The Brazen Youth is the recording project of Nic Lussier, Micah Rubin, and Charles Dahlke. The band says of their new material it was heavily influenced by the freeness and liberty they heard on records like the Charles Mingus and Joni Mitchell collaboration Mingus, Paul Simon’s Graceland, the discography of Arthur Russell and Big Thief’s Two Hands. 'Eagle, Idaho', the fourteen track full-length upcoming LP continues upon the path the Lyme, CT trio set for themselves with this past October’s Changing EP. The record was born out of shared experience as three friends confronted a beloved parent’s sudden passing, and navigated the early years of an adulthood stilted by the warped reality of the pandemic. We caught up with the band to ask them about their roots and much more:
1. How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Micah: The band formed in a funny way actually. I joined in 2016, but Nic and Charlie were set up by Charlie’s cousin, Ben, who was Nic’s childhood best friend. Ben told Charlie that Nic wanted to be in a band and told Nic that Charlie wanted to be in a band without either of them knowing. Then Nic and Charlie messaged each other on Facebook and started talking about music and the rest is history.
2. Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Nic: We were all in bands with other people before being in bands with each other. Me and Charlie started playing together in eighth grade in a classic rock cover band. We both had already been writing songs at that point, but we started writing together soon after and found that we made a pretty good team.
Charlie: We all dabbled in other small music projects throughout our youth. Nic and I had about 4 different bands before we settled on being the brazen youth. We recorded a few other records between ages 13-16 that are buried somewhere on the internet.
3. First concert that you ever went to?
Micah: First concert I ever went to was Bruce Springsteen during his Wrecking Ball tour.
4. What's your writing process like?
Nic: Typically me or Charlie will bring a skeleton of a song, or sometimes it’s a bit more of a fleshed out demo. Either way, we’ll kinda just dissect it as a band and arrange it all together in the studio. Usually someone has some sort of vision, but we all help each other with every part – it’s very much a collaborative, democratic process in that way. Sometimes we have to restart the whole recording. Sometimes we have to restart again, and then again – until it feels right.
5. What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Micah: Mei’s music is unlike anything I’ve ever heard — she has a way of presenting her art in a way that is so pure and genuine. It’s really inspiring. Her use of music theory is also super sophisticated in her ability to hide the complicated nature of it. I honestly could talk about about her music forever, but everyone should just take a listen for themselves. You will not regret it :)
6. What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be its own thing?
Charlie: We work hard on our arrangements so we try to learn the song as close to the original as possible, but if it takes on a new life we won’t fight it. It’s fun to have live versions of songs as well.
7. Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? Worst shows?
Micah: The band toured for 2 years completely DIY. We started out playing 10 day runs on the east coast hitting all of the major cities and sharing bills with a plethora of different bands and artists. It was so much fun. One of my favorite shows was a living room show we played at Syracuse University at our friends’ house. I also loved playing Music Hall of Williamsburg in NYC. Our worst show was probably in Phoenix, Arizona when we played to two people and, in Philadelphia, when a drunk person wandered into the venue, tried grabbing at the microphone from Nic and then grabbed the sound guy by the neck basically choking him. It resolved peacefully and nobody was actually hurt, but it was definitely a little scary for a second.
8. What's up next for the band?
Nic: We have our album, “Eagle, Idaho” coming out on the 16th of September! After that, we have a great tour set up with our good friends from “flipturn”. After that, who knows? More tours and more music for sure.