beabadoobee: 2024

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

Since beabadoobee's first single, 2017's caffeinated sing-a-long "Coffee," Bea Laus has swiftly emerged as a smart, dynamic songwriter, guitarist and performer, selling out her solo concerts in a breath. Her third album, 2024's thoughtful This Is How Tomorrow Moves, partnered her with not only her longtime collaborator Jacob Bugden, but with Los Angeles legacy Rick Rubin.

The layers of confidence and acceptance that Laus felt not only walking into Rubin's Malibu studios, but her 2023 stadium gigs with Taylor Swift, is evident on these new songs. Laus says that This Is How Tomorrow Moves is really her first album as a mature woman, shed of childhood and teenage doubts; you can hear that self-described shift on shimmering tracks like "Ever Seen" and "Beaches." Her longtime admiration for Elliott Smith remains heartfelt and true — and she even name checks the late musician in "This Is How It Went."

I caught up with Laus backstage at Central Park SummerStage just prior to one of her two sold-out shows. (She sold out her entire U.S. tour this summer)  Since Laus and I first chatted in 2022 for our first FUV Live session.  I’ve been impressed with her generosity of spirit, her candor, her kindness, and breezy sense of humor. After we spoke, Bea even made Time Magazine's Time100 Next for 2024 (Fellow musician Gracie Abrams wrote an affectionate profile of Laus.)

This Is How Tomorrow Moves, is arguably Laus's best album in what is already an impressive career. In our backstage chat, we touched on so much in what was a warm, engaging dialogue about life, love, and her beloved cats. Yes, Bea loves her cats Miso and Kimchi (a photo of the fuzzy pair are her screensaver on her phone and were emblazoned on her tour laminates)  — and right after our talk, she ran to grab a bite at the Jellycat Diner at FAO Schwartz.

Thanks to Tristan Dolce and Matt Blake at SoCal Sound for providing three songs from beabadoobee's recent session for KCSN for this FUV Live session: "Beaches," "Ever Seen," and "Coming Home."

[Recorded 9/12/24: Engineered and produced by Meghan Offtermatt.]