Iron & Wine

Sam Beam is a singer-songwriter who has been creating music as Iron & Wine for more than a decade. Through the course of five albums, numerous EPs, singles, and the initial volumes of an archive series, Iron & Wine has captured the emotion and imagination of listeners with distinctly cinematic songs.

Iron & Wine recently released Beast Epic, its first album of new material in more than four years. “I have been and always will be fascinated by the way time asserts itself on our bodies and our hearts,” says Beam, a South Carolina native, of the album. “The Ferris wheel keeps spinning, and we’re constantly approaching, leaving, or returning to something totally unexpected or startlingly familiar. The rite of passage is an image I’ve returned to often because I feel we’re all constantly in some stage of transition.

“Beast Epic is saturated with this idea, but in a different way simply because each time I return to the theme, I’ve collected new experiences to draw from. Where the older songs painted a picture of youth moving wide-eyed into adulthood’s violent pleasures and disappointments, this collection speaks to the beauty and pain of growing up after you’ve already grown up. For me, that experience has been more generous in its gifts and darker in its tragedies.”

Watch Iron & Wine’s music video for “Call It Dreaming”: