BetaRay Releases New EP
Denver, Colorado based reggae/rock band, BetaRay, has just released their first EP. The self-titled album was released on August 5th 2022, with five tracks recorded right here in Colorado. The official release was celebrated with a show at Moe’s Original here in Denver, CO, with Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds. BetaRay has been playing shows together across the Colorado for a few years now and fans are happy to have some recorded music available for their listening pleasure. Here is what the band had to say about this recent milestone:
Congratulations on the release of your first album. So, this is your first release together as a band and the first recorded music made available for streaming and download, correct?
That’s right! The song “Believe” was released as a single earlier this year, but it’s the same version that appears on the EP. We were just excited to get one of the tracks out there!
Where was the album recorded and who produced it?
It was recorded and mixed at SoCo Soundlab in Pueblo, CO, which is a studio owned and operated by Mark LeBlanc, drummer for the band Project 432. Mark and BetaRay guitarist Chris Howells used to play together in the Denver based touring band Coral Thief. The BetaRay EP was produced by Chris and Mark.
Are all of the tracks on the EP new?
All of those songs were written a few years ago, so we’re excited to finally have the recordings completed and released!
How long have you been working on getting this EP together?
We actually completed tracking this EP right before COVID hit, and we worked with Mark on getting the mixing done over the next couple months. It was a tough call to make, but we held off on getting the tracks mastered and released, because we just didn’t know how long the pandemic might keep things shut down, and we didn’t want to release our first EP without being able to play shows to support it. So we waited for things to start opening up, then had to make some personnel changes. Finally though, we were able to get this released!
What was the hardest part about getting this EP finished?
Having to be patient was really tough. COVID was easily the biggest hurdle, but having to replace some band members so we could be prepared to play shows to support the release definitely slowed us up a lot as well. Finding the right people can be tricky.
Tell us about the album art.
We like using a Sci-Fi angle for promotional stuff, so our keyboard player Sam Caudill, who is an animator and graphic designer, worked with a friend of his utilizing some great AI (artificial intelligence) to create the cover art for the EP.
You just had an album release party show at Moe’s with Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds. How was that?
It was a super fun night!! We had a great crowd, and a really good time on stage! One of our two guitarists, John Mathewson, had recently left the band because he was moving out of state, but came back to town to join us on stage for a few songs since he plays on the EP. Our new guitar player Steph Segura, who replaced him, performed with us for the first time that night as well, and she did a great job!
Walk us through the track list (tell us a little bit about each song on the EP.)
- “Believe” is one of those songs where we felt like we had something cool as it was it was coming together. Catchy riff, catchy hook, and a beautiful piano solo in the middle.
- “1st & 15th” is kind of a funky track that still stays in line with the reggae and pop vibes that we love. This is a song with a fun energy, so we like to open our live sets with it.
- “Alibi” is one of our more straightforward reggae/rock songs…at least musically. The verses, especially the riff, felt very Slightly Stoopid to us as we were writing it.
- The music to “Red Flags” is built from an idea that Chris had when he was still in Coral Thief. It never got used back then, so BetaRay made use of it! Vocalist Dan Maynard did a great job here of writing a catchy melody and lyrics for a song about getting away from a toxic relationship.
- “All Weekend” is a fun one to play. Very reggae/rock with strong pop vibes. Not that this track sounds anything like them, but the basic idea of reggae/rock with a strong pop influence is something we draw a lot from Iration for with some of our songs.
What is next for BetaRay? More recording? More shows?
More recording and shows will come, but we’ve stayed pretty busy the last 4 months, so we’ll likely relax a little, and plot our next moves!
You can listen to the brand new BetaRay EP on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Tidal, and all major platforms today!
