The Bravery
Interview with Sam Endicott
Words: Michael Rabinowitz

They were annointed by NME as the second coming and ridiculed by Pitchfork as committing the obscene sin of sounding too much like The Killers.  Yet, despite their chumminess with pop culture warmovers (remember them on “The O.C.”?), The Bravery are a true DIY success story, producing their eponymous debut on a personal iMac and becoming one of the first bands to use MySpace as a promotional tool.  (So blame them for your Friend Requests from shitty local acts).  This bootstrap work ethic allows lead singer Sam Endicott to take the success and vitriol in stride.  This is especially true considering a positive response to their follow up, The Sun And The Moon, compared to the karaoke shit sandwich Brandon Flowers served up last fall.  After all, is not America’s consumption of pop culture, but our own self reflective desire for communal identity?  Endicott seems to think so, trusting his audience’s tastes over the whims of the music critique establishment.

REAX:  You are opening for Incubus on a large arena tour.  Do you miss the smaller clubs?
Sam Endicott:  I think that we like clubs the best because it’s more intimate.  The smaller the club, the better, in my opinion.  It’s always more fun when you’re stuck right in the middle of the crowd.  But, whenever you do see an excellent band at an arena it’s because they made you feel like you’re in a small club.  So it’s important to keep that connection to the audience no matter how big the club gets.

REAX:  Before being signed, you produced your music on an iMac.  What is the comfort level like when putting out a sophomore album but now in a big studio?
SE:  We demo a lot of it the same, at home or the back of the bus on a home computer.  We like that vibe.  There is a spontaneity and amateur quality to it that you can’t recreate in a normal studio.  We also cut the record in Atlanta with Brendan O’Brien (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), and that was an experiment.  It was trying to do things we had not had the opportunity to do before.   Like, you can’t bring a string section into the basement, and it’s hard to do five part vocal harmonies in the basement.  We wanted to try a lot more with that, experimenting with acoustic sounds. 

REAX:  Does having a producer with the stature of Brendan change what you’re doing?
SE:  He’s a really good guy, so he’s not an intimidating person.  But, every once and while you realize who he is when he says: “Hey.  Sorry I was late.  I was having lunch with Bruce and we ran late.”  And you realize who “Bruce” is (laughs) and what a career Brendan has had.  But, he helped in a lot of ways.  I learned a tremendous amount.  I think he helped me as a singer a great deal and as a songwriter.  If you were writing a book, he would be the editor.  He’s a guy that can say “this part really sucks and it needs to be better” or “ this part was good and then you changed it so, go back to the good part.”  (laughs)  It’s hard to do that with guys in the band because all these egos are attached and your like, “Fuck you. Don’t tell me.” 

REAX:  It also seems you went for a darker, sadder tone with this record, almost like a rock star lament.  Where did this come from? 
SE:  People accuse me of being a downer when I write lyrics.  And, uh . . . I’d say that’s true.  (laughs)  I use songwriting as an outlet to express that side of myself.  Being an artist, you can express the side of yourself you don’t normally show people.  So, I would say the lyrics tend to be sad.  Definitely, this album is more introspective, more thoughtful.  It’s just a reaction to everything that happened in the last few years.  It really makes you think a lot about your life and your place in the world and . . . all that bullshit.  (laughs)

REAX:  You were on the  final episode of “The O.C.”  Despite its reputation, the show was a successful part of the indie revolution.  How do you feel being part of what is considered, good or bad, a pop culture phenomenon?
SE:  The way we experience music is changing.  A lot.  Mostly because of the Internet.  But also the iPod and culture in general.  You have more control over the entertainment that surrounds you.  You actually have a soundtrack to your life now.  You can have your music with you, always.  Any music that you are interested in hearing, or if you want to discover some band, is right there.  So, music permeates our control now, more than ever before, and part of that is music that would normally be considered underground, or indie, or alternative, or whatever is appearing in the mainstream more often.  There will be less of a gap between mainstream and underground culture.  I think it’s a good thing.  People talk about the “masses” or “Middle America” like they are bunch of morons.  I don’t think that’s fair at all.  I think that you have to give people an opportunity to hear things and then they have a chance to make up their minds themselves.  A lot of times they will like things that aren’t necessarily mainstream crap.  So, whenever something new and interesting makes it into the mainstream I think it’s positive, good for culture in general.