INTERVIEW: BRDN “Dark Clouds Into Music”

BRDN have been a regular guest on this website recently. First with “Unparalleled”, and then with “Havoc”. If you recall these two singles, the below interview will come to you as no surprise. I have been enchanted by the vibe produced by BRDN from the first moment I have heard their music. Dark, mysterious, poetic. And now the time has come for a conversation about their second EP. Titled “Maybe in Another Life”, it has rooted itself in an evolving, and specific premise. Starting with the concept that love does not end, so much as it branches. Following this train of thought suggests, rightfully so, that in the multiple universe of human emotions love turns into new versions of things which are never quite finished. Talking about poetry and sound, right? Listening to “Maybe in Another Life” is a puzzle which spontaneously organises its pieces. It does not provide any easy answers, though. Instead, it invites the listener to explore its intricate maze and immerse. Immerse with me then, if you dare. The rewards will be endless. This is a deep dive into the world of BRDN, with its emotional ups and downs, and the reality behind every sound embedded in their music.

BARTEK: Your Spotify profile provides one sentence of a description only: “But doctor… I am Pagliacci” – which is in reference to the “sad clown paradox”. What is the story behind this choice to represent your music project?

RICK PINES: Aw man, toughy for the start. Let’s put it like this: There’s both an overwhelming joy of life in me, as there is some all-devouring sadness. To protect the folks around me from the latter part, I kinda just push it down as much as I can and clown around. Figuring stuff out on my own, not to bother someone, has become my general MO over the last years and while it comes with some undeniable advantages, sometimes the sadness HAS to come out – those are the moments I tend to start writing and turn the dark clouds into music.

How did BRDN come to existence in its current form, as a duo?

Sofy & I have been friends for years and we actually had another project, an indie-folk band, back in the day. That project fell apart one day and some years later I started BRDN as a solo-project. When it was time to think about how BRDN could exist in a live context, I just knew Sofy was the perfect – and only – person for the job. Since then, the production and writing process has become much more of a back and forth between us, which I think elevates our new material.

We did play some shows with a drummer, but it’s logistically tough for a myriad of reasons, where live shows are hard to sustain as it is. Plus: We are yet to find a perfect fit, it’s our curse.

You started releasing music back in 2022. What prompted you to follow the independent route?

Honestly, if the right label would come knocking, I’d probably sign in an instant…That being said, we went indie because we wanted to continue making art, following our own rules and our own timing. Apart from funding though – which would be nice – we can proudly say that we don’t need a label as we can cover all roles a (small) label would have, between our small BRDN family.

What would you say are the biggest obstacles to being an independent artist in our current times?

For us, one of the bigger obstacles would be funding. The way we produce (like in a real studio, hiring a drummer) is quite expensive and it’s only sustainable by simultaneously working a ‘real’ job, which in return takes a lot of time and energy away from the music…vicious circle.

Apart from that, I try to not dwell too much in the fear of AI and I am 100 % convinced that real music, real concerts, real people, will always have a place in the world. Also, I feel there’s already a shift noticeable in the world – people are getting ready to turn away from their phones and live life again.

That being said, we would love to spend less time on optimizing social media content and actually writing new songs, but at the same time we cherish the chance that – in this day and age – we can quite easily add a visual world to our tracks. All we need is some elbow grease, amazing friends and a tiny budget.

Now that you have released your latest EP, when you look back on your previous singles, which one of them stands out to you personally?

The crown easily goes to ‘To Wait’. Without any (major) marketing, the song slowly started climbing in the algo over the last few years, sitting now at just around 40k streams on Spotify (which is a lot for us). It’s sometimes insane to think that around 60 strangers around the world listen to this song we made… Especially considering it was the second demo I wrote for this project.

What is the backstory behind “Maybe in Another Life” in the context of its concept – the five branches of love?

I think since writing the promo until now, I came up with a better angle: Each song represents a reason why some connections (mainly relationships) might work in another life, but surely can’t in this one. It’s less assigning blame, as it’s some sort of bittersweet realization. Then again, I learned that love can manifest in a variety of ways, not only the romantic one, so I guess some of the songs can be seen as a testimony to that.

Your inspirations are very eclectic. From HVOB, to Massive Attack, to Madonna. How did you work those inspirations into the fabric of your sound and the compositions from the EP?

