Brothers Past

If you're a livetronica music fan and you don't know who Brothers Past is, you must have had your head in the sand for a while. Quickly emerging as one of the top names in their field, Brothers Past keyboardist Tom McKee was kind enough to take some time out from their hectic schedule to talk to us.

LDN: This has really been quite the time for livetronica music and in particular, Brothers Past. Your name comes up quickly in almost any discussion about this music and the artists within it. What would you attribute this success to and how has the ride been along the way?

BP: It seems to me that electronic music has begun to have an apparent influence on all kinds of music. It's definitely becoming more widespread through the jam scene but it's becoming more widespread in pop culture in general. You turn on the radio and you'll hear Linkin Park or Outkast or Britney Spears and you listen to the beat and it's definitely a programmed beat. You have bands combining rock and electronica. You have people combining hiphop with electronic music. You have people using computers to combine rock and hiphop, like the Grey Album re-mix. The biggest criticism most people have always had for electronic music is that it's too sterile or that it lacks a human quality. The thing thats happening right now is that people are finding ways to humanize electronic music. That's something Brothers Past has been trying to do for more than three years now. And I think that's maybe why people are starting to acknowledge us as a band to take seriously. We love the beats and we love the sounds, but we also love the songs, and we love creating the feelings that are unique to each song. When we're able to combine those feelings with those beats and those sounds, it can be a very powerful experience.

LDN: The music of Brothers Past sounds a little different live than it does from the studio. Obviously there's a bit of a different approach, is there a dramtically different choice of equipment as well?

BP: Yes and No. For the most part, we use a lot of the same gear live as we do in the studio. We do take advantage of the fact that we are in the studio and usually go out of our way to bring some instruments or some effects that we might not neccesarily bring out on the road with us. For "A WonderfulDay" we used a real grand piano and we rented timpani drums, because we wanted a dramatic effect throughtout that record, and nothing is more dramatic than the roll of a timpani drum. Tommy and Clay will usually experiment with a few different guitars and basses and do multiple tracks of the same song with different instruments. For this new album that we're working on, Tommy has been using a computer program called Reason to build sequences around the music that we've already recorded. The results have been very encouraging so far and when it's all said and done, we are going to have made an album that sounds like nothing else out there. It's not like we were able to go out to a music store and splurge on all kinds of new toys. But there are little things. Rick used a drum kit with a sound that would translate better in a studio setting. There was a Fender Rhodes in the studio I used extensively for this album that I did not use at all on A Wonderful Day. I played a real Hammond B-3 organ instead of the simulator I use live. I guess the main difference in the studio is that we actually have the time to seek out the sound we hear in our heads. We can take the time to place a microphone differently, or I can spend 20 minutes moving filters on my analog keyboards to get the exact tone I want. When we're playing live, everything moves very quick and you don't have the time to really dial something in.

LDN: Brothers Past plays out quite a bit, often far away from home. I know from experience that being on the road can take a lot out of you. Besides being energized by the music it's clear you love to play, how do you stay charged up and feeling good while traveling as a band?

BP: This is an especially relevant question, since we literally got home from a five-week national tour late last night! We have fun on the road. It definitely helps when you are playing in front of receptive people each night and we've definitely seen our audiences grow dramatically nationwide, especially in the past year. We route and book the tours we do ourselves, and I think we do a pretty good job of structuring things to keep our mental health intact. We all have friends scattered across the country and chances are if we have an off day somewhere, we're all out and about, hanging out with friends or doing something interesting. This past tour we had some free time in both Colorado and Chicago and there is just something about hanging out with friends that seems to re-charge everyone's batteries.

LDN: Do you have any favorite guests to have up on stage with you?

BP: We have actually had a few really cool collaborations happen onstage. In Fort Lauderdale during this most recent tour, the four of us took the stage along with Jamie Shields of the New Deal and Sam Altman and Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits. That turned into some pretty twisted music pretty quickly. We also do have had plenty of up and coming emcees sit in with us for freestyle sessions. Have to give shouts to two Philly guys, MC Nutt and Heif Dogg on that one.

LDN: What's the Brothers Past take on the current situation involving music downloaders and the RIAA?

BP: My stance is that quick accessibility to music is always a good thing. But I don't think it's neccesarily fair for an artist to have his art distributed in a way that prevents him from sharing in its success. We make a great deal of our music available for free download through our website as part of a service called Thropter. Pretty much any show that we play across the country is getting recorded by someone, and we put that stuff up on our site and allow people to download it for free. There is already stuff up there from our most recent tour and that just ended two days ago! But I have always asked people not to burn our actual albums for people. I have asked people not to make our albums available in a way that they can be pirated online. And people are cool with it. I think they realize that here is a band that is providing people with tons of free music, so let's respect their wishes and encourage our friends to buy their album as opposed to just burning it for them. And I think that's part of the answer. The RIAA, and the recording industry in general is hindered most by the fact that they realize their role in the whole process needs to change, but they have no idea what it's supposed to change to. Maybe artists should make more live material available, or make SOMETHING available for the public to download. Then it's not so improbable to ask people not to make certain things available for download.

LDN: Describe a day in the life of Brothers Past.

BP: It depends on what day it is! A typical day is usually defined by what we're working on at the moment. Right now there are a ton of things going on, so naturally things are pretty hectic. We're working on a new album. We just finished up a big tour and we're getting ready for our homecoming party in two weeks at the Trocadero in Phily. We've got some side project shows coming up and we've got more East Coast tour dates announced for May. We all live in a house together, so we're all able to keep track of what's in front of us relatively easily. Keep in mind though: we have no big-time manager. We have no booking agent. We have no record label backing. Everything we've accomplished up to this point has been the result of our hard work. We wake up, some of us go to part-time jobs. Some of us jump right into whatever needs to be done next. Some of us go to part-time jobs AND jump right into whatever needs to be done next. We're making calls to set up and promote shows. We're confirming festival appearances. We're updating our website. We're hanging our posters. We're mixing the record. We're getting the van serviced. We're getting merchandise designed and made. Every day is something new and sometimes it's all one big to-do list and sometimes maybe you even get sick of doing it and then you roll into Boulder or Chicago and there are a bunch of people you've never met anticipating the show and they already know half of your songs and that's when you realize that it's worth every minute of effort you've put in.

LDN: William Hung. Is he still badass motherfucker, or are his 15 minutes over and done?

BP: Hey I go up on stage and sing five nights a week and you couldn't pay me enough money in the world to sing in front of Simon. That guy is brutal! Let's just say William Hung is a badass motherfucker whose 15 minutes are up. Thanks for playing!

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