“The Art Of Letting Go”

   A three minute pop song may not be the first place you’d search to find a valuable life lesson. Happily, that is exactly what B.C.-based singer/songwriter/producer Michael Behm provides on his compelling new single, “The Art Of Letting Go.”

   Initially, the listener is seduced by the gently haunting melody and Behm’s convincingly plaintive voice (the female-sounding backing vocals are actually him in falsetto), shimmering guitar playing, and crisp production. Gradually, the significance of the refrain - “the hardest part to learn is the art of letting go” - takes hold, just as its creator intended.

   “I really believe that when you surrender to everything, your music, your love, your life, then you can unconditionally engage in them,” Behm explains with typical eloquence. “It’s about disengaging from your own sense of importance, and then becoming capable of having fun. People may think I am referring to a relationship, and it is based on one, your relationship to yourself.”

   With “The Art Of Letting Go,” Behm has created the pop equivalent of a Zen koan, a concise statement that enables the listener (or reader) to focus on an important truth. He also successfully tackled another philosophical theme with a popular earlier track, “High Power,” and Michael, a voracious reader, describes his approach to lyric writing as “taking ideas that great minds present to you and finding meanings in some shape or form.”

   His knack for framing these thoughts in easily accessible and highly melodic pop-rock songs is Michael Behm’s calling card. “The Art Of Letting Go” is the title track of his upcoming fourth album, a collection of new songs guaranteed to stimulate the brain while pleasing the ears.

   This new material has already found a welcoming audience in a seemingly unlikely locale, the Dominican Republic. You see, the multi-faceted Behm is also a successful entrepreneur, one who built and ran a very popular bar/nightclub, The Voodoo Lounge, in the Caribbean for the past five years.

   Last year, he wrote a song called “My Banana Republic,” a look at “a sunny place for shady people.” Michael donated it to a local radio station in the Dominican as part of a fundraising drive to help the area’s schoolchildren, and a live simulcast to premiere the song drew a capacity crowd.

   Now, via a song you’ll definitely find very difficult to let go, it’s our turn to be exposed to the manifold talents of Michael Behm.