We love Beat Radio. You know that right? I mean, just look through this tag. Brian Sendrowitz and his collaborators have long been putting out memorable and meaningful garage rock/pop music, writing with energy and honesty about the small details which make up life. Take a listen to songs like ‘Sunday Matinee’ and you’ll find living stories boiled down to key scenes, playing out like small movies – packed with love and loss and life, the sorts of things that happen to everyone yet never fail to feel like the most important things in the world.
But while Sendrowitz has often written relatable music, it’s not often he has turned the light on his own life. However, new album Take It Forever could see this change, taking the chance to explore what it means to be a musician and an artist in our current society. We’re delighted to bring you a premiere of the second track ‘Lost in the World’, what is possibly Beat Radio’s most direct writing to date. An autobiographical song, it starts by detailing his relationship with music and writing (in what could quite easily be taken as a metaphor for life itself) and becomes a call to arms for creative people, playing out as an anthem of advice and encouragement complete with a rather triumphant sound:
“So we never got famous
and we never left home
there were times when I was lonely
I was never alone
and all my friends got tired
everybody moves on
I always seemed to find a reason and
I kept singing songs”
If the other song titles are anything to go by (‘Art is a War, There are Casualties’, ‘I Dreamed the Internet Ended’) Take It Forever will continue this exploration of creating music/art in modern society, a theme clearly important to Sendrowitz. Beat Radio are a band formed upon the notion of art as an undying passion, one which must survive and persevere on the thin side of real life. Jobs, partners, children… all of these things are realities for the contemporary artist, whether it sits nicely with your romantic ideals or not, and an ability (or otherwise) to pursue art as your primary method of income has never been further from a fair yardstick as to the quality and value of your work. Indeed, Sendrowitz took this a step further in an interview we did in 2013:
“Whenever I put pressure on music to have it be something that could take the place of my day job, it always seems to take the joy out of it“
And it makes sense. I mean, just listen to a Beat Radio song. It comes through. Sendrowitz makes music because he is driven to do so, by himself and no-one else. Because it makes him happy. Because it makes him feel alive. What could be a more pure motivation than that? Have a listen to ‘Lost in the World’ below and see what I mean:
P.S. Beat Radio have a great song on our compilation tape in aid of global literacy. Why not grab yourself one?