The North Carolina-based duo Blue Cactus is celebrating the release of their third record "Believer." It's out on the Carrboro-based label Sleepy Cat Records and finds the pair reckoning with post-pandemic life and overcoming difficult health issues.
Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez of Blue Cactus recently caught up with WUNC Music Reporter Brian Burns to talk about the new record.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
The record kicks off with "This Kind of Rain." I love that song and I know it's inspired by a lot of hardships that you've been through. Can you talk us through that one a little bit?
That song was written after a period of not being able to write music for about a year. It was in the throes of the pandemic, and Mario and I had realized we weren't going back to music anytime soon, so we both got part time jobs at a local Co-Op grocery store, and it was just like, a really tough time of realizing we were going through all these changes. And then on top of all of that, I was going through some really confusing and difficult health situations that we were trying to diagnose and figure out that luckily, the doctors were able to figure out and get under control. It was just like everything all at once. And that expression, "when it rains it pours," is truly real.
Another favorite for me is the title track of the record, "Believer." It has this amazing build to it, and it really kind of explodes towards the end. Walk us through the process of recording that song.
Well, we recorded that song live with our band at small pond studios in Pittsboro. I think everybody just kind of knew what to do on it. You know, it was very natural. We got to work with Saman Khoujinian, who produced half the songs on that record. He was a wonderful producer, and just brought the right touches without overdoing anything. It just felt like everything was right. And my favorite guitar solo ever of Mario's is on that song as well.
"Believer" is out on the Carrboro-based Sleepy Cat Records. Sleepy Cat is my favorite kind of label, because across its releases, it captures this unique sense of community. For people that aren't familiar with Sleepy Cat, tell us a little bit about the mission of the label.
Sleepy Cat is really a label by artists for artists, and what that means is that they don't own any of our masters, which is very rare, and that means that we get the bulk of any income generated from the music, also very rare. They're very dear people who care deeply about art and about people who make art, and we feel very lucky to be a part of their community and family.
Blue Cactus will be playing a record release show for "Believer" on May 3rd at the Cat's Cradle Back Room.
