8 Questions With: A Brief Smile

If you recall, a few weeks back I fell in love with A Brief Smile. I figured an interview was the next logical progression of getting to know the band a little better, after familiarizing myself with their wonderful R.E.S.T. EP. I rounded up 8 questions and here's what the guys had to say.

1. MySpace - the friend or the enemy?

Louie (drums): Myspace is our friend. There’s a lot of amazing music on myspace that will forever be under the radar. Myspace is a fantasy come true for all
those amazing musicians with brilliant ideas who lack the motivation and
power to get up and find other musicians to play with and promote their
stuff. Someone played me this Dan Bryk guy he had found on Myspace,
amazing stuff that will probably never be heard by more than a few
hundred people. What a thought, all these basement dwellers are
spilling their ideas onto the internet, creating this pool of musical
innovation for everyone to tap. It’s kind of like the Wilco song “Late
Greats” ‐ the best band that you’ll never hear on the radio—now they’re
on Myspace.

John (bass): I hate and love myspace's music community for one reason. It allows anyone on the planet with a computer and half a brain to put music out there for the 'world' to see. This can be cool because some really good unsigned artists are available for you to look up and get information on (webspace is otherwise pretty expensive) but for the most part, the community is full of hack losers clinging to a dream and a false sense of empowerment that comes from thinking the world wide myspace population is going to hear and love your music.

2. Bigger influence - My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai or Jesus & The Mary Chain?

Jared (keys): i don't really listen to jesus & the mary chain that much but i would imagine that a lot of bands i listen to tried to sound like them, like slowdive, the raveonettes (or mogwai and mbv for that matter). so maybe thats sort of an indirect influence. i love my bloody valentine. isn't anything and loveless probably are a bigger influence than any mogwai record. i did see mogwai live once, but never would've been able to see mbv live because i was too young then. i suppose we try to make sounds like mogwai a lot, and sometimes try to do that sort of slow-build dynamic thing they do. to me, the answer to the question is my bloody valentine though...i really like both of those bands though.

Louie (drums): We listen to a lot more My Bloody Valentine than Mogwai or Jesus and the Mary Chain. We like it all, but we revere Kevin Shields.

John (bass): I like the jesus and mary chain best. Their guitar sound on you trip me up and upside down is so sharp and cool. Like a worm wrapped in barbwire or something. Or a super powerful killer robot shooting magnetic death beams into your eyeballs.

3. You can pick 3 bands, what's your dream line-up to open for? Bands can be disbanded or still kicking around.

DL (vocals/guitar): This is a really difficult question... 
 1. Spiritualized - With the lineup from Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, before he fired those guys. 
 2. Nirvana - playing In Utero 
 3. Radiohead

Jared (keys): i'd like to open for blur in the early or mid 1990s, the talking heads and maybe the flaming lips if they let us use some of the confetti and have the people in animals costumes on the side of the stage...i doubt they'd let us though, but i guess i'd still like to open for them. in fact, i'd be interested in opening for any artist i like, say, for example, david bowie, the beatles or emily haines cuz she's hot.

Garrett (guitar): Since I can choose the impossible: Jeff Buckley, Pink Floyd (pre Dark Side), and yes, Led Zeppelin

4. What's your favorite infomercial?

John (bass): The one with the flying and the guys jumping over walls with rope and stuff where they stand on mountains in awesome uniforms and put swords in front of their faces. It was really cool looking and the guys were all super hot.

Garrett (guitar): The one with Chef Tony ‐ I believe the company name is Miracle Blade. They put Cutco to shame ‐ Chef Tony can cut through pure marble and even steel without any effort. The knives never dull either...... you should see what they can do to the skin of a tomato......

5. Dream venue? Best venue you've played at already.

Garrett (guitar): The Berklee Performance Center in Boston. I saw Sigur Rós perform there in 2002 which was one of my most astonishing concert experiences, much due to the intimacy of the venue. My favorite one we’ve played at is Bowery.

DL (vocals/guitar): Either Mars or Pompeii. Mercury Lounge is definitely my favorite of the venues we have played at. The sound there is really great both on and off stage.

Jared (keys): my favorite venue that we've played is mercury lounge. the soundguy was awesome! bowery ballroom was amazing. i liked rothko a lot too, but its gone :(. dream venue: playing in the taj mahal with a variable reverb decay time, oh, and it has to be free to get in and free airfare to get there.

6. Anyone we should keep our ears out for that hasn't gotten the buzz they rightfully deserve?

John (bass): THE WIZ KIDZ!!! THE WIZ KIDZ!!! THE WIZ KIDZ!!! Look them up on myspace (so it is good for something..). they're out of boston and fucking amazing. Magical old men making music. I'm in love with them and have been since they started. Oh, and Thank You Music. It's acoustic but really really really really good stuff.

DL (vocals/guitar): The Wrens (who have been around forever), Autolux (who haven't been around forever)

7. Beverage of choice?

John (bass): lactaid milk with gin. Or water. I can't decide.

Jared (keys): strawberry fribble and coffee.

8. Any parting words? What's on the horizon for A Brief Smile?

John (bass): Well, I think we're opening for The Stills at one of their bowery ballroom dates in early December. We're working on a new ep with seven (maybe 8…………) new songs written by various members of the group. Or maybe just two…………..We're still shopping for labels, radio play, blog reviews… and making tons of new friends online everyday!

Garrett (guitar): We have been active for the past several months writing and recording new material. I believe that these new pieces, which will eventually culminate in a follow up to R.E.S.T., will better represent what we are trying to accomplish musically than anything we have done previously. In this regard I am optimistic. We will see where this all may take us, but our focus now is on writing and performing.

Jared (keys): we're trying to write better songs and play better live. try to get more people to listen to r.e.s.t....and then we'll hopefully have new songs recorded that will be quite a shift from r.e.s.t. pretty soon and then we'll try to get people to listen to that. hopefully a music video, or multiple...for fun. and thanks a lot for the enthusiastic review of r.e.s.t., we spent a lot of time on it, so its really nice to hear that you liked it!