Below is the transcript of this original KALX Artist Interview of Brijean members Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart, performed by KALX DJ Excuse My French.
TRANSCRIPT:
Excuse My French: [00:00:00] Thank you very much, Brijean and Doug, to answer the call of KALX interviews.
Brijean Murphy: Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Excuse My French: I’m gonna have to ask you a bunch of questions. I’m sorry in advance.
Brijean Murphy: Great. No worries.
Excuse My French: All right, let’s get straight to it. So, how did you guys meet?
Doug Stuart: Um, we met at a show we were both playing in different bands at the time. Um, and it was a show in Davis, California at, uh, Sophia’s Thai restaurant. And that was 2013?
Brijean Murphy: Mm hmm.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, so just, just playing in bands, different bands, and on the same bill.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah, in the Bay Area.
Excuse My French: Yeah, because you’re local, you’re from Oakland, right?
Brijean Murphy: Well, Doug’s originally from Chicago, I’m originally from Los Angeles, but, um, we lived in the Bay Area for 10 years each [00:01:00] more or less And still have a lot of good friends there and work out of studios there sometimes But yeah, and I went to UC Berkeley and that’s kind of what brought me up there and Doug came out for music.
Excuse My French: Oh Doug. How do you like the Bay Area?
Doug Stuart: I loved it. Yeah, yeah, I found that there was just a lot of different types of music happening in the Bay and a lot of crossover and a lot of, uh, collaboration and melding of styles, which has always interested me.
Excuse My French: And you Brijean, what did you study at UC Berkeley?
Brijean Murphy: Um, I studied Peace and Conflict Studies with an emphasis in Water Resource Conflict. And, um, I joined some bands, I lived in the co ops, and, um, yeah, eventually just kind of, um, leaned into music more than non profit [00:02:00] work, and, um, eventually began my career, um, in music.
Excuse My French: Oh, wow, great. Uh, by the way, I know it’s a bit late. A little bit bold of me to do that, but if you ever want to, uh, perform on KALX Live! on Saturday, uh, one Saturday, you’re more than welcome.
Brijean Murphy: Nice, thank you so much.
Excuse My French: You came up with another album, your fourth album, Macro. Uh, do you mind walking us through the, uh, genesis of this new project?
Brijean Murphy: Yeah, sure.
Doug Stuart: Um, yeah, we, we were both, um, doing a lot of different work. At the time, uh, with other bands and different production things, um, but were excited to work on a new record and because we had kind of diverging schedules again after the pandemic, we had to block out some time to be together and to work on it and we put some time aside.
Brijean Murphy: A few months.
Doug Stuart: A few months.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah, five months.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, we necessarily have [00:03:00] a, uh, super explicit sound that we wanted to achieve, but we knew we wanted to stretch and we had a lot of different influences that we, again, weren’t trying to necessarily do one thing, but we just knew that we wanted to try some different sounds that we hadn’t explored yet.
Um, so we kind of, uh, hit the ground running and just, uh, tried to write as much as we could and without any restrictions or limitations on what that was going to sound like. That was kind of the beginning of the process.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah. And then, um, once we really had songs formed for the most part, we hired some friends and different musicians, to come and play on the record.
Um, lap steel, uh, live strings, um, percussion, drums, many, [00:04:00] three different drummers. And so that felt like a nice way to, um, bring in community and some really amazing players, um, to lend their skills to the album. And, um, yeah.
Excuse My French: Yeah. I read somewhere that you had a lot of collaborators, uh, in the making on this album.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah, a lot more than before, definitely, because Angelo, the, the previous album was just Doug and I, um, the one Feelings, uh, the one before that was recorded a lot in Berkeley and Oakland starting with jam sessions with friends. So it was nice to reach back out in a different way and not start with jams with friends and really kind of incubate our own expression within a, um, kind of capsule and then purposefully link with certain musicians, um, and friends and that, that just felt nice and [00:05:00] new and, and different for us.
Excuse My French: Good. Uh, what were some highlights, uh, during that creative journey in the making of Macro?
Doug Stuart: I think anytime we got to bring someone in, uh, it felt like, um, just like, uh, how did you say it before? A cherry on top. We’d have like a song that was felt pretty much done, but we knew we wanted to put something extra into it. And I can remember one of those sessions was with, uh, Logan Hone, who plays flute on Euphoric Avenue and, um, Laura and on one of the interludes called After Life, uh, but particularly with Euphoric Avenue, it was close to finished and we had him play on that and it, um, it was just exciting to, to hear how it opened up with his [00:06:00] contribution, um, and with some guidance, but with also a lot of trust and whatever he was hearing. Um, and then another one of those moments was, uh, with uh, Steph Yu, the violinist who plays on, um, Get Lost and on Euphoric Avenue. We had arranged the strings and had programmed like a, a sampled version of them. But hearing Steph play the parts in our living room and just capturing the expression that only someone playing an instrument could really have, as opposed to a kind of neat and tidy sampled version that we had mocked up. It just, it just felt like, uh, it was breathing a whole new life into the song, but it was really exciting.
