BJ Barham from American Aquarium came through In Your Ear studios to talk about and play songs from their new record, Chicamacomico.
Barham said that the title track confronts a miscarriage that he and his wife experienced years ago: “I decided to write this kind of story about a couple that goes on a beach trip to try to reconnect, and shed that blame and shame that comes with a miscarriage. It’s hard on both sides. Communication breaks down. There’s this weird unspoken gap in your relationship and I wanted to write about the trouble.”
“The First Year” follows the first full year after the death of his mother on New Year’s Eve in 2019. “And then every holiday that comes after that. The Thanksgiving where there’s an empty seat at the table and nobody wants to talk about it,” Barham said. “All of that kind of shaped into this song about that first year of losing someone that is instrumental to your life.”
Chicamacomico, American Aquarium’s ninth studio album, is out now on Losing Side Records. You can watch and listen to the full In-Studio Session below.
