Brighton post-punk five-piece THE BRAVE FACES have just made their debut with first single ‘In the Dark’, released last week.
Who are you?
Ed: You’re talking to Darrell Barrett, vocals, Jake Green, guitar, and me - Ed Sharp, guitar. There’s also Leo Solti on drums and Mark Nichols on bass.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
Darrell: We’re a post-punk indie band from Brighton. Ed and I shared a house for a couple of years, and I grew up playing music with Leo. Mark came to view a room in our house share – he didn’t want the room but liked the tunes and joined the band instead. We found Jake on Gumtree.
Jake: We’ve been playing together for around a year and a half now, managing to do regular rehearsals at a space called Brighton Electric. Late last year, we went to Echo Zoo studios to work with Dave Lynch on three tracks. He was recommended to us by a friend, and the sessions ended up going really well, we’re really happy with the results. For the past couple of months, we’ve mainly been working on getting everything sorted for ‘In the Dark’, so it’s nice having it out there for people to listen to.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
Ed: Our setlist is about eight or nine tracks, mostly written by Darrell a while ago. We’re into a few different sub-genres - post-punk, indie, shoegaze - and I think our music reflects that. Often, we’ll build on a driven post-punk backbone, led by Mark and Leo’s machine-like rhythms. We spend a lot of time tinkering with our guitar pedals to get the right sound. Jake and I tend to alternate between textures, melodies and effects when we play. You can probably hear the influence of Ian Curtis and Ian McCulloch in Darrell’s voice - I think it works well, it’s like glass. I think it’s important to aim to create catchy songs - I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘pop’, whatever that means - but it’s about striking the right balance between self-indulgence and immediacy. Bands like The Horrors, Japanese Breakfast and The Maccabees tend to do that really well.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
Darrell: The tracks come from a variety of things really - a riff, a lyric, a drum beat. If it's an instrumental thing, I sit with it on Logic for a while layering it up and seeing if any new sections come naturally. If it's a vocal thing, I write down what I have on paper and work out what I'm trying to say, then chuck in words and phrases that fit. Once I have a draft, I'll bounce it out and listen to it obsessively for a day on repeat to see what needs doing. At this stage of our five-day music career, the most important part to me is that it feels natural and isn't overthought. I just wanna put out music that feels good, and not worry about clever songwriting - maybe that will come later. That being said though, the songs all mean something and aren't just haphazardly chucked together.
Tell us a little about your new single.
Ed: ‘In the Dark’ is our debut, but the song’s part of a trio - and they all feel quite different from each other. This song explores the idea of power within a relationship, with one person struggling to maintain the balance of power in their favour. One of my favourite lyrics that Darrell’s written is in this song: “my morals slipped away from me / I don’t want no sympathy from you / couldn’t change me if you tried”. The title, ‘In the Dark’, refers to keeping someone oblivious. It’s kinda bleak and desperate - like they’re switching between tactics, almost. Music is subjective though, so that’s just my take on it.
Obviously at this time we won't be able to catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows, but can you tell us what you may have pencilled in otherwise for the rest of the year?
Darrell: Writing. Eating. Isolating. Digital gigging. Everyone seems to be really enjoying the whole live stream thing at the moment, so we thought we would do our bit to keep everyone entertained/sane in these strange times. I'm gonna be streaming stripped back live sets to various platforms - YouTube, Facebook, Instagram - which will hopefully give people a feel for the songs and a place to have a chat and enjoy some reverb-drenched live music.
Where can we hear more of your music?
Jake: This is our first single so far, so that’s all that’s available for now. We do have two more singles in the bag, ‘It Takes a While’ and ‘Lots of Nights Out’, which we’ll be releasing this year. You can hear ‘In the Dark’ on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and all the others. Subscribe to all our stuff if you want to hear the next couple of tracks. We’ve already shot and edited a music video for ‘In the Dark’, so we’ll be releasing that in the coming weeks.
What social media platforms can we find you on?
You can find THE BRAVE FACES on:
Website // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
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