Quality Americana

Today we look at “My Angel,” the debut release from Beatrix for New Life Recording Company. It’s a wonderful folk offering from her sophomore album We Swallowed the Sky.

Beatrix is the stage name for Arielle Kasnetz, who grew up in New Jersey just outside of New York. She’s now based in Los Angeles. 

“I was living in New York before I moved to L.A. for about four months,” Beatrix said. “It was way too chaotic for me. I was kind of searching for this singer songwriter scene and I didn’t really find it in New York. There was a whole scene out here and I wanted to be a part of that energy.” 

Beatrix took a solo road trip across the country that she described as “one of the best weeks of (her) life.” She took over a room from a friend that was moving out of LA at the time and started finding her way in the music scene. 

“I kind of felt like this biblical kind of journey out west,” Beatrix said. “I remember stopping at the Grand Canyon and I sat over the rim of it for like fifteen minutes in silence and I just felt really free and excited for what was about to happen. It was just an epic trip.” 

Finding Guitar

Beatrix started singing in her earliest years, just as she was learning to talk. She joined the school choir where she went to state and national competitions. Her plan outside of high school was to go to medical school.

“Vanderbilt had a really great pre-med program and I thought ‘well if I just audition for the music school, maybe they’ll let me in and then I’ll just switch my major after a semester,” Beatrix said. “I ended up getting like a D in chemistry and really excelling in my music courses.” 

She started songwriting after graduation back in New Jersey and picked up a guitar she had received as a birthday gift back in her younger days. 

“I was really into R and B at that time,” Beatrix said. “Some of the early stuff that I was writing was so not like what I’m writing now at all. I don’t really consider that the Beatrix project until I moved to L.A. That’s when I wrote the first song that felt like me. That’s when I started forming this other identity.”

Beatrix described the music scene in L.A. as “vibrant.” She’s been influenced by artists like Neil Young from an early age and the artists she was around in Nashville. Much of the album focuses on her time spent in a relationship she had in Tennessee. 

My Angel

“It’s hard sometimes to think back on the writing process because it really happened so in a flash,” Beatrix said. “It feels like sort of an unconscious or subconscious part of my mind, but I wrote that song about losing a great love of your life.”

“My Angel” also touches on her parents divorce and how they still have shown love for each other after such a difficult process. 

“It’s about love and loss and how love remains with us,” Beatrix said. 

The single was recorded at Lucy’s Meat Market in East L.A. and produced by Philip Etherington. 

“We wanted to try to play the whole thing live,” Beatrix said. “It was just such a magical experience. I had never had the budget before to get a studio and be able to play with a whole band live. One of the best days of my life.”

Support the Artist

More information about Beatrix can be found here.

Photo by Makayla Keasler.

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