161: Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens is a singer, songwriter, teacher and genuinely lovely person, and also one of the few repeat offenders on the Third Story Podcast. I first talked to her in 2015 and I remember our conversation as being truly connected, candid and comfortable. We had never met before but I left the experience feeling that we were genuinely friends. She has that thing about her that makes you feel like you know her even when you only know her work.

Becca’s new record, Wonderbloom, came out last month just as the world began to shelter in place, and her tour, promotion schedule and general career came to a screeching halt, along with everything else. I thought of her almost immediately because I’ve been following the journey of this record on her social media, one that took her around the world, and led her to collaborate with 40+ musicians - some of whom are also former guests of this podcast, including Michael League, Cory Wong, Alan Hampton, and Jacob Collier. The record is varied and voluminous - it’s really not just one record. It’s like a compendium of Becca’s universe - sometimes funky and rollicking, other times soft spoken and introspective.

This project was a long time coming and so it was that much more of a blow when just as she was rolling it out, she had to pack it in.  We had a lovely conversation last week in which she thoughtfully discussed “dancing with the critical voice”, looking for silver linings, “the whole money thing” and a newly born pack of baby ducks out her window.