bright brown
For Bright Brown gigs, news, and streaming, click HERE.
You can buy the new record, Soft Landings, HERE.
Our story: you could say Bright Brown’s birth as a band was on the G train in 2008. I had then just moved to Brooklyn with a head full of songs in search of new collaboration. While the G slowly made it’s way, I noticed Nick, headphone clad and sitting with a couple of drum cases. He seemed a kindred spirit so I burst his Ipod bubble with a wave and the conversation ensued. Within a month we had rehearsed an entire set of music together and hit the New York live scene as a duo. It gelled so effortlessly that talk of a record began immediately thereafter. Our first release, “No Matter How Faint There’s Light In Everything”, was entirely self recorded, mixed, and produced in Brooklyn at Head Gear Studios and Bright Brown Sound. The record just seemed to record itself which led to it’s organic and intuitive feel.
We were tested, however, when we began working on our second release in 2010. "Oceans", was tracked in our basement space in the dry moments between flooding episodes brought on by that summer’s torrential rain, freak tornado, and apocalyptic hailstorm. We were joined by David Blatty, who’s cinematic keyboards gave this record a more epic sound than our first. It was mixed months later at Bright Brown Sound. The record surfaced as a celebration of all of life’s unknowns. “I wish I was a diver, there are oceans we don’t know”, a line from the first track, Diver, may indeed sum the record up. Because of the patience we displayed in getting this one done, it seemed fitting to release it on vinyl.
Soft Landings, released in 2017, features embellishments of piano, organ, and a childrens' choir in addition to Chapman Stick and drums. Recorded at various Brooklyn studios over the course of a couple of years and finally brought home to mix at Bright Brown Sound in 2016, it grapples with themes of time passing and acceptance of who we are at this very point in time. Songs like "Tick Tock" and "Sloop" are realizations that time is sailing past, while the more spiritual songs "Less Tunnel More Light" and "Wide" are pleas to find inspiration from what's inside us or readily within our reach. You can buy Soft Landings HERE.
Bright Brown made a video for the NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest. Check us out -- along with our tiny desk -- below.
Listen to Alex's interview with Nefarious Bovine Radio HERE.
Read Alex's interview with Pledgemusic HERE.
performances, news, and streaming
Follow Bright Brown: see the social media links at the top of the page to connect with BB. Also, please click HERE to join our mailing list on FanBridge for the latest on shows and tours, recordings, and other Bright Brown news.
Click HERE to stream Bright Brown songs.
Click HERE to read press about Bright Brown.
Click HERE for Bright Brown videos.
songs (click on title):
1. Rice Burning Wave
2. Happiness Shines
3. Starting Explosions
4. After the Meltdown
5. Botanical
6. All These Slippery Things
7. Are You Listening
8. Dust Angel
9. Like Texas
10. King of Thirst
soft landings, released in 2017:
1. Tick Tock
2. January Child
3. It'll Make You Dance
4. House Of Dedalus
5. Sloop
6. One Step Too Many
7. Less Tunnel More Light
8. Wide
press
Here's what they're saying about Bright Brown:
"...brilliant songs, full of pathos and alienation, but sweetened with strong doses of optimism. From the desiccate ‘Like Texas’ to the plaintive and even more parched ‘King of Thirst’, this music often broods along with us, but Bright Brown never fails to counter our collective agita with healthy doses of climactic major chords and high-arcing vocal choruses. Here are echoes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake, but with much more urgency."
- Greg Howard, Stick.com
“Like David Byrne after a hot bath...”
- Leah Siegel
“...comes at you with dark heart and plea...Nahas' voice is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time, the music layering over and under like sweet and sorrow...lose yourself in the world of the songs and learn something about where inner and outer landscapes meet.”
- Arielle Guy, Turntable and Blue Light
"Alex Nahas and Nick Smeraski of Bright Brown bring an ideal soundtrack to the crisp, autumn air. The brooding Brooklyn duo layers humming vocals, a Chapman Stick, keyboards, soft percussion, and a little acoustic guitar. Sounds range from sparse and repetitive like a piece for avant-garde dance to expansive and melodic like the theme from a western where everyone dies in the same pool of blood. Nahas cut his teeth as a founder of the post-rock band Laughingstock. Fans of Brian Eno, Nick Drake, and John Cale should check these guys out."
- The Deli NYC
video
Watch Alex's video for "Dust Angel" -- directed by Sam Burbank -- HERE.
Watch Bright Brown's live performance of "Happiness Shines" HERE.