Hailing from Covington, Kentucky, Elijah Batson is no stranger to WYSO. Between Frontier Folk Nebraska, Cream Boy, Mavis Guitar, and Dustbin, Batson is very familiar with the WYSO performance studio. However, this time Batson came through to promote their debut solo album Wildebeest. The change from being a member in a band to solo artist can feel like taking on a full time job.
"It's been vulnerable and anxiety-inducing in a lot of ways to be the main lead singer and to be the one in charge for this project. But it has been really creatively fulfilling in a lot of ways, too. I played most of the instruments on the record. I did all of the artwork, booking shows, sending emails, printing out the CD covers and cutting them out and like assembling all of them DIY style. It's been a lot work and in some ways pretty nerve wracking, but at the same time, it's really cool to kind of see a project through that is uniquely my voice." said Batson.
Mikey Chappell of Scary Hotel helped record the whole album at his home studio. A lot of the songs are around 5 years old, but even with all that time Batson stays committed to the original intent behind the songs.
"It's still a lot of fun to play those songs, but I don't emotionally connect to some of them in the same way that I did when I wrote them. So it's been kind of a gradual change over time, but I wanted to stay true to the songs that I wrote at the time, and to see it through to the end, to honor that feeling for what it was." said Batson. "I wanted to put it out in the world and finish the record, and play those songs live before I totally move on from it. Even if it's changed a little bit for me. Some of them don't connect with me personally in the same way that they did, but hopefully they do for someone else."
Purchase and stream Wildebeest by Elijah Batson on Bandcamp.
