Brightest Young Things

Are you getting sick of us talking about Bluebrain yet? Tough tits, here is yet another feature coming your way to get you horny for the big shindig tonight night:

BYT Presents:
Bluebrain: Album Release Party / Live Performance
Thur, March 18th, 9pm
18+, $5
First official live concert at the new U St Music Hall
1115 U St NW
With Molly from Ponytail and Empath of BYT Rave Camp on the decks
+ Smirnoff Bluebrain drink special @ $7, yummy
BUY TIX: http://www.ticketalternative.com/Events/10750.aspx

Check out Part 1, Bluebrain interviews Will Eastman here.

Will Eastman: You have a new record. Tell me about it. What's your favorite track?

Bluebrain: It's called 'Soft Power' and we recorded it at our home studio last year. We put out an EP called 'Cult Following' in the Fall but this is our first full-length. We're excited to finally get it out there. I don't really have a favorite track. They are all my special children.

WE: Why did you choose the name Bluebrain?

B: We named it after a project to recreate the human brain that's been going on for a while now. I get Google alerts in my inbox when anyone writes about either us or them (9 out of 10 times its them) so I get to track the process of artificial intelligence as well as what blogs are writing about us. We used to be in a band called The Epochs which people misspelled every possible way you can imagine. This time, we decided to try and avoid that so we picked something a bit easier to sound out.

WE: You each perform behind custom-made podiums outfitted with an array of different microphones. Is this a commentary on DC? What's the story there?

B: Ha! Yeah, I guess it it sort of makes sense! We wanted to figure out a different way to house our electronics rather than be situated behind a long table. They are sort of ridiculous, though, in that they are by far the heaviest piece of gear we own. If either of us were any good at carpentry we'd have constructed collapsable ones by now.

WE: You're from DC, spent some time away, then moved back. What brought you back?

B: Yeah. We grew up here but we'd lived in New York since we were 18 with a brief stint in Seatlle. At some point we just decided it made sense to come back to where we grew up. We missed our parents and jumbo slices. At first, we weren't sure if we could start over playing music in a city we've really loved it. There's so much talent and energy coming out of this city right now and we're really happy to be around for it.

WE: You and Hays are brothers. Any Gallagher brothers-style fist fights ever erupt? Be honest.

B: Yeah. Even though we've been recording together for years, it is always, always a trying process. There's still a great deal of insecurity that comes with sharing your music with another person that, even at the earliest stage of writing and recording together, we have to be careful. That's largely because we know exactly how to get a rise out of one another and, when things get tense, we know just how to push the right buttons and escalate a situation. Hopefully we'll get better and kinder with age.

WE: How do the two of you divide song writing and production duties?

B: We both write our own songs and then share what we have and let the other tear it apart, start over, etc. Usually if the other is excited about it we'll see it through to completion, otherwise it becomes an orphan. And there are many of those. It's easy to lose perspective about your own work so having another opinion is really valuable. Hays handles almost all the recording duties. He's an incredible engineer, producer, mixer and remixer. He just got back from recording a band in Florida called Young Brother.

WE: You use a variety of video projections in your performances. What's your take on the importance of visuals to the Bluebrain experience?

B: I think we'd be too boring without them! I guess that's the nature of an electronic-based show, you sort of have to think creatively about how to make the show visually interesting since we can't really convey what we're doing (nor would anyone really care). I saw Modeselektor not too long ago and they had fantastic visuals which really elevated the energy of the show, despite them being behind laptop computers the entire time. For us, after playing in bands for years and just relying on the energy of all of us on stage, it's fun to get to experiment with using a new parameter like video content.

WE: Who do you have musical crushes on in the DC?

B: There's so much coming out of this city right now, it's tough to pick. Matt Hemerlein I was just introduced to a few weeks ago and happened to catch his show at Fort Awesome. Really fantastic. A lot of the stuff on Sockets Records is really great too. Of course, Outputmessage, is someone we look up to and admire greatly what he's doing. There's a lot of DC bands that I haven't seen live yet that we have the honor of playing with at SXSW this weekend. US Royalty is one that I'm excited to finally see play. I think it's pretty much common knowledge that those guys are destined for a much bigger audience in the near future.

WE: If you could work with anyone in the game right now, who would it be and why?

B: We wanted to get Van Dyke Parks to do the strings on this last record. We even emailed back and forth with him but ultimately he cost actual money and we couldn't really pay him anything. Hopefully someday we can.

WE: You guys did an awesome boom box project at Dupont Circle. How did that idea come about and what do you have planned next?

B: I wish I could take credit for the idea, but others like Phil Kline have been doing it for years. I went to one of the gatherings he did in New York and it was one of the most special experiences of my life. I wanted other people to get to do something like that and also try and compose something with Hays for that sort of unconventional setting.

We have another one in the works for the Cherry Blossom festival that we'll announce next week. This time around, though, we've asked other people to help compose the music. I couldn't be more excited about the people we have contributing to it.

WE: How are you going to smash U Street Music Hall into a million pieces on Thursday night? Of course I mean metaphorically, please. The paint is still drying.

B: Someone sent me a link to a video of a band called Great White that played a show a few years back with awesome pyrotechnics. I was in a rush so I didn't get to see how it ended, but we're hoping to replicate that sort of energy. (Too soon?)