We were writing songs for the project, but still didn’t have a name. The first time we played as a duo in a Raleigh pub would probably be our first show. We’ve been playing and writing together for almost a decade with Blue Cactus as our primary project since 2017.įTR: What can you remember about your first show? A bold and ambitious return, Blue Cactus continue to push their vision of the classic country sound, they might be strangers now yet give this record your time and it might just be the start of a beautiful friendship.įTR: For those who don’t know who are Blue Cactus?īased in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Blue Cactus is Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, partners in life and music.
The track explores the shifting dynamic of a long-term relationship, the importance of putting effort in to keep it working, and ensuring it remains, “in the intentional space” where the most intimate connections lurk. Particularly wonderful is the title track, recently shared as a single. The otherworldliness of the music, is almost in perfect contrast to their distinctly grounded and human story-telling, throughout the record they tackle topics as old as music itself loss and longing, self-improvement and self-expression, personal, political and human struggles, and the joys of hard work paying off. The band have described the record as, “a dive into Cosmic American music”, taking their music into ambitious new planes, where country-rock meets light psychedelia as the soaring vocals, meet twangy slide-guitars and propulsive almost prog-influences bass-lines. As they spent more time on the stage, their sound travelled with them, writing the songs and finding the styles that would shape their second album, Stranger Again, due out this week via Sleepy Cat Records. Like so many bands before them, that success led to a period of extensive touring, they took to music festivals and state fairs, played with country legends old and new, and generally spent time anywhere but home. In 2017, following the release of their eponymous debut album, the North Carolina-based duo, Blue Cactus, were the toast of music bloggers worldwide.
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