Excuse My French: And among you two, [00:07:00] uh, Brijean and Doug, uh, how is the creation process? Do you partake equally in the making of the tracks?
Doug Stuart: Yeah, I’d say it’s very conversational. Um, we both kind of have our strengths in different places. Um, Brijean plays a lot of percussion instruments really fluently and for most of her life and, um, is more the lyricist and obviously the singer. Um, but, and I, I play a lot of keyboards and do production and bass, but, uh, within those realms, we both contribute a lot to each other’s strengths and, and we’re both often excited to hear each other’s ideas. Um, because they come from a different place, maybe not knowing the instrument as well or not knowing. I don’t know. It’s, [00:08:00] it, it always feels open and collaborative and conversational, um, in a way that in my experience is, is very rare and is, uh, yeah, exciting and complimentary.
Excuse My French: What are your favorite musical gears?
Brijean Murphy: Oh. That’s another Doug question, for sure.
Doug Stuart: Why don’t you start?
Brijean Murphy: Okay. Well, I really liked in this album, we played around, we got out of the studio, writing a few songs, which was very new for us. We just had a guitar, um, for the beginning of, of a couple tunes. And that felt so nice and so different, um, for us in the writing process to use that tool, which is just a guitar and voice and, um, put ourselves in a new space. Um, so that, I would say on this album, that kind of like, [00:09:00] physical tool, instrument, and conceptual, um, kind of tool was my favorite.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, that was refreshing for us. A lot of, a lot of times, uh, on our previous records, a lot of the writing is done, um, in the studio with the computer very much being a part of the process, uh, whether it’s like sampling something that we play together or, um, just like using the computer, like the, um, the DAW, like Logic as a, as a way to kind of structure a song where we’re not necessarily playing it together in the room, um, as its, uh, inception.
So it felt. Like Brijean was saying, it felt really refreshing to just [00:10:00] take ourselves out of that space and just have a piano and voice or acoustic guitar and voice and, and write in kind of a more traditional songwriting approach. Um.
Brijean Murphy: Do you have a favorite piece of gear? I feel like.
Doug Stuart: Well.
Brijean Murphy: For the, for the…
Doug Stuart: For the, yeah.
Brijean Murphy: For the heads.
Doug Stuart: I mean, um, the OP1 is kind of always a, a go to for me when we’re stuck, because it’s just so versatile. It, like, can do drum sequencing, or, uh, synth sounds, or, um, it can be its own four track tape recorder, and, yeah, it just feels like it’s a, it’s a really versatile tool.
Brijean Murphy: And portable.
Doug Stuart: And super portable, which is also nice. We got an Omnicore before we started making this album that made an appearance on several of the songs. Um, that was [00:11:00] fun. Um, I guess, uh, the OTO Bim Bom, I think it’s called, was a delay that made a lot of appearances on this record. Yeah, those are a few of the highlights.
Excuse My French: Yeah, I think we satisfy all the gearheads listening right now.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, yeah, thanks for letting me nerd out. (laughter)
Excuse My French: I have to, it’s part of music. If you didn’t have any of the technology or the techniques nowadays for music, we would be too analog. The digital era has tied up pretty well.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, absolutely. I think we both, um, really gravitate towards a sound that has, incorporates both elements. Um, cause we both come from a background of like, just playing instruments with…
Brijean Murphy: Acoustic instruments.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, with, with people and, but we both love electronic music, so [00:12:00] any kind of way we can combine those processes or, or find ways to like interplay between the, the analog and digital world is, is pretty exciting for us.
Excuse My French: That’s what I like about your music is that at most of the time digitally made music when it’s 100 percent it has a little bit of a crisp but cold feel or vibe to it, but you always keep it warm and bouncy.
Doug Stuart: Ahhh, thank you. (laughter)
Excuse My French: So I like that, which makes me ask you for my next question. What are your influences to both of you, whether it be musical or non musical?
Brijean Murphy: Um, sure. I think, um, I’m most inspired by human connection and relationships to people who inspire me through [00:13:00] the way they process the world. Um, and through that, it’s, it’s worlds within worlds. And, um, And I think that, that would be my answer.
Excuse My French: It’s a good one.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, I think, I find a lot of inspiration, um, just in, like whatever I’m listening to at the moment. Um, I’ve always kind of like, played the imitation game in a way where, it’s a fun exercise for me to try to imitate something because it inevitably never comes out sounding like the thing that you’re the source that you’re inspired by but trying to like pick apart and grab one [00:14:00] technical thing whether it’s a chord progression or a, like the skeleton of a beat or anything like that and use that as kind of like a, a launch for writing something kind of like sampling without actually sampling like just figuring out what the nuts and bolts of the musical thing that you’re enjoying, um, is, has always been inspiring to me.
And I mean, I think some of the things I was listening to when we first started writing were like ESG and, uh, I was revisiting the Stereolab album, Dots and Loops. And, um, those are a couple of things that come to mind when at least the first when we first started writing.
