For Josh Radnor and Ben Lee, making music as a tandem is the bonus of being buds. The indie-folk duo, who released an album as Radnor and Lee in 2017, are back with a second album titled Golden State.
Both Radnor, who starred on How I Met Your Mother and features on Amazon’s Hunters, and Lee, who constantly churns out albums and musicals, see this project as a fun side project. That included a notable tour stop in Brazil in January 2018 that led to the genesis of their new album.
“Whether that’s going to Brazil or when to make a record, we do what seems fun,” Lee said.
“Some of it is hard logistically to juggle,” Radnor added. “But when we were in Brazil something shifted. We just wanted to do more of it and on this new batch of songs, we found just the right producer in Justin Stanley to work on it.”
And it serves them both well. As two guys over 40 with busy lives, there wasn’t any urgency for them to hurry up and make another album. Instead, they had some time to figure out what songs and themes worked for this particular album.