Why Bonnie – Fast (Demo)

This Friday, Why Bonnie — the Texas-bred, NYC-based project of Blair Howerton — will release their new EP, The Bedroom, via Fire Talk Records.

The Bedroom collects three newly-recorded acoustic reworks, including the previously-shared “Fake Out – Bedroom Version” and “Headlight Sun – Bedroom Version”, which were written, played and recorded in Howerton’s Brooklyn bedroom. Today, Why Bonnie present The Bedroom’s final advance single — and the lone new composition to appear on the EP’s tracklist — “Fast – Demo.”

Anchored by melancholic acoustic guitar and Howerton’s evocative voice, “Fast (Demo)” offers a glimpse at Howerton’s intimate writing process. “Talked to my friend today, she told me that’s the way I should look at things,” Howerton confesses atop a bed of layered vocals, “My eyes are deceiving me.”

 Of the single, Howerton adds: “I wrote this song over 5 years ago when I moved to New York. At that time, I was equal parts excited and terrified by my new life and was grappling with the rapid change. I’ve always loved this song and recording, but never found a place for it on an album. I’m glad it’s finally found a home on this EP with other recordings also made at home in my lonesome.”

With Wish on the Bone, Howerton had no interest in adhering to genre standards. Alongside bandmates Chance Williams and Josh Malett, the trio fleshed out songs with help from Jonathan Schenke, who co-produced Wish on the Bone alongside Howerton. “We were trying on musical hats,” Howerton says, laughing. “There’s still some country on this record, but I wasn’t thinking about sticking to one thing. Personal experience of learning to be bolder and more assertive and trusting myself has carried over into my music. I’m not afraid to take risks.” Although Wish on the Bone is untethered from the particulars of landscape or genre, its fixation on what it might look like to lead an authentic life grounds the record in place. “I’ve changed since [90 in November], and I trust that I’ll probably continue to change,” Howerton says. “Maybe I won’t be the same person entirely two years from now.”

Though Howerton may change, her convictions are steadfast, as is her sense of moral responsibility. “These songs were written out of hope for a better future. I’m not naïve, the world is fucked up, but I think you can radically accept that while still believing it’s possible to change things,” Howerton says. “Hope, to me, is strength.”

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