Biography
“Year of Love wields the duo’s multi-instrumental talent to evoke serenity in the face of debilitating uncertainty. Orchestral experimentation with arpeggiated synth and strings combined with their thoughtfully crafted folk lyricism, emit an incandescent optimism to penetrate the shadowed nature of the 2020 experience.”
– AMERICAN SONGWRITER
“Sonically lovely…The lyrics are continually catching you up short with their simple elegance.”
– HUFFPOST
“Cinematic in an emotionally impactful way.”
– GLIDE MAGAZINE
“Beta Radio draws you in and takes you back…with multi-instrumentalism and rustic vocals that bloom with favorites of the past.”
– ONES TO WATCH
Acclaimed modern Americana duo Beta Radio release their eagerly anticipated new album Year Of Love via Nettwerk today. The new album written and recorded over the course of 2020 sees the Wilmington, NC-based duo – Benjamin “Ben” Mabry and Brent Holloman – taking a moment to breathe in life’s simplest inspiration and, ultimately, urging everyone else to do the same. The album collects songs first featured on Beta Radio’s recently released Way of Love and Afraid of Love EPs alongside four brand new tracks.
“We had a few songs ready to record as the world locked down, and the thought was, not to have any kind of overarching theme across the record. Having a theme was always fun and something we’d done before with previous records, but it also was always a lot more work (lyrically speaking). As the record progressed over the course of the pandemic, we realized, to our surprise, that all the songs did have a theme: love. Ironically, love is something that we’ve actively been trying to not write about, because we felt it had been done so much, and because we ourselves had written about it so much. But it seemed with ALL that happened last year, love was the only thing we could write about.” Beta Radio
Rooted in vocal harmonies, acoustic and electric guitar, piano, banjo, and an eclectic range of additional instrumentation and soulful arrangements, Beta Radio have crafted a catalog of anthems steeped in folk tradition and galvanized by sonic adventurism. Over the course of three albums and a lifetime of friendship, Mabry and Holloman have generated more than 150M streams for such standout tracks as “On The Frame,” “Tongue Tied,” and “Our Remains,” the latter two songs featured on the duo’s widely acclaimed third album and Nettwerk debut, 2018’s Ancient Transitions.
Beta Radio began writing what would become Year Of Love at the onset of 2020. The world shut down and though chaos and sadness ensued, Ben and Brent remained steadfast in their Wilmington studio. The duo broke from their traditional structure by releasing music as it came together rather than waiting to finish a full project. Tracks such as “Destined To Pretend“ were met by immediate applause, with Glide Magazine hailing “the duo’s shimmering folksy Americana,” noting, “(Beta Radio) craft a warm sonic backdrop from arpeggiated synth and strings as delicately plucked acoustic guitar upholds lilting vocals while meditating simultaneously on themes of hope and pain.” “It Doesn’t Really Feel Like Spring“ followed and received equivalent acclaim, with American Songwriter praising it as “tranquil and layered, opening with a meditative synth part around which Mabry and Holloman built the rest of the arrangement.”
Ben Mabry
vocals, guitar, glockenspiel, harmonium,
piano and additional arrangements
Brent Holloman
guitar, banjo, vocals, bass, piano
and additional arrangements