Right On, Brother
Caught in a scene somewhere between chill-wave and groovy bass-lines, Brother. is a band of a stoic decree. The quartet, consisting of Chuck Emery, Erika Goodwin, Nathan Standage and Scott Knutson is based out of Utah County but has been as far and wide as the UK and France. Thus far, they’ve put out two records, Volume I and Volume II, and are underway to have Volume III out sometime in 2020. Salt Lily sat down with the group to discuss where they’ve been, where they’re going and how they’ve been making so much noise along the way.
Q:How did you guys all start playing together?
Chuck: Originally, when I moved to northern Utah I was playing with some family friends and they were like a three-piece - like indie-folk style - and we were transitioning more into electric guitar and more of a rock sound. So we were doing that three-piece, and then one of the members ended up getting married, moving and going semi-deaf. So she peaced. And then we added Erika, and me and Erika, we’ve played music before years ago when I was living in St. George. She was down in Cedar City. We had recorded a couple of songs and whatnot. So we added her, and we were playing, and [then] we met Nate at church. I was like, “Hey, are you a band guy?” And he was like, “I am,” like so confident like, too.
Nathan: I don’t think it was confident
Chuck: It was pretty confident. You were like Johnny Cash. You were the big dick in the locker room at that time [laughs]. But we were playing for about two years, and our guitarist, he got married and bought a house and so he took on two jobs to be able to pay for the house and so he couldn’t do band stuff anymore. And I just had started working with Scott, and Scott was like, “here’s an idea: move your drummer,” - Nathan was playing drums before - “move Nate from drums to play guitar and then I’ll play drums.” So we did that and Scott has been playing with us for the last year, which was a good move on his part and our part.
Q:Why did you name your band Brother?
Chuck: There’s a story. The name comes from when I was dating a girl. We took a day trip to Las Vegas and we were walking through one of the casinos going to like Urban Outfitters or something, and this really fly old black guy came up and he stopped right in front of us. He looked at me, he looked at my girlfriend, he looked her up and down and then he looked back at me and goes, “brother, you best be proud of yourself” and then he walked on. Ever since then, “dude, brother, that’s a cool name.”
What is the story behind your latest single, “Don’t Worry”?
Erika: The first time Chuck played us “Don’t Worry” I was way stoked because it was so, so-so good, and there used to be this little guitar riff part in it, but it didn’t fit with the song so we had to take it out because of other things going in it … It’s kind of crazy how the song process goes. You start with one part and then you add all this stuff and then [that original part] might not end up in it. But it’s been fun watching Nate and Chuck, ‘cause they’ve kind of been the ones in charge.
Chuck: The story behind “Don’t Worry” … a lot of the [lyrics are about] growing up, being in adolescents, like a teenager, trying to figure out the difference between doing what’s cool with your friends and doing what’s right, ‘cause as a kid, we messed around with a lot of people and did a lot of stupid things. We broke into peoples’ backyards and broke stuff, pooped on peoples’ cars and did stupid stuff like that.
Scott: Chuck speaks for himself, not the band
[laughs]
Q:How is Vol. III different than the prior two?
Nathan: If you listen to Volume I, it was really folky. It was really artsy. There was a lot of cool experimentation going on, a lot of fun things in the music. Volume II was a little more straight forward but a little more groovy, a little bit more full band. And so with Volume III we’re trying to keep the grooviness of Volume II but also add some of the more interesting elements of Volume I. Adding weird parts, weird stuff… Just making it more interesting as a whole.
Q:Why do you call you albums volumes instead of having traditional album names?
Chuck: There’s a couple of different reasons, one of them being we came out with Volume I and a lot of people after were like, “I’m excited for volume II” or like, “this hints at a volume II”. So it’s like, “oh, I guess it does”. So then doing Volume II people were like, “oh, there’s going to be a volume III”. So it means that we have to keep going until “volume until we die”... volume 1000.
Q: How did your song “Without It” blow up on Spotify?
Chuck: I don’t really know how it blew up. Spotify does a really cool thing where they have all of their editors listening to songs, like all the songs that are getting flooded into Spotify, and they take the ones that they like and they throw them on Spotify made playlists, which have tons, like thousands to millions of listeners. And whenever it does that it reaches so many people, and they save it to their playlists, and then other people hear those playlists, and they save it to theirs… It kind of just snowballs after that. But what it came from was, I don’t know, good production? We worked on that song with a guy named Brian Zieske, who does an amazing job with sound. He’s so particular and will tweak the slightest thing that doesn’t sound different to regular humans
Q: What do you want people to feel when they listen to Volume III?
Erika: I just want people to see that we are evolving as the band and see that we’re still true to our sound but were changing with new styles … we’re liking new bands ourselves and listening to new music and we just wanna show that influence through our music.
Q: After a few years of playing with each other, how has your relationship evolved?
Erika: I feel like we’ve just grown really close. I consider the band like my other family … We all have this same dream, and we’re depending on each other to achieve that dream. And so I think [that] just brings you closer naturally, ‘cause you all want the same thing and you’re all super passionate about it.
Q: Where do you guys see yourselves in the next few years?
Chuck: Hopefully either on our own headlining tour or possibly opening for someone that we really like … That’s the ultimate thing … Hopefully on a really nice tour, with a really cool band, playing at really cool venues, to really cool people.
Right on, Brother. They best be proud of themselves. Having Volumes I & II in books and plans to have Volume III out sometime next year, the band is on a roll. Keep an ear open for the exciting stuff up and coming from Brother. and be sure to catch them early 2020 on January 4th at Kilby Court.
