Ben Labat to Release Solo Album ECHOLOCATIONISM With New Single

Louisiana singer-songwriter and longtime bandleader Ben Labat continues the rollout of his forthcoming solo album Echolocationism with 'The Side Effects,' the second single from the 11-track collection arriving Oct. 23.

Nobody wants the heartbreak, regret, confusion or bruised pride. But maybe those are simply the side effects — the fine print that comes with loving people, chasing things, getting things wrong and occasionally getting something right. 'The Side Effects' is about all the unintended consequences that come with being alive.

You can spend years dreaming about the life you're going to live without realizing that you're already living it. You can let other people define you, put your good nature in the wrong hands, tell yourself 'maybe next time,' and barely notice the little things sneaking up behind you. Then one day you look around and wonder how exactly you got here.

'Maybe that's part of the deal,' Labat says. 'We spend our lives trying to shine while so much of the journey is shaped by coincidence, timing, mistakes and things we never saw coming.'

'The Side Effects' follows the album's first single, 'Set a New Course,' a searching song about direction, circumstance and the forces that shape the choices people make. Together, the songs introduce the central spirit of Echolocationism: looking back through years of experiences, mistakes, relationships and moments of uncertainty and trying to make sense of what remains.

At its core, Echolocationism is simply Labat, his voice and his grandfather's Martin D-28 acoustic guitar. 'I said, 'I'm gonna take the opposite approach. It's just gonna be me and an acoustic guitar,'' Labat says. 'There's a few overdubs, but mostly it's just me playing and singing at the same time.'

That simplicity is central to the album's character. Rather than polish away the imperfections, Labat leaves them intact: string rattles, cracked notes, shifting tempos, and the natural push and pull of a live performance. Many of the songs were recorded with Labat singing and playing simultaneously, without a metronome. The result is an intimate, roots-driven collection of alternative folk-rock songs that feels less like a studio construction than a person sitting across the room and telling you a story.

'Echolocationism is honest,' Labat says. 'In a world where so much of what we see and hear is manipulated by technology, social media and advertising, I felt it was important to release music that was, in every sense, human.'

The album's title comes from Labat's longtime fascination with acoustics and physics. A former physics teacher and control systems engineer, he has long been drawn to echolocation — the way animals use sound to navigate their surroundings and find what they're looking for. 'It's how you find things,' he says.

For Labat, songwriting serves much the same purpose. Over the years, he accumulated hundreds of unreleased songs and decades' worth of experiences. Echolocationism became an exercise in listening back, digging through the noise and finding the songs — and moments — that still carried something essential.

Elsewhere on the album, tracks including 'Islands,' 'Wild Eyes' and 'The Flame' explore connection, longing, uncertainty, and the strange emotional terrain of everyday life. The album closes with 'Matilda,' a Harry Styles song that carries a particularly personal meaning for Labat and his daughter. They used to sing it together on the drive to school, giving his recording of the song a resonance that extends well beyond the album itself. 'To make a long story, a long story short' is intentionally impossible. Because life isn't particularly interested in being summarized.

Over the course of his career, Labat has shared stages with The Revivalists, Anders Osborne, Pat Green, Better Than Ezra, Blues Traveler and Tab Benoit, and he has performed a duet with Jackson Browne. His music has also appeared in such television programs as The Ghost Whisperer, The Real World and Jersey Shore, as well as films including Mini's First Time and Middle of Nowhere.

Now based in Southeast Louisiana, Labat is bringing Echolocationism to intimate listening rooms throughout the region, with additional performances to be announced.

'The Side Effects' is out now. Echolocationism arrives Oct. 23 and is available for pre-order.

Tracklist

Set a New Course

If This Ain't Love

Islands

Wild Eyes

The Flame

The Side Effects

Once a Runner, Always a Runaway

All the Time in the World

Blueberry

Don't Feed the Fire

Monster Matilda

About Ben Labat

After 20 years writing and crafting songs steeped in love, heartbreak, trials and triumphs, Ben Labat has found his creativity to be inseparable from the life that shapes him. 'It's anything that shifts your emotion from your standard day. When life throws you a curveball, are you gonna sulk or are you gonna write about it?'

It's those shifts that make up Echolocationism, Labat's latest LP, which drops on Oct. 23. The Louisiana native built a career as a bandleader— initially with The Terms and eventually with Ben Labat & the Happy Devil, which released four full-length albums that generated worldwide exposure — but for Echolocationism, Labat sought something more intimate. He sought something honest. He sought art.

The result is an 11-track album, among them 10 original tracks that Labat recorded himself, playing his grandfather's Martin D-28 acoustic guitar along the way.

Longtime fans of Labat know he has played some of the most historic venues in American folk music — from Los Angeles' Viper Room to Nashville's Exit/In to New Orleans' House of Blues — and his songs have been featured on such TV shows as The Ghost Whisperer, The Real World and Jersey Shore, and in films like Mini's First Time and Middle of Nowhere. He's currently booking himself in listening rooms around his Southeast Louisiana home as he releases Echolocationism.

Photo Credit: Khanh Labat @ K. Labat Photography