I’ve been a fan of Bethlehem & Sad Patrick for years. Being fairly portable in the duo format, they pop up in all sorts of venues and happenings around Philly. That might lead one to think that they’re good wallpaper music. Hardly. I’ve covered the absolute firecracker of a performer that is Bethlehem, and we made a truly beautiful record that was released earlier this year. Pair her vocal intensity and percussion textures with Sad Patrick’s contemplative guitar and beautifully written songs that dig into the high highs and low lows of being in love, and I couldn’t get on board fast enough.
We typically worked on one song per session, allowing us to get inside of the song world and sound world. This enabled us to search for the characters in each song, similar to casting a movie or play. This duo has been together for a long time, and my primary goal was the showcase the songs and performances between the two of them. But I thought it would also be interesting to introduce other elements here and there, to add depth and allow the listener to fall further into each song world with us. To that end, Bethlehem and Sad Patrick instilled a load of trust in me, which is something I was honored to hold.