the track.

I love the choir on "Speak To Me Muse": it really takes the song to another emotional level.

It was a challenge to record the instruments and voices of the people in the pub in a balanced way. But inviting them to sing along with us felt very natural. It was like having another instrument in the room.

There are 18 songs on "Keep On Your Mind/See You Free". Do you have any favorites?

Obviously I love them all, but some of them surprised me once we started playing them live at our shows. "Old Dutch" is one of those, also because we found a new arrangement for it live. I also love "Speak To Me Muse" and "Your Arms (All The Time)". But overall I'm really proud of the whole collection!

I'd like to talk now about one of your earliest songs, "Bonny Light Horseman": why did it become so important that it gave its title not only to your first album, but even to the band itself?

The song dates back to the Napoleonic era, and I remember Anaïs had started playing it in my old studio even before we had a proper band. The song's melody and harmony felt both modern and traditional to us at the same time. When we started working with Eric too, we experimented with their voices singing in unison instead of trying to find vocal harmonies. This song opened a lot of doors for us as a band, but we hadn't planned to name ourselves after it. It was only right before our first show together, when we had to submit a name for the program, that Anaïs suggested Bonny Light Horseman, and it felt right.

Your rendition of "The Roving" was one of my favorite songs of 2020, and I listened to it a lot during the early months of the pandemic. How did you go about selecting which traditional songs to play and record?

"The Roving" is based on a traditional song I found in a book, and its lyrics struck me deeply. Starting from the traditional, we then added some lyrical parts and new melodies. Like "Bonny Light Horseman", "The Roving" was also archetypal in the way we tried to render an old song as if it were one of our own, authentic in a certain sense.

As a producer, you've worked on some of my favorite albums: “Off Off On” by This Is The Kit and “An Overview” by Cassandra Jenkins. What can you tell me about these records and your involvement in making them?

“Off Off On” was actually the last album I recorded before lockdown. I've always been a fan of Kate Stables's work, so working with her was a dream come true. Usually when I produce a record, I try to be in the room and play an instrument myself, to help create a certain groove or energy for the session. So it was a lot of fun, and really special, to play alongside Kate, Rozi and the rest of the band.

As for Cassandra, I've known her for a long time, and she'd sung backing vocals on a few albums I produced. I suppose she felt comfortable with me, and we started working on the songs well before the pandemic. The core of the tracks always came from us, and other musicians later added certain nuances and instruments — like Stuart Bogie's gorgeous saxophone, for instance. We really followed our instincts during the writing and recording process, without overthinking it. Still, it was hard to get any labels interested in putting the record out, until a friend at Ba Da Bing! stepped in to help. We thought it was a special record while we were making it, and in the end it reached a lot of people.

(photo Credits by Jay Sansone; interview published on August 5, 2024)

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