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THE REED BROTHERS: Search Out Their Own 'Pet Sounds'
With the Release of 'Songs from the North' The Songwriting Shines
By Robert E. Martin
With brothers
Andy & Jason Reed, the union on their latest project, Songs from
the North, spotlights all the strong reasons for stripping the
sound down and focusing upon the mysteries & power to be discovered in a
carefully crafted song.
As the opening
track, Your Yesterday, begins with the unmistakable drumbeat of
Be My Baby, the Reed Brothers new project opens like a
carefully tended orchid into surprisingly fragrant places where
imagination is realized, releasing unexpected branches of fresh emotion
from material that is as poignant and new as it is friendly and familiar.
If anything, this is
their strength - an ability to bridge the foundation of such tastefully
fundamental bands as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and XTC,
with inspired and emotive original ideas of their own that is indisputably
original.
For those unfamiliar
with The Reed Brothers, Jason & Andy burst onto the scene at the
tip of the millennium out of their hometown in Bay City with the power-pop
trio The Haskels. After releasing one critically acclaimed and
decent selling album Rewind, the group split up in 2003.
Having gained a
reputation throughout the state with The Haskels, Jason & Andy
joined the shortly lived Rioteers with ex-members of The Atomic
Numbers, and for the past year Andy took over duties as bass player
for Jedi Mind Trip.
Last year, Jason &
Andy decided to make a record by themselves, sharing all duties of playing
all instruments and writing all songs. With the release of Songs
from the North, the Reed Brothers have started performing
live again, accompanied only by their I-Pod, and are enjoying the
discoveries of a new musical freedom.
"This is the best
we've ever gotten on," laughs Andy. "When you're in a band you always have
these extra persons around, and you don't want to treat your brother
differently than anybody else in the band. It took a long time for us to
get used to treating each other like brothers again."
"Plus we have so
much in common musically," adds Jason. "I don't know if it's the 'brother
thing' or what, but if we each pick up a new disc and listen to it and
talk on the phone about which tracks we like, the same ones are written
down. Our interests are 99 percent together, so when we write a song we
know if it's going to work or not."
When asked about the
number of musicians that seem to breaking off into solo or duo projects
lately, the brothers agree that acoustic duos are witnessing resurgence.
"In terms of
trends," reflects Jason, "you have a lot of great Garage Rock coming out
of the Detroit scene like The Sights and The Greenhorns and
The White Stripes, and then you have the singer-songwriter thing going
on, with people like Jack Johnston and a lot of those guys. It's a
tough niche' to break and a hard sell. People either love it or not."
"The thing with
The Haskels," adds Andy, "is with Power Pop you can get away with
anything. You can achieve ballads and the cool rock song in a live
context; but with the singer/songwriter thing, people either like it or
they don't Frankly, we're not trying to be singer/songwriters. We write
what we feel are good songs." "I like it because the vocals aren't competing," continues Andy. "It's more of a natural sound. With the Haskels I wasn't writing that much differently, but the difference is I could jump around and have people cheer. The music was more seen than heard. Kids loved us because we rocked out and older crowds loved us because we had the Beatles influence in our material, which made it safer. This music is unsafe. I'm writing the same songs, but performing them differently."
Indeed, the songs
the Reed Brothers are now writing & producing together have almost
a Phil Spector-ish grandeur to them; as if Andy & Jason have come to
appreciate that the song may consist of wood & nails but the production is
the paint that provides the finish.
"Yeah," nods Andy,
"we owe a lot of that to Brendan Benson. Brendan came out of The
Atomic Numbers and produced our first Haskel's album. He's highly
respected in Detroit. Jack White and Brendan are working on a
project called The Raconteurs that sounds a lot like ELO. His
career has skyrocketed and we're fortunate to know him."
"Brendan showed me
the ropes in terms of production and how to color the songs more," he
continues. "Back in the Haskels we approached him about making a record
and told him we wanted to do it old school on tape and wanted him to
produce it. He said, "yeah, come on down.' Donny Brown helped a lot with
that as well. We'd lay down the progression and the vocals and then he'd
show us how to make the song shine."
"We've got a long
way to go. Right now I'm trying to get better at my craft. I wanted to
make more stripped down stuff yet more interesting material melodically.
I'm so used to writing 3-chord pop songs, I wanted to stretch it out a bit
- make the song catchy without being too obvious." What about his stint in Jedi Mind Trip? Did Andy enjoy the experience? "Yeah," he smiles. "The money was good and I learned how to be a bass player. Towards the end it was hard because I was tired and getting sick a lot because I working so much. I started missing the creative end of performing, but I enjoyed all the members in the band. We all became good friends and they're all great musicians. I like the new Jedi as well. Each version gets better."
And what did Jason
do while Andy was off with Jedi? "I started picking up the guitar," notes
Jason (former bassist for The Haskels). I was coming up with ideas
and collaborating a lot with Andy in the studio. This album was a work in
progress. We'd write something, record it, demo it, and if it was good
we'd keep it; if it was junk we'd throw it out and start from scratch. It
was more casual than anything. Even back in The Haskels Andy and I
talked about doing a side project, simply because in any band situation
it's hard to get on the same page with three or four different opinions."
Apart from their
acoustic guitars, in live performance The Reed Brothers also rely
upon one other new ally - an I-Pod that has occasional drum & bass tracks
recorded upon it to fatten their sound.
"People are loving
it," laughs Andy. "Do you think it's cheesy? A lot of guys are doing that
now - Jon Brion tours with an acoustic guitar & I-pod. Hey, it
never screws up! I'm thinking of getting a little toy mechanical monkey
drummer and rig my I-pod to it. When the music plays, it will set the toy
off. Put a Reed Brothers logo on the miniature drum. It'll happenŠ"
"Basically, we're
starting over," notes Jason. "We've been talking about doing a duo for
four years now and with The Haskels we built up a fan base that has
chipped away. Now we're rebuilding it. It might take six months or two
years to get back to where we were, and I'm not saying that as the end
point. Eventually we'd like to find a small label or home for our future
releases and then get a small agency to work with us."
The Reed Brothers
will be performing on July 3rd
at The Friendship Shell in Bay City prior to the main fireworks
show on Sunday and also at The DoubleTree Hotel Riverfront Grill on
July 8-9. They'll also be at White's Bar on July 22-23
and are slated for gigs at Club Bart's and The Lager House
in Detroit.
To purchase their
new disc, Songs from the North, go to their website at
www.thereedbrothers.com
or pick one up at any of their gigs. This is definitely music worth owning.
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