Born and raised in rural East Tennessee, LB Beistad led a somewhat isolated childhood. That changed at age 10, however, once her family purchased a computer. Music had been a passion from a young age, but the limitless nature of the internet enabled her to fall fully into new worlds, full of experimentation and varied genres.
Lassos And Lasers sits in a dream space as, somewhere between the cowboys and aliens, Beistad’s vocals gently float in the uncertainty that she, and we all, inhabit at times. ‘Don’t you worry about me, and I won’t worry about you’, Beistad sings, in a way that suggests it is more an ambition than a definitive instruction. She continues with the foreboding ‘I’ll keep my lassos and lasers, I’ll shoot you first and tie you down’. Deeply atmospheric, you can sense the dread and nostalgia bubbling beneath the surface, before Beistad opens herself up, ripping off the bandaid in the song’s closing third and acknowledging her vulnerability.
With the negative consequences of modern technology all too visible these days, it is easy to forget just what a force the internet and phones can be for connection… The very thing they were originally designed to facilitate. Lassos And Lasers feels like it channels that need for connection, and LB Beistad still loves her family computer.