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 Click for music events Songcraft Brighton, MA delivers a shining debut
Every once in a great while you’ll hear a new band that, in some way or another, reaffirms your love of music, your adoration for history and your admiration for artists who find splendor in the simplest of notes, phrases or progressions. Brighton, MA does just that.
Leader Matthew Kerstein started as one half of the songwriting unit in the Chicago dream-pop band Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, which built up a respectable local following after a fine response to its first record and successful shows around town. The band was inspiring, its balancing act between so many different genres was clever and dangerous, but after some time, Kerstein had enough. "It kind of came about slowly," Kerstein says of the split, over the rage of a passing firetruck outside of Lakeview’s Café Avanti, where he works during the day. "It was not just that I wanted to do my own thing, but the Choir itself wasn’t working for me anymore the way it was. I tried to make changes and, granted, those changes were that I would have a bigger role. It was a fifty-fifty split, and the two halves weren’t reconciling themselves like they should be. I thought the Choir would always move towards one sound, and we were moving farther apart." While the split was difficult, each member of Brighton, MA feels it benefited both Kerstein and his former band. "It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But I felt it got to a point where it made more sense to stay together for friendship than for musical purposes, and that didn’t make sense."
The Massachusetts-bred Kerstein formed Brighton, MA shortly after with Jim Tuerk, Devon Bryant, Sam Koentopp and Matt Priest, some of whom he played with before, even in the Choir. The band’s upcoming six-song debut, self-titled and on Loose Tooth Records, begins with "Bet You Never Thought," a heartfelt, cathartic and, at times, devastating piece of rock nostalgia, reminiscent of when Paul Westerberg and his Replacements were at the top of their game. Not only is Kerstein’s voice pitch-perfect with its slight Dylan inflections and smoker’s gruff, the added atmosphere of elegant, subdued guitars and bass presents an epic soundscape, plentiful and lush. "Good Kind of Crazy" and "Graceland ‘02" are two other highlights, the former an upbeat offshoot that benefits from Koentopp’s adventurous drumming (live, the song’s a show-stopper), and the latter a quiet-loud-quiet ballad that’ll put you down. All based, initially, in Kerstein’s acoustic guitar, the songs work both individually or in one overflowing handful—it could be the start of something great.
"The general concept still stands where the [concept is that it’s] song-oriented," Kerstein says of his approach. "I found a problem with the Choir where [the songs] were too disparate, with no cohesion whatsoever. So I wanted us to have each song, and be focused on it, but have a more cohesive sound that flows through, where we’ll have themes and things that we follow through in a couple different songs, but do different things with soundscapes and melody and anything really to make each song sound its own, but also, like, ‘This is Brighton, MA.’"
The band’s initial plan was to release a full-length record. "We put together a five-song thing that we started to give to people," says guitarist Devon Bryant, "but then, I for one, as soon as I started listening to it, I was like, ‘This is great, it’s tight, it’s everything we want to say.’" (The band added one additional track, "Horseracing.")
"That is our take on everything," Kerstein adds. "We’ll start with a plan on things and end up going with what’s right. Go with how it feels. We’ll work on tunes and if somebody doesn’t feel right about it, then it’s not right…with this, it’s like, ‘We finally said something.’"
Perhaps the most interesting facet of Brighton, MA is its ability to awe with apparent musical directness—there’s no mind-bending changes in time signature or key. "[Matt] can write a seemingly simple song, but he makes it interesting with his vocals and lyrics," says guitarist and keyboardist Jim Tuerk. Our job is to take that thing and try and make it interesting."
"My songs are simple, almost all of the time," Kerstein says. "But everything stems from the idea that we’re gonna go for feel and emotion of the mental aspects of it."
"All the clever musicality in the world doesn’t matter if the listener doesn’t immediately respond to it and get it," adds Bryant.
After an hour sitting with the band, one thing is clear—they are each here in limitless devotion to Kerstein’s songs. "There’s a few bands that influence all you guys a lot that I don’t listen to," says Matt Priest. "The main reason I’m in this band is because of [Matt] and his songs."
"That’s why we’re all in this group, because of Matt’s tunes," Bryant seconds. "When he left Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, right before their second record was gonna come out, it was surprising, but I was also quite impressed by someone who worked himself up to that point and was just like, ‘This isn’t working for me musically,’ and walked away. I was like, ‘I’m going with that guy.’"
Brighton, MA plays June 8 at Subterranean, 2011 West North, (773)278-6600, at 9:30pm. $10.
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