Exclusive video premiere of ‘Pour the Night’ by Beekeeper Spaceman, taken from their latest album.

Beekeeper Spaceman was born out of an online multimedia project called Fire Bones, the duo—primary songwriter/singer/guitarist Greg Brownderville and producer/multi-instrumentalist Spencer Kenney—have shared bills with artists like Erykah Badu, Leon Bridges, Shakey Graves and Black Pumas. Like its sprawling hometown of Dallas, Texas, cinematic indie rock band Beekeeper Spaceman’s self-titled debut album evokes a never-ending collision between bucolic bygones and the urban present.

This song of unrequited love moves like wavy hair in the rain. Its toy-like organ intro distorts and fades, leading into a simple acoustic guitar and haunting vocals. Kenney’s perfectly measured electric guitar solo lands with such satisfaction against Brownderville’s acoustic strumming. Brownderville’s delicate falsetto choruses of, “Time is just like wine / I’m drunk on the past / Can you pour the night in my glass?” feels heartbreaking.

To fully appreciate Beekeeper Spaceman and its music, it’s helpful to understand Fire Bones, a self-described “go-show”—released in 2021 and optimized for mobile devices—that uses poetry, video, podcasts and visual art to tell an epic story about a fictional town in the Arkansas Delta. The band’s name is taken from a key character in the tale, but Brownderville and Kenney didn’t initially set out to make an album, or even to form a musical project together.

“We connected through a mutual friend and I started working on music for Fire Bones,” says Kenney, who is originally from New England but moved to Texas as a kid. “I don’t know how we decided to make an album. I don’t know if we really did. It just kind of started happening.”

When it did, it generally went like this: Brownderville would write a folk song, more or less, and share it with Kenney, who would then sculpt the sound of the song by adding synths and other layers to the arrangement, relying on ideas of his own and input from Brownderville.

Kenney came along at a critical moment in the making of Fire Bones, Brownderville says, and he proved to be an easy communicator, an intuitive collaborator and a breath of fresh air.

“‘Pour the Night’ was the last song I wrote for this record, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s all about being drunk on memories. The first two parts we recorded were my lonesome lead vocal and my acoustic guitar. From there, Spencer—in my opinion—did some of his finest work on the record. I love that brokenhearted electric guitar solo he plays after the bridge. We filmed the video at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. Feels kind of weird being at a fair as an adult. It’s a festive scene, but along with smells of funnel cake and cotton candy, there’s a certain melancholy in the air. I felt like a ghost haunting the place, walking around among the bright colors and the children’s wild voices. Almost like I was remembering all of this rather than experiencing it. Exactly the right vibe for a dreamlike song about memory.” – Greg Brownderville

“One of my favorites on our debut album, ‘Pour the Night’ is a standout track for me for a few reasons. Greg’s lyrics and melody inspired the arrangement you hear, with the almost eulogy-like organ intro (fitting as it’s the final track on the album and final track we worked on), and George Harrison–like guitar leads. I’ll never forget recording the solo on this and after so many attempts and at the verge of settling for a lesser take, doing one last one and uncovering the inspired improvisation that you hear on the recording.” – Spencer Kenney

Director Kyle Montgomery on the meaning of the video: “To me, ‘Pour the Night’ drinks deeply from the cup of nostalgia and lost love. I wanted to express that bittersweet quality of getting drunk on the past and wallowing in sadness to the point that it becomes almost pleasurable, like a drug. I always wanted to shoot something at a carnival. The fairgrounds conjure up that feeling of nostalgia, and everywhere you look is something kinetic and moving. It’s like the environment is dancing to the music. While we were filming, I realized that everything at the fair is spinning in a circular motion. Everything returns back to where it started.

We filmed the “memory” sections of the story on Super 8mm film and then used a special lens for Greg’s journey through the dreamlike version of the carnival. The music video is meant to be a little sad, but also full of beauty that evokes the pleasure of memory, of our past loves, and our time here on earth.”

Headline photo: Kyle Montgomery

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