The Brevet are no strangers to releasing new music. The Irvine-based indie Americana band is about to drop the final tracks of their American Novel EP trilogy, Upholder – Ch. 3, on Friday, and they’re already gearing up to release more music later this year as well. As frontman Aric Damm sees it, the progression of the band’s releases (particularly the American Novel EPs) aptly documents the group’s growth — both musically and as individuals.
“We’ve been releasing these EPs of three or four or five songs in each chapter, and it’s just us growing as a band and evolving our sound,” Damm says. “On each one, you can expect to hear us maturing as a band and discovering different depths and growths in our music.”
But while putting out another EP is nothing new for the Brevet, Damm and his crew are breaking their recent solitude by performing alongside Sister Hazel tonight at the House of Blues in Anaheim. Not only is the concert their first performance at the new venue, but it’ll also be their first opportunity to bust out some of the new tracks — from both American Novel as well as the upcoming record — and the starting point for what Damm hopes will be the first of many tours in the coming year or two.
“We’re going to do a lot more touring,” Damm says. “Obviously with all of the new music, we’ve been in the studio for a while recording new songs, so we’ve been tucked away working on all of the new stuff. We’re just excited to flush it out and get it out there while continuing to grow our fanbase.”
For many up-and-coming bands, playing local shows is the easy part for the first portion of their careers. But the Brevet’s recorded success — including landing tunes on a wide variety of TV shows — has certainly come well before their live careers up to this point. As Damm sees it, having a plethora of recordings has given the group a great starting point, but the real success will be turning that music into a full-time career on a national stage.
“We want to be out on the road touring and make this our careers, so I guess that would be the next step for us,” Damm says. “We’d love to hop on a big national tour with another larger band — that’s definitely something we’re looking to do within this next year. We just want to continue to grow, because we’ve had a lot of success in licensing and whatnot, but now we’re challenging ourselves in the live realm.”
That touring and live success is a lot more attainable for Damm and the rest of the Brevet at this point, because even though they’ve only been together for about a half-decade, they’ve grown up quickly in that time. The guys who recorded their own 2013 debut album aren’t the clueless kids they once were, and they’re all now fully aware of the kind of effort it takes to keep a band growing year after year. All of a sudden, putting in the time and energy to make the Brevet as big as their massive movie-like sound doesn’t seem like such an impossible pipe dream when faced with the cold realities of adulting.
“We definitely have different perspectives on work ethic and going about being a band — both in being successful and doing what we’re passionate about,” Damm says. “As we’ve been growing, different life challenges have been thrown at us. One of us has a child, we have to deal with jobs, so it’s definitely cool to see us progress through all of that aside from our music.”
The Brevet are at the House of Blues with Sister Hazel on Wednesday, June 14. Tickets start at $11.25 and are available through Live Nation.
Josh Chesler used to play baseball for some pretty cool teams, but now he just writes about awesome stuff like tattoos, music, MMA and sneakers. He enjoys injuring himself by skateboarding, training for fights, and playing musical instruments in his off time.