Above all, we are massive music heads and listen to a variety of the genres – both digitally and at concerts and as per usual, each of those songs and artists left a mark on us that influenced our artistic and musical choice. In some cases (“Havoc”), the influences are hearable somewhat intentionally in many other cases, we weren’t even aware of some influences until way later in the production process (if at all). The congas in Havoc and Toque for example, are defo grounded in what is arguably the second-best Madonna track: “La Isla Bonita”. (What a banger). Pop music at its core (and music in general I guess), can be seen as a continuous loop of artists influencing other artists and we are just one of the many manifestations of that.

The best thing about being genre fluid though is that we can easily keep live shows interesting and shift between vibe and genre.

Production-wise, you are focused on being “suspended” between what’s organic and what’s electronic to the point of making it your musical statement. How did you approach this when recording the new material for the EP?

In almost all cases, the production of a song goes as follows:

I come up with an idea and try to finish as much of the structure as possible. At this point the main beat and instrumentation are pretty much locked. We then take those demos to the rehearsal room and work on the vocals and backing vocals. We take our time with this step. Also, we might have to finish some of the lyrics sometimes (Havoc for example was only half finished and we wrote the whole beginning part together).

The next step is the actual production. I take what we have to my good friend over at Interface2 Studios, where we finish the production by recording the missing parts (mainly drums and some synths) and replace some of my software synths with actual synths (mainly Moog Sub37 and Microfreak). We keep some of my VST demo tracks (shout out Arturia – Pigments is insane. I use it all over my production.

We then record the vocals and backing vocals in as much time as we needed and finally, Julia (same studio friend) and I sit down to mix & master the tracks together. This EP was the first time that we did the whole mixing process together and I think it’s hearable in the final tracks. I can be somewhat of a perfectionist, so this was perfect to get everything just right.

Your arrangement choices also feel focused and, naturally, deliberate. Could you tell me more about those choices, and how they shaped the final sound design of “Maybe in Another Life”?

More often than not, my sound design choices are happy little accidents. When I sit down to produce or write I mostly feel some heaviness, that guides me through the production. The further we go into a song, the more deliberate our choices become, but at the start of each one, it was always a combination of instinct, emotional dissonance and the pure joy of creating on an empty canvas.

What is the story behind including Italian as part of your lyrics?

When we were working on “Havoc”, there was something missing in the middle part, so we started brainstorming some ideas. All of the sudden Sofy pulled out her phone and started reading one of her favourite poems (“Ah, Giovinezza” by Giorgio Caproni) over the part. It was perfect, like it was written exactly for that. We then only had to contact the poet’s estate and the publishing house, who both, insanely enough, gave us their blessing.

The Spanish lyrics, in comparison, came out of my pen. Writing in a language I haven’t fully mastered gives me some sort of physical disconnection, behind which I can hide my deepest emotions.

Which song from the EP is your personal highlight?

Another tough one, because I genuinely love all 5 songs, so much so that I can still listen to them regularly after spending so much time with each of them. The crown has to go to either “Toque, Tortura” or “Ink”, specifically the ending parts. The lyrics are very personal and confessional and it was therapeutic to me, to let it all out onto paper. Also, in the case something would happen to me, they can work as a farewell letter 🙂

Let’s talk about the visual side of BRDN. What can you tell me about this aspect, your plans in this regard, and the way the video content is intended to fit in your overall story-telling?

The challenge for the visuals was to combine the essence of the songs into a vibey imagery that underlines the emotional concepts of the EP – while working with basically 0 budget. Luckily, we have a bunch of very talented and artsy friends, who were down to cook something together. We came up with this concept of a never-ending cycle, where each song gets its own music video. Each of those parts put together form a surreal and vague storyline, with no clear beginning or ending.

Finally, what are the next steps for BRDN in terms of the EP promotion, live shows, etc.?

We’re gonna release the missing music videos over the next few months and try to keep the ball rolling. So many artists (us included), post their songs to the socials once and then move one and we finally want to move on from that by giving this EP as much time as it needs to be discovered. We have a couple more songs ready for release and a huuuuge pile of demos that are waiting to be finished. That being said, I feel incredibly drained (mostly from the marketing side of things, not the actual song writing) and it is clearly necessary to take a small step back and focus on my health and paying rent.

There are two smaller shows scheduled for late summer and we are now looking at some options to go play some major cities (Paris, London, Munich, Prague…) in fall or spring.

Photos: Cover art & Édipo

More info: https://www.instagram.com/imabrdn