Stepping Out of His Comfort Zone: Beharie Talks Debut Album, ‘Are You There, Boy?'
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
There’s a comfort and familiarity when listening to 29-year-old Norwegian R&B-soul singer-songwriter Beharie. It’s hard to pinpoint, especially when you find yourself fully immersed in his music, forgetting about the outside world and solely focused on the journey as you float through musical space. But whoever he reminds you of, one thing is for sure: he was destined to play soul music.
In his early years, Beharie’s father was the one who introduced him to some of music’s greatest genres: soul and R&B.
“I grew up with him playing a lot of music pretty loudly in the living room,” he said in an interview over Zoom. “He’s from Jamaica, so I grew up with a lot of Jamaican music; a lot of reggae, and a lot of old classic soul tunes.”
It wasn’t until he was about 14 or 15 years old that he began to discover music from soul-pioneer Sam Cooke, John Legend and many other modern soul and R&B artists. And now, with the release of his debut album, Are You There, Boy? Beharie stands perfectly alongside those who have influenced him, all the while shining brightly as he showcases his unique and talented musical artistry.
In this interview, Beharie discusses his process in making his debut album, stepping out of comfort zones, future career dreams and more.
Samantha Soria: Your debut album takes listeners on a journey. It explores love, self-doubt, desire, longing and pain, which are themes I think anyone can relate to — if not all, maybe just one. In the process of making this album, what was it like for you to explore these themes?
Beharie: I thought it was really interesting. I feel like I'm kind of more mature, like during this process and being able to be more vulnerable. But also, I feel like I have a bit more confidence. I feel like I was able to be more playful with what I'm saying and being more honest. I feel like I've grown a confidence the last year; that's been really fun and interesting playing around with. I've worked with two producers that've been really involved in the songwriting and lyrics as well. They've really been pushing me a lot, and just like making the best lyrics I can make and also just pushing the meanings of things. I feel like they've pushed my boundaries quite a lot, and it's been really, really fun.
Out of your comfort zone, you would say?
One hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. I'm trying to push that comfort zone all the time. I kind of enjoy it. I feel like they [producers] are really good at doing that. We know each other pretty well. But I feel like they're really good at pushing my boundaries and really believing in me.
In an interview with Atwood Magazine, you mentioned how the album has nurtured different characters. There’s washed out jeans boy, float in space boy, constant fear boy, make believe boy, and lost in thought boy. When exploring these characters, I imagine it required a level of vulnerability. Out of these characters, was there one you enjoyed exploring the most?
I think it's really complex, but what I feel was really fun was just the complexity of it all — just really trying to be different characters in the different songs, trying to nurture the different characters and kind of trying to be the more extreme of it. But I really enjoyed the playful characters, the ones that were confident and more insisting and just, more like bouncing and having more edge. I really enjoyed those characters without telling you which of those characters that is.
I have an idea of which song correlates with which character, primarily because of the sound, but have you explained the song-to-character correlation, or is that something you would like to keep open-ended?
I want to keep it open-ended and not put too much information into someone's head. I feel like this is self explaining in the way it should be that it tells you this stuff that you understand yourself. So I kind of tried to stay away from saying too much in a way about the concept and about what you should think about the different moods because it's really different from person to person.
Of the 12 heartfelt tracks from your album, is there one you are most proud of, or are you proud of all of them?
I am proud of all of them, but not equally. I think it’s a difference. I think right now I'm really proud of “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?” I'm really happy with the songwriting, and just like the mood of it. But I also really like “We Never Knew.” I feel like the production is really cool, and the whole sonic of it is really nice. I feel like the soulness of me really shines through on that song — maybe the most on the album. I really love the sound of “We Never Knew,” so maybe at this moment, my answers are those two.
When writing each song, was there one that took some time to get right, or did they all come naturally to you? What was that process like?
It's really chaotic, my whole process. I love writing songs, but I don't like to write on the same song for more than 15 minutes. So for me, I had so much material that was unfinished when we started to work on the album. We took so many rounds with the material and sorted out which songs were well put together and which songs were kind of the best. But I started writing “We Never Knew” maybe four years ago, I think. It's just been laying around there. I've made many different demos of it and almost made a version of it two years ago, but it didn't feel right, so I scrapped it. It has been living a long life [laughs].
Next month, your 2023/2024 tour begins with two shows with the Stavanger Symphonic Orchestra. Are you playing all the songs from your album or just a few?
We're not playing the whole album, but I think we're playing 14 songs with the orchestra.
Nice! Which ones are you excited to perform?
I'm really excited to perform “Desire.” I think that's going to be a really interesting and fun song to do with an orchestra, and I'm really looking forward to playing “We Never Knew” and “Wake Up.” I just got all the arrangements, and they're just finished. I think “Wake Up” sounds amazing. I think that's going to be a really nice introduction to the whole concert.
Aside from the tour, what’s next for Beharie? New music? Dream collaborations?
I would definitely love to do a song with Michael Kiwanuka one day; he just has to know that I exist first [laughs]. But, yeah, I would love to do something with him. I'm gonna do some touring outside of Norway as well, but I really have a dream of kind of getting an audience outside of Norway and being able to tour in other countries. ♦