Blue Cactus
Illustration by Emma Ptak
Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez of Blue Cactus talked to Chessa Rich. Their new album Stranger Again is out now.
Which song on the record went through the biggest transformation during the recording process?
“Enough” was probably the least finished song. We had a pretty good idea of how we could play it as the duo, but hadn’t played it with the band. That became a process of bringing in all the instruments after Steph’s vocal was recorded, so it really took shape as each musician brought something new to it. The vocals from Skylar Gudasz and HC McEntire were a late addition that really helped push momentum forward at the end.
In the time between the release of your debut album and Stranger Again, you played several shows with a full 5-piece band. How did experiences playing with a larger outfit inform the process of recording Stranger Again?
It allowed us to go in and record most of the album live in a room together within a few takes per song. Producer Alex Bingham helped keep the momentum going by having us move on after three takes, and thankfully we didn’t really need to deviate from that. Having the shared experience of playing and touring together just made it run smoothly enough to get the bulk of the recording done in a week.
Walk me through the IDEAL listening environment for a first listen-through of this record front to back. Money, space, weather…are no object!
This is such a great question, and we keep coming back to it trying to be clever, but finding ourselves just circling back to our favorite way to experience a record, so here it is: Go somewhere you feel the safest, preferably alone or with a good listener. Turn off your phone. Adjust the lighting to be comfortable (we like candles or lava lamps with lights off). Lay down if that feels good to your body, push play, and for 37 uninterrupted minutes let your whole self be with it.
Mario: Tell me something about Steph that made you proud of her during the process of writing/recording this record.
After almost ten years of working together, I still get excited when Steph shows me a new song idea or chorus and I feel so privileged to get to work with her. She is such a generous collaborator and is always open to creative input from others. I was surprised how she changed her vocal approach for this record and sang in ways that brought in a nuance that I hadn’t heard in these songs before. As artists, we have to balance being flexible and resilient. On a daily basis, Steph models this beautifully.
Steph: Tell me something about Mario that made you proud of him during the process of writing/recording this record.
There were a couple of songs-- "Rodeo Queen" and "Radioman"-- that had space holder lyrics, meaning I knew these weren't the right words, but I didn't know what I wanted to say and what words the song wanted to fill those spaces. I showed Mario, and within a matter of just a few minutes, he had the exact words. It's truly remarkable how he's able to do this and one of my favorite parts of our creative process.
I am constantly amazed by Mario's patience and dedication to a project he commits to. He will work all night and day to manifest a vision and the most recent endeavor was teaching himself video editing. He initially began by working on little videos we made for our patrons which, after countless hours of YouTube tutorials on Adobe Premiere, led to editing our music video for 'Come Clean' which turned out beautifully.
