BREVA
Sacramento, California, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
I’ve already let you know about Breva in a previous post when I heard them for the first time supporting FCC‘s record release show a few weeks ago. Well, I just happened to get a copy of their upcoming release entitled American Landscape, which comes out on September 20th.
Just as a reminder you can head to their Facebook page and like them to get a free download of a song off of this cd: seriously – do it! Even though I’ve already heard three studio recordings and their live performances I’m still going to talk about each individual track; new to me or not.
Track 1. Like A Snake.
Starts out with kind of a U2 vibe to it. Interesting up-tempo song. Kinda dips and weaves through multiple styles. It’s very different and I hear so many influences. Like I said the verses have a classic U2 feel to it and the vocal styling on the chorus reminds me a bit of like new Dokken or something.
Track 2. Straps & Locks.
Easily my favourite song of the tracks I’ve heard so far. This song kicks so much fucking ass. Seriously. The vocals are powerful yet melodic. The music is crunchy and aggressive with a Seattle Grunge feel to it. I abso-fucking-lutely love this song.
Track 3. Communing Now.
There is a definite grunge feel to this track. Vocals are in the spotlight for the verses with a haunting echo to it and the music is an ambient glow in the background. The song as a whole is pretty spectacular taking you on an up and down ride through musical awesomeness.
Track 4. Microchip Tooth.
This is another song I’ve already had (thanks to liking their Facebook page). This song starts of fucking hostile and winds its way through a haunting slightly softer section, switches into a bit of vocal distortion as it builds it’s way back to the aggressive style it started off with. The vocals are a hybrid of Chris Cornell/Phil Anselmo/Maynard and switch between styles with ease. The guitars and Bass are just as malleable. Sick track.
Track 5. Paper is Poverty.
Political song in the lyrical vein of Rise Against. The music is more akin to Tool or the Toadies; with stand-out Bass and Drum inflections that stick out and only playable by the most talented Air Drummers out there (and yes, you WILL air drum).
Track 6. Passing on.
Slower song, though not quite a ballad or anything like that. Sounds like a story-song or a poem. This is a very different song, fucking beautiful. I fucking love it.
Track 7. Can’t Say No.
This is the track you get if you head to their Facebook page, and I’m sure once you hear it you’ll head straight over to get it. It takes American Landscape back to the upper registers of aggression.
Definitely a head-bang/sing-a-long, devil horns in the fucking air song. Brilliant.
Track 8. Final Release.
Crunchy melody here with slightly distorted vocals. This is another one of those unique sounding songs. Very interesting. Andrew’s vocal skill is very apparent here.
Track 9. Plastic Coffins.
This track has a bit of a rock opera feel to it to start with. Sounds like another political protest/sick of the status-quo kind of song. You can tell they’re trying to make a point here and SAY something; definitely not bitching for the sake of bitching like a lot of anti-political themed songs go. Maybe anti-political is the wrong way to say it; let’s say it’s more of a “I’m frustrated at how things are/they need to change” kind of song. Not high and mighty though. It’s well balanced so it doesn’t come off as aggressively preachy.
Track 10. The Stairs.
Here I get a Geoff Tate feel to his vocals. Great way to end this album.
The packaging for the album is pretty unique. The “cd case” is really a folded mini-poster that has the peg to hold your cd on. Pretty sick idea there and as far as I’ve seen this is a first for something like
this or at least it’s new to me. The album as a whole is entertaining and eclectic mashing together a multitude of styles yet the finished product is entirely unique swerving away from the cookie-cutter
bullshit you hear on the radio.
The biggest draw or me with this band is the songwriting as well as the exceptional talent each of the guys in Breva possess. They definitely have a firm grasp on what it takes to craft brilliant music while playing to their strengths and skills.
Seriously, and I can’t stress this enough, go and check this band! Support bands like this and buy their music.
Of course, one of the best ways to get your hands on this AMAZING cd is at their shows! Breva will be performing at Folsom Live (in Sacramanto, CA) on Sept 24th! Your perfect opportunity to get the CD and meