Track Premiere: The Britanys, “Reckless”
The Britanys are Lucas Long (guitar/vocals), Steele Kratt (drums), and Gabe Schulman (bass). Although the trio is just over a year old, they play the kind of likeable, sloppy college rock that makes it seem like they’ve been friends for years. Their self-released EP drops next month — release party is at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium, 9/12 — but, in the meantime, we’ve got the exclusive premiere of lead single, “Reckless.” It’s a freewheeling four minutes of sneery, youthful indie rock spiked with just a hint of fuzzed-out psychedelia — aka, the perfect jam to close out a summer with. Have a listen (and read more about the band) after the jump.
http://soundcloud.com/thebritanys/the-britanys-reckless
How’d you guys meet?
We all met in the new school dorms last year. We were all looking to start a band and eventually met through mutual friends. Over spring break Lucas booked a show at the lit lounge 4 days after we got back and even though we didn’t have any proper songs, we came up some material for the gig and kept playing from there. But we just tell everyone we met on jdate.com
What are your different musical backgrounds?
Lucas: My mom went to a Nirvana concert when she was in utero with me (it was actually when they were on their in utero tour), and I ended up being born on the same day as Kurt Cobain. He died a couple months after I was born and growing up I used to think I was Kurt Cobain reincarnated. But once I realized I wasn’t I started writing material of my own, ripping off White Stripes songs, Jimi Hendrix songs, or Beatles songs and kind of learned from there.
Steele: My dad was a drummer in a band called The Colors, that were a part of the NYC Punk scene during the 70’s and 80s, and he bought me a pair of drum sticks when I was about 3 years old. He would lay out newspaper on the sofa, and I would bang my sticks on it along to The Buzzcocks and Tears for Fears. When I was a little older my parents got me a drum kit, and I learned by playing along to different CD’s I liked. In high school I listened to a lot of 90’s and early 2000’s indie rock, like Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, and Sparklehorse. But I’ve recently I’ve been really interested in early and contemporary Psychedelic music, for the most part.
Gabe: When I was growing up I listened to, and played a lot of Jazz. I also listened to a lot of other music from the 60’s, like classic and psychedelic rock. Ultimately, I’m interested in any music that is progressive and interesting.
What were some key influences in making this record?
We drew a lot of influence from the way certain albums we loved were recorded. Particularly Innerspeaker by Tame Impala, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips, Is This It? by The Strokes, Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix, and all of The Beatles discography. We’ve always liked the idea of being a straight up rock band, like Led Zeppelin or The Strokes, but at the same time we try to utilize technology in a tasteful way, like how Tame Impala does or how The Beatles did, in order to create a unique sound.
Where’d you record it?
We recorded “It’s Alright” at Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen— a recording studio and music collective in Brooklyn, that’s run by our friend Oliver Ignatius. Recording there is a really fun experience, and there are a lot of great bands involved in the collective that we’ve gotten to grow and build friendships with. Unfortunately the studio was flooded right after we recorded the EP, but they’ve since relocated and are currently in the process of building a new and improved studio with the help of a lot of artists belonging to the Mama Coco’s community. It’s really great to see a group of musicians come together and save such a unique music environment— it’s definitely a family.
Who are you listening to these days?
We’re always listening to a lot of bands from the 60’s, particularly Cream, Neil Young, T. Rex, The Zombies, Leonard Cohen, and of course The Beatles.
But some of our favorite contemporary artists are Tame Impala, The Night Beats, King Krule, The Orwells, Angel Olsen, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Deerhunter, and Parquet Courts…to name a few. We all have slightly varying tastes in music, but we don’t really dislike anything one of us will play at home or in the car – as long as there’s a melody to it.
What do you think comes next?
We’re definitely going to keep recording, whether it be an album or another EP. For now we’re going to see where this EP can take us and we’ll evaluate from there. Who knows, maybe we’ll get signed by a label we really respect, play a good SXSW showcase, and hit the road- but you never know what’s going to happen. I guess that’s the dream…
What we do know is that we love playing music together, we love writing songs together and we’ll continue to craft our sound as we become more established in the NYC scene, regardless of what happens.