Ben Labat builds 11-track Echolocationism around acoustic folk-rock

Ben Labat built Echolocationism, an 11-track solo album, around acoustic folk-rock after nearly three decades in music, according to a Rolling Stone feature published Nov. 8.

The record is Labat’s seventh studio LP since 2006, and he wrote 10 of its 11 songs, with only a cover of Harry Styles’ “Matilda” outside his own catalogue.

Labat, who once fronted the Louisiana alt-rock band the Terms, said the album reflects a pull toward simpler songwriting as music uses more artificial intelligence and production technology. “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 told Rolling Stone. “It felt good to just be me and an acoustic guitar.”

The album’s title comes from echolocation, the sonar-like method dolphins and other marine animals use to orient themselves. Labat, described by Rolling Stone as a one-time physics teacher, said the idea became a metaphor for change: “It’s really about finding that new path.”

Labat recorded the album himself on a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar once owned by his grandfather. He said he began with songs that had not suited full-band arrangements and built the project from there.

The Rolling Stone feature frames Echolocationism against Labat’s earlier brushes with wider exposure. The musician had a major-label deal with Capitol Records, and his songs appeared on television shows including The Real World and Jersey Shore.

His band the Terms released Small Town Computer Crash in 2006, produced by the late Grammy winner Greg Ladanyi. Rolling Stone said the album charted as a Billboard Heatseeker, but an auto accident soon cut short the band’s run.

Labat later returned to Louisiana, started a family and released four full-length records beginning in 2010 with Ben Labat & the Happy Devil. Rolling Stone said he now tours solo around a day job and coaching youth soccer.

“I wanted to write songs when I felt like writing about whatever material I wanted to write about,” Labat told Rolling Stone. “That was my creative outlet.”