Here’s the joyous Twin Flames from American Aquarium, an unselfconscious proclamation of love delivered through tuneful country rock. With an undercurrent of pedal steel and flourishes of keys, the sonic scene is set for BJ Barham’s loving words.
Through Twin Flames, band leader BJ Barham celebrates his loving relationship with his wife, singing: “…and it felt like we knew each other for the last couple centuries.” It’s a spirited song that reflects on a love so strong that it could last many lifetimes. He explains his inspiration: “In Plato’s The Symposium, he suggests that human beings spend their entire life seeking their ‘other half’ to complete themselves, and this song is my take on that idea. Roaming through this realm in search of the kind of love that feels like a missing part of yourself. The kind of love that feels like you’ve known that person forever. The kind of love that leaves you feeling empty and broken when you think of a life removed from them. The kind of love that I think we all yearn for.”
Twin Flames features on the brand new album, New Ways to Lose, which was just released in June via Losing Side Records / Thirty Tigers. The Shooter Jennings-produced album was recorded over ten days in Los Angeles, capturing the band’s energy and continuing their mission to do things their own way. They own their own publishing rights and answer to nobody. The result is twenty albums in twenty years that don’t follow trends or appeal to algorithms – they just do their thing, which includes releasing an album two weeks after announcing it. Barham says: “We take our hits and we get back up and we do what we do. There are three things you can count on: death, taxes, and American Aquarium showing up to your town once a year to play a rock & roll show.” Indeed, fans can catch the band on tour in the UK in November later this year.
AUK has an interview coming up with BJ Barham in the next couple of weeks.