Brave’s newest (and first recording output in four years) Monuments sure snuck up on this scribe. And that’s a good thing. I enjoy a surprise. Bold and emotive, Monuments finds Brave dolling out savvy, hook-laden song after song. Look no further than opener “Hold On,” an optimistic jaunt through the fields of melodic metal or the abrasive “Hero” or the oh-so Scandinavian instrumental “To Remain Unseen” and the pop-oriented “Something To This” – Brave has created what is now, the top female-fronted metal album of the year. Sure, there’s loads of competition and in a much higher-profile bracket, but Monuments takes ‘em all.
The long-running D.C.-based sextet (who consist of vocalist/keyboardist Michelle Loose, guitarist Scott Loose, guitarist Matt Kozar, bassist Ben Kelly, drummer Trevor Schrotz, and violinist Suvo Sur) has been at the symphonic, female-fronted metal game for quite some time, originally under the Arise from Thorns moniker. Subsequent releases Searching For the Sun and 2004’s Passages EP proved Brave had enough charm and er, bravery to move away from the swooning, highly-polished realms the subgenre limits itself to.
With Monuments still fresh in our mind, Blistering thought it was high time to catch up with the female Loose, who was kind of enough to be answer a litany of Q’s regarding their independent status, the killer new album, and a slew of other important topics.
Blistering.com: Being an independent band that once did some label time, what do you see as the benefits? On the flipside, what obstacles have you run into?
Michelle Loose: There are definitely pros and cons to being on a label and overall, we had a good experience when we were signed. We had the opportunity to gain a lot of exposure which I don’t think we could have initially done ourselves. There is a lot of work done on the promotions side that we did not have to do, which was nice. We just answered interviews as they came in, and that was about it! The only flip side is that you are not earning 100% of your CD sales, but it’s a trade-off. Some of the studio costs and all of the marketing costs are covered in most deals and the trade off is that the label will keep most of the profits.
Blistering.com: Any particular reason for the long period in between albums?
Michelle: Really we just were busy. Busy with our careers, families and life. We did not intentionally want to wait this long, but time seems to move so quickly, in a blink of an eye we were nine months into production and almost four years since our last release.
Blistering.com: From a pure production standpoint, Monuments is one of the better-sounding albums of the year. How did you achieve such a professional sound?
Michelle: We were so lucky to work with great engineers. Anytime we record, we all work our asses off to give the best performance possible, but it there is a lot of technical work that is done by the engineers that we really had little control over. I have to give a huge shout out to Kevin “131” Gutierrez at Assembly Line Studios in Vienna, Virginia, who really saved this CD. We had not worked with him in several years and ended up reconnecting with him just after we finished tracking for the CD. Then we basically gave him our material to mix once we were finished recording. He did it on his own, without six cooks in the kitchen, and we were blown away with the final results.
Blistering.com: Monuments appears to be a bit more metallic and in parts, aggressive than the Passages EP. Was that direction agreed upon from the start?
Michelle: I think Monuments, like all of our CD’s really, is very diverse. It does seem more metallic than Passages, but since Passages was just an EP, Monuments has a lot more material on it. We still have a few songs on there that would be more aggressive, like “Hero” or “To Remain Unseen” but there are the more mellow songs too like “Forgiveness” or “Here.” Basically, we all love the heavy stuff and love to throw in blast beats and super-heavy riffs whenever we can.
Blistering.com: For you, did you find it difficult to put your vocals to something like “Hero,” where there are blast beats?
Michelle: Not at all. I love that stuff. I love the contrast of heavy riffs and blast beats and when I sing I like to add a “pretty” element to the heaviness. I love it. Now don’t get me wrong, I do sometimes wish that I could do crazy death metal vocals. Sometimes at practice when we are fucking off I will jack up the reverb and start screaming some faux death metal vocals and that is so much fun!! But, I can’t do it…ha ha.
Blistering.com: “Hold On” is an album standpoint and has an uplifting feel without sounding cheesy.
Michelle: Ha! Yes, I hope it does not come across as cheesy. We always write the music first, then the lyrics. Scott, our guitarist, writes the majority of the music so he came up with the guitar riffs then we all added our own elements to his basic structure. Lyrically, it’s about trying to hold on and hang in there when everything seems to be falling apart all around you. Sometimes life is like trying to climb out of a canyon with the “winds against you” and “sand in your mouth,” “sun in your eyes,” etc. Life can be a bit crazy now and then, sometimes times are tough but you have to hold on and keep going.
