MWN: Do you guys think the variety and richness of the music scene in Nashville influence the sound of your music at all?
The Brook & The Bluff: I would definitely say that Nashville has helped us to grow our sound in terms of access to some ridiculous high-quality gear, and it led us to our incredibly talented friend and producer Micah Tawlks. Moving here also gave us the chance to learn from other musician friends, so we’re able to communicate better the sounds that we are going for in the studio. Living in Nashville has inspired all of us to become better live musicians. So in those aspects yes, Nashville has some fingerprints on our music, but most of the songs were actually born in Birmingham.
MWN: Oh I see…What type of music did you all grow up on? Has that type of music changed a lot? Would you say that your influences are reflective in your music?
The Brook & The Bluff:I grew up listening to music all over the map. Early on, my parents introduced me to John Prine, Emmylou Harris, The Beatles, Al Green, Stevie Wonder Steely Dan. When I started finding music on my own it was Usher, N’ Sync, John Mayer and Outkast. I think it’s inevitable that your influences find their way into your music, and in the best possible way. It isn’t like we are sitting in the studio saying “let’s do this because that’s how John Prine did it!” but I am who I am as a musician because of who I loved growing up, and I think it would be impossible to not have some of those things come through in the songs.
MWN: Very well said! When you were going into the studio to record the upcoming album, First Place. Did you have an idea of what you wanted the album to be like, sonically and lyrically?
The Brook & The Bluff: Yes, absolutely. Going in I think we all knew exactly how we wanted the album to sound. All of the songs were finished lyrically before we thought about tracking them. The themes and subjects in the lyrics were something I knew I wanted to write about since going through them 4-5 years ago.
Sonically, we knew what we were going for but not necessarily how to get there, and that is where Micah came in. I could talk for hours about how brilliant he was during the whole process, but I’ll just say it came out sounding better than any of us ever dreamed it could.
MWN: Do you write and play collectively when creating music? Or is it more like everyone brings lyrics in and all of you add the music? Or a combination? What’s the creative process?
The Brook & The Bluff: Most of the time, the songs start alone in my bedroom, with a hook or verse and some chords under it (I’m obsessed with putting chords together that stir something in my chest). Some of them started with Alec and I sitting in my Birmingham apartment and trying to make the coolest guitar lick we could on our RC-30 loop pedal, or with one of those loops that Alec showed me when we would get together to play before Fred and John joined.
Once that initial idea is out and kicking around in my mind, I will keep working on them alone until I have a finished idea I can take to everyone else, lyrics melodies and all. Kind of like a novelist taking a draft to editors.
From there the process becomes more collaborative, and everyone is responsible for their own instrument parts and we will look at that first structure and possibly rearrange some things. “Everything is Just a Mess” is a great example of our process, I’d had the entire song written lyrically and melodically and we all sat in the studio and put it together, we edited the original hook a little bit and it all fit perfectly.
MWN: How did you decide what songs made it on to the album? Were any of the tunes in First Place songs you re-worked that didn’t make it on previous work?
The Brook & The Bluff: When we first thought about doing a full-length album, around the time we released the EP, I knew that it had to be 10 songs. I didn’t know why, but 10 was what it had to be. I’d also known what I was going to be writing about for a while, and so a lot of the lyrics were already in my notebook they just weren’t fully formed songs yet.
We really only reworked one song to be on the album, and that’s the closing song “Father Mckenzie” which was originally going to close our EP. We had recorded a different version to be on the EP but decided to hold onto it, actually because I was starting to think it would perfectly close out the themes and the reflection I was going through while writing First Place.
MWN: So far, the two songs that have been released from this upcoming album, “Shelby” and “Hallways” are really beautiful. The melodies and vocals are spot on. Why did you decide to go with these two (at least so far) as the singles of the new album?
The Brook & The Bluff: We decided to go with “Shelby” because we felt there was an energy to it that was undeniable, and that it would be a perfect kind of song to come out mid-summer with the nice bouncy falsetto hook.
With “Hallways,” we wanted to show a different side of our band and really focus on our voices because singing has played an incredible role in all of our lives. Up until putting out “Hallways” there hadn’t really been a song where we could slow down, take some weird instrumentation risks (John’s percussion beating an uncovered Rhodes), and let our voices do the most work.
MWN: “Fire Round” Questions!
MWN: Your first recollection of live music?
The Brook & The Bluff:
JS: My first concert was John Prine and Emmylou Harris in Birmingham, I was maybe 6 or 7. I remember it being humid as hell, but that the music made it so that it didn’t matter.
JC: My first real concert experience was seeing Coldplay headline a music festival in Atlanta. Even though I’ve seen so many great shows since then, that experience has been hard to beat.
FL: The first show I ever went to was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They were the first band I ever listened to, so my mom thought it was a good idea to take myself and our whole family. I was star struck seeing the guy who’d made all that important music to me just standing and playing right before me.
MWN: The first album you bought?
The Brook & The Bluff:
JS: Usher – 8701 and Confessions
JC: With my own money – Only By The Night by Kings of Leon.
FL: The first album I ever got was Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers, purchased for me by my dad when I was
MWN: Your favorite love song?
The Brook & The Bluff:
JS: “I Love Every Little Thing About You” by Stevie Wonder. He is the GOAT and that song makes me smile every single time.
JC: The Luckiest by Ben Folds. This song makes me weep. It’s so perfectly written and doesn’t need anything but the piano and vocal.
FL: My current favorite is The Mother by Brandi Carlile. It’s a song about the love between a mother and daughter, and it’s so vulnerable and touching, I can hardly listen to it without tearing up.
MWN: What album makes you think of home?
The Brook & The Bluff:
JS: Right now, I’m going to go with Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. We used to listen to that on the way home from my grandparent’s house in Monroeville, Alabama because my grandfather loved Herb Alpert. That one always feels like home.
JC: When I think of “home” home, I think of high school. So I would say an album by Porcupine Tree called “Deadwing.” It’s a little heavier than the stuff I listen to now but influenced my playing a lot.
FL: Speaking of Tom Petty, Full Moon River by him always reminds me of home. It’s the first album I remember listening to, and it’s definitely the one I requested most frequently as a kid.
By: Maria Limon | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not!
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