Excuse My French: Oh, right. Thank you, uh, Brijean. Thank you, Doug. [00:15:00] Uh, I have one little question about the artwork on the cover of Macro. I wanted to know if you use some, uh, some graphic AIs or it’s just like an artist who drew the whole thing.
Brijean Murphy: No, thanks for asking. The album cover features a bunch of different photographs of us in bleachers, dressed up as different, um, identities. And, um, it was photographed in Portland at Swanson Studio. Um, and it was, um, the wardrobe was by Anna Greer and, and um, it was directed and, um, created by Fisk Projects. Fisk is in Portland also, they do a lot of album covers. And Bijan, who heads Fisk, is a friend. Um, and so we worked a lot [00:16:00] conceptually with how we wanted to express this idea of Macro and express this idea of the exploration of self and, um, and kind of flipped the lens from, um, kind of viewer to audience, um, or, uh, performer to audience rather. And, um, yeah, so it was not AI. It was a bunch of different artists coming together and um, creating it.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, practical realization.
Excuse My French: All right, so one more question. Uh, do you have any cute anecdote to share with our listeners? Like a tour anecdote or album recording anecdote?
Brijean Murphy: I I love it. (laughter) [00:17:00] All I can think of are cliches.
Doug Stuart: Um, recording, cute recording anecdote.
Brijean Murphy: We’ll have fun. Number one rule is have fun. That’s that was written on our wall while we were recording.
Doug Stuart: Yeah, that’s a pretty good one. We hit a point maybe like a month and a half into the process of writing where we were pretty much writing every day and maybe losing touch with reality a little bit and in an instant, maybe, realized that we weren’t having fun.
And, and I remember saying to Brijean, maybe you could make us a sign, to like have in the studio, to remind ourselves to have fun. And in my mind it was gonna be like, just like a small, like nameplate size sign that I could put [00:18:00] on the desk where, where we work from. And then I left the room for something and came back and it was like a three foot by three foot poster board size sign with massive letters that said have fun on it. (laughter)
Brijean Murphy: It said rule number one.
Doug Stuart: Rule number one, have fun. And I laughed really hard and we put it up on the wall and it lived there for the next seven months until the album was done.
Brijean Murphy: It’s a good reminder.
Doug Stuart: It was a great reminder.
Brijean Murphy: It’s easy to get down. It’s easy to get lost in, in the shuffle. Um. In the human experience and it’s important to feel it all and feel the blues and feel all that but there’s a lot of unnecessary…
Doug Stuart: Self torture when you’re an artist.
Brijean Murphy: Or when anybody probably.
Doug Stuart: Yeah.
Brijean Murphy: You know, but um, anyway. Yeah.
Excuse My French: All right. So you will be at The Independent [00:19:00] in San Francisco on
Friday, August the 2nd, 9 PM.
Brijean Murphy: Yes.
Doug Stuart: Yeah. And something to add to that is it’s Brijean’s birthday.
Excuse My French: Oh, happy birthday in advance.
Doug Stuart: This will be a very special one for us to be playing in the Bay. And, uh, celebrating Brijean’s birthday.
Excuse My French: Wow, that makes you a Leo.
Brijean Murphy: It is, it does.
Excuse My French: Yeah, I have to say this is the best zodiac sign ever.
Brijean Murphy: (laughter) And are you a Leo, or do you just love Leos?
Excuse My French: I’m August 19th.
Brijean Murphy: Okay, great. Great. Love it.
Excuse My French: So I’m not biased at all.
Brijean Murphy: That’s awesome.
Excuse My French: All right. What shall we expect on stage at the Independent? Is it going to be just the two of you or do you have artists who will join you?
Brijean Murphy: Yeah, it will be just the two of us. And [00:20:00] opening will be an artist called Colloboh and his work is amazing. He’s touring with us. Um, does beautiful modular synth, um, compositions, um, ambient that flows into dance. It’s like…
Excuse My French: oh.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah.
Doug Stuart: Yeah we’re both big fans and honored to, to have him on the tour with us.
Brijean Murphy: Yeah.
Excuse My French: All right, so it will be a perfect evening.
Brijean Murphy: Yep. (laughter)
Doug Stuart: Yeah.
Excuse My French: I hope they bring flowers and a cake at least on stage for you, Brijean.
Brijean Murphy: Okay, I love, I love it. Good, good. Noted to, to Doug sitting here.
Excuse My French: Okay, wink wink, nudge nudge, you know what I mean.
Brijean Murphy: Exactly, exactly. (laughter) Thank you. (laughter)
Excuse My French: Well, thank you very much, Brijean, and thank you, Doug, for, uh, uh, answering my stupid questions.
Brijean Murphy: It was great. Such a pleasure.
Excuse My French: Good luck on your tour. Have lots of fun, because that’s your rule number one.
Brijean Murphy: Yes, exactly. Thank you. We needed that reminder.
Doug Stuart: [00:21:00] Yes.
Excuse My French: And I hope to see you soon. Thank you. Bye bye.
Brijean Murphy: Okay, thanks.
Doug Stuart: Thank you so much.
