Beulah Rue creates ethereal post-rock with dark/dream pop textures.
Made up of vocalist Kelly Kroeker, Guitarist Kevin Filter, Drummer Brad Arsznov and Bassist Mark Bassett ,the band released its fourth EP last month with plans for more music to be released soon.
I caught up with the group to talk about their early musical memories, how they got together and the making of the new record “Like It Always Does”.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as kids and what artist or band did you all enjoy the most?
Kevin-Music conjures strong memories of childhood and adolescence for us all, shapes who we are individually, and brings us all together. I grew up on hair metal and pop music but discovered punk and alternative music as a teen. The most impactful music for me, though, was Midwest emo (Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, and Texas is the Reason). And it still makes an impact…I also love bands like The Cure and others that fall in more the shoegaze/post-rock/gothic genres, although I never really listened to them growing up.
Kelly-Cyndi Lauper had a huge impact on me. I wanted to be her so bad. My tastes have varied a lot throughout my life, but darker styles and artists draw me in the most.
Mark-I was all over the place! I loved movie soundtracks and what is considered “Yacht Rock” these days, but also loved 80’s metal (hair, thrash, heavy, etc) due to having an older brother who discovered the greatness of Headbangers Ball before I did. I was always drawn to bands like Pantera, Anthrax, Iron Maiden but I also had a strong appreciation for Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis & the News, Christopher Cross, Donald Fagen. My (Brad) earliest exposure was sitting with headphones on in front of my parent’s stereo listening to their records. I remember my brother gave me Devo’s ‘Whip It’ and The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’ 7-inch singles in like ’89. In late elementary school my best friend, Nick, and I would share mixtapes back and forth and now some thirty years later we still share music, so it really is constantly making an impact. I can pick any grade in school and tell you the albums that I associate with them, like 5th grade was the Descendents ‘Somery,’ 8th was The Smith’s ‘Louder than bombs,’ and 10th was Jawbreaker’s ‘Bivouac.’ I think having that interweaving connection of moments and music is something we can all relate too.
CMM-How did the band form and start writing songs and developing your own sound?
Brad-We never decided that we were going to sound like any genre. And over the years our sound has developed into something that is the collective us. Kevin and I began playing and writing together at my place and we let it evolve organically. We played some shows as an instrumental two-piece under the name Beulah Rue in 2017 and over time it grew. Kelly and Jay joined in late fall 2018 and then Mark joined on in fall 2024. It’s always been a slow burn approach. Song writing typically starts with an idea from one of us and then everyone else contributes to the parts and arrangements. For some time, Kevin and I ran ideas as starting points for parts. Since Mark joined, ideas are coming out of drum and bass parts as foundations too. Kelly is constantly writing lyrics and coming up with song ideas.
Kelly-Writing lyrics has to feel organic and meaningful to me, so I really like to immerse myself in whatever we’re working on before I commit words to anything. Until then, I make “sound shapes” as placeholders for actual words.
Mark-I had the unique experience of being a fan before I was in the band. I was in a few other bands around town playing guitar (sometimes vocals), and was in a band called “Cicada Killer” with Kevin on bass. Our two bands shared a practice space for a while. I always loved the music Beulah Rue was creating and I really connected to the music and could feel the songs and where they were going. Then came a time that they needed a fill-in bass player for some shows they had lined up. I jumped at the chance to get back to playing bass and the fit was right. Our sound really comes from the way we collaborate on ideas and arrangements.
CMM-The group recently released a pair of E.P. ‘s called “Like It Always Does” and “You Said”. What was the writing and recording process like for those and were there any particular pieces of gear you used to get the sound you were looking for?
We are always writing and over the years have created lots of songs. The recent releases of “You Said” and “Like It Always Does” are selected songs from that collection. There are other completed songs in various stages of recording. We all love the DIY community-oriented approach to recording and production. We do it ourselves in our rehearsal space. For the recent EPs, we tracked most of the drums in late spring and then everyone else tracked their parts a couple weeks before each release.
In terms of our sound, we seem to end up evoking slightly hazy melancholic or introspective imagery and textures. We all share the emphasis on mood, not just songwriting structure. The gear we use is part of the story. Kevin currently plays a Fender Jazzmaster into a Line 6 Helix with two-amp signal paths, one wet and one dry. His guitar has a Roland synth pickup mounted to run a Roland GR-33 guitar synth system that creates most all the string pad tones that underlies many of our songs. So, the synth tones on the recording are also part of the live guitar performance. Kelly uses an MXL V250 condenser microphone and a Boss VE-20 vocal effects pedal. She uses the pedal for adding in reverb and will also use it for harmonizing live. For bass, Mark created presets built into a Line 6 PodGo Bass pedal. For drums, Brad uses an older Yamaha Recording Custom or Beech Custom with a blend of darker Zildjian cymbals to create an underlying wash to swell with the music.
CMM-If the band could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
Kelly-I could imagine writing something for some kind of rebellious, coming-of-age type movie. Or something dystopian and gritty.
Mark-Our brand of music is perfect for movie scores or soundtracks…something dark, moody…Alex Proyas or Alfonso Cuaron.
Kevin-We would LOVE to be involved in a film score or soundtrack. The film would definitely be something dark and dramatic…maybe with a supernatural element to it.
Brad-I agree and will echo the others; our sound leans towards brooding atmosphere and cinematic moods.
CMM-Anything coming up?
Kevin-We’re kind of terrible about booking our shows. We run in hot and cold spells and don’t have much planned at the moment. Maybe we need a manager or something. We love being invited onto shows with noisy/moody bands around Minnesota and nearby areas. We’ve had some great shows in Mankato, up in the cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul), around southern Minnesota, and South Dakota (Sioux Falls). A mini-tour has been discussed for a few years, but nothing has come together yet.
We plan to release at least one more EP in the near future using more songs that Brad tracked on drums late last spring and then we’ll decide how we want to do future releases. We still have enough songs for a full-length album after the next EP, so that is a possibility within the next year or two. The DIY ethos and slow-burn have definitely been our styles. Being based in southern Minnesota gives us the grounding of being a part of regional indie-music culture rather than a big-city ‘scene,’ but we’re open to getting others involved in our music recording and release process. We’re just glad to finally be getting music out at a decent rate after five years between our first and second EPs. We love doing this and we will continue to create together and share with others.
And much love to everyone that has come out to our shows and to the bands we’ve played with over the years. And to Dave at CMM for giving us this moment to share with you.
