Ben Labat has been on the verge of stardom. He had a major-label deal with Capitol Records, and his music has been featured in zeitgeist television shows from The Real World to Jersey Shore . But after a career that spans nearly three decades, the Louisiana native has found himself most comfortable when he’s processing his own life through writing and singing folk-rock tunes.
Labat says that the more music — aided by artificial intelligence and technology — has moved away from simple approaches to lyrics and melodies, the more he’s been drawn back to them.
“I like the reverse of AI and the use of technology, and all the wild and crazy things you can do with it in film and writing and graphic design and music” Labat tells Rolling Stone . “It felt good to just be me and an acoustic guitar.”
But Labat did find at least some inspiration in science for his new album Echolocationism . A one-time physics teacher, he’s fascinated by the sonar-like senses that marine animals like dolphins use to navigate the open ocean — called “echolocation” (hence the title of his album). Echolocationism is his seventh studio LP since 2006, and he wrote 10 of the 11 tracks himself. Only a cover of Harry S...