Spirit of the Beehive on lifting the curse in 2025: “You never fucking know but…”
Philadelphia‘s Spirit of the Beehive have always explored the anxiety inherent to life, weaponising intense sonic dissonance, but offsetting it with melodic splendour as a reprieve. Their music follows the contours of human existence in that its demeanour can switch in a split second, always dancing on the verge of a cataclysm, with safety just a couple of steps back from the reckless abandon of the cliff edge.
It’s fitting that the group has endured their fair share of obstacles. They’ve dubbed 2024’s You’ll Have to Lose Something a breakup album, following frontman Zack Schwartz and bassist Rivka Ravede’s 2022 split after a decade together. The record deals with the emotional morass it begot, and while discombobulating in parts, as a romantic split is, after the final track, ‘Earth Kit’, you get the sense they’ve moved out of the storm stronger for it.
After such a protracted challenge, you’d assume the band would finally be in calmer waters. Yet, disaster struck when, on a US tour in early October, their van and trailer containing all their gear and merch was stolen from a hotel car park at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle. Another immense obstacle they had to overcome, there’s no wonder the band feel cursed.
Despite enduring such hardship, Schwartz states, “It’s over, so I haven’t really thought about it much, just kind of back to work.”
Ravede offered a more substantial perspective: “It did feel like another kick in the teeth after trying to get back up again after a turbulent couple of years because the tour was going really well. It felt a little bit like a triumphant return, and then it was just like, ‘No, just kidding. Fuck you.'”
The bassist points out that artists having their gear stolen seems like “a big problem in the United States”, and especially at that particular airport. After it happened, they heard that bands appear to have been targeted there.
Luckily, thanks to the crowdfunding, the band obtained new gear “for the most part”, as Schwartz clarifies. Ravede is grateful to those who were kind enough to donate equipment, such as someone in Australia sending her another Fender Mustang bass. It meant a lot, as her old one was “very sentimental.”
Another challenge the band has faced is that, for a multitude of reasons, they’ve never made it to the UK. They were booked to play at the London Pitchfork Festival in 2022 but had to pull out. There have been other cancellations, too, so, as you might imagine, they’re looking forward to the February run. Although, Schwartz seems to have forgotten that they even pulled out of the aforementioned fest: “I don’t remember when that was…”
Ravede explains: “There’s been a couple of times where we have had to cancel the UK, but one time was because we literally just didn’t have enough money to go. Then, another time was because of Covid, and another was because of personal reasons. We were going through a lot of emotional chaos, so we couldn’t do the tour.”
Understandably, that was right before the group constructed You’ll Have to Lose Something. They were in the eye of the storm, so coming to the UK was a non-starter.
Hopefully, the trio will get a rub of the green in 2025. However, given their past fortune, Ravede takes a slightly cynical standpoint: “I mean, you never fucking know but…” Schwartz then picks up: “I don’t know. I mean, we really have nothing planned. So, aside from this tour, I have no idea what we’re doing this year. Probably another record.”
For obvious reasons, it took a while between 2021’s Entertainment, Death and You’ll Have to Lose Something, but Schwartz is looking for a prompter turnaround this time, particularly due to this album cycle being so abruptly ended: “It takes a long time, but hopefully this next one comes out quicker, so that we can tour because I think the record cycle for this one is over.”
They might now be in different places, with Schwartz and bandmate Corey Wichlin residing in Philadelphia and Ravede in Portugal, but ironically, this distance has brought them closer together in the face of their travails. Once deeming her position passive, Ravede says now, “I need to play more of an active role so that we feel more stable and like a unit.”
The bassist maintains that You’ll Have to Lose Something feels like the most cohesive Spirit of the Beehive album yet. She understands that might sound absurd due to the common definition of their music as incongruous, but the underlying themes tie it together for her. She concludes: “All of us were coming from one place, from one lived experience, which was dark, but it also felt like moving through something dark into something more hopeful.”
And you can check out that lived experience unfurling live on their forthcoming tour, with all dates available here.
