They’ve come a long way since their first gig in a dank nightclub in Brooklyn five years ago. The Bravery have taken the world by storm with their unique blend of indie rock, electronic, and a little bit of punk. The fivesome, whose breakout single “An Honest Mistake” quickly made its way onto Billboard charts around the world, have been traveling to promote their second album, the new-age rock collection “The Sun and the Moon”. The album, a follow up to 2005’s self-titled debut, peaked at #24 on the Billboard chart and since the release of “The Sun and the Moon”, things have been looking up. The Bravery is set to release a two-disc CD entitled “The Sun and the Moon Complete”, including the original “Sun” and another CD of remixed, remastered versions of the first CD. They’ve been playing sold out shows across the country and fortunately were able to sit down and talk to The Mass Media about their music and their life on the road.
Mass Media: Where are you guys right now?Sam Endicott: We’re in Washington state playing a show with The Switches, a band from London. We went to Sundance [a couple of weeks ago] and played a couple of shows. It was really cool, but really fucking cold. We didn’t get to see any movies, but it was fun.
MM: Sundance is pretty big. How would you describe the success that you guys have seen so far?SE: We did a lot of stuff at home pretty cheaply. Thanks to the Internet, our music got distributed around the world really quick. I think we’re a testament to what you can do with a little bit of money and a lot of work; using the Internet, you can do amazing things.
All young bands should take advantage of the Internet. This is a cool time for music because of things like that. Bands in the basement in New York City can be heard in Korea and build a fan base in Asia.
MM: When did The Bravery form?SE: John [Conway, keyboardist] and I are friends from way back. Mike [Hindert, bassist] and Michael [Zakarin, lead guitarist] were friends, and all of us had moved to New York City in the early 2000s, looking for bands to play in. Me and John played in bands together, and we started going to these underground dance clubs. They played electronic dance rock stuff, and we thought that was really cool. We started writing music inspired by that and by indie rock and music we grew up on. We looked for other musicians and found Anthony [Burulcich, drummer] through a friend. That’s how it all started, in 2003.MM: Your first album was released in 2005, your second in 2007 and sometime during the spring of this year, you’re releasing a rearranged version of “The Sun and The Moon.” Is that my understanding?
SE: Yep. When you make music, you always have 10 different versions of songs. We make music like DJs-put everything into a computer and then manipulate and tweak it. You can go in a lot of different directions. We went in a more organic direction, kind of an experiment, when we made “The Sun and The Moon.” When we were on tour, we started messing around with stuff, in a more typical way of making songs and thought it would be cool to release a whole new album. It’s all the same songs, but a completely different album. It’s a companion piece to the first one. We’re calling the first version the “Sun” side, and the second one is the “Moon” side of “The Sun and The Moon.” It’s darker, more electronic, dancier.
MM: After the re-release of “The Sun and The Moon,” when are you guys going to start on your next album? Any idea of when you’re going to work on having it out?SE: We’re always messing around with ideas. We’ll focus on it more when we’re done with this tour. We don’t exactly know what we’re doing after this tour, but we’ll probably start focusing on it more in, like, a month.
MM: How do you guys describe your sound? Wikipedia describes The Bravery as “post-punk revival.” Do you think that, maybe, sometimes, music genres get a little out of control?SE: That’s completely ridiculous. It’s absurd, but it’s just human nature, to think about what it reminds you of. Trying to fit everything into a box doesn’t make sense. We consider ourselves a cross between indie rock and electronic dance music, I guess, but we’re more of a rock band.
MM: You’ve shared the stage with well-established acts like Depeche Mode, The Smashing Pumpkins and Incubus, as well as newer acts like The Cinematics, The Photo Atlas and Straylight Run. What do you think it is about The Bravery that gives you guys the ability to play such diverse bills?SE: We try to find an unlikely band to go on tour with. I think it’s cool when you go to a show when there are a lot of different bands. It’s kind of lame when all bands on a bill sound the same. We incorporate a lot of different elements into our music, so we draw inspiration from all over the place. It’s cool to play with bands that you wouldn’t immediately expect.
MM: All right, I have to ask, because you all are from NYC and this is Boston: are you Yankees fans?
SE: Nah, I’m a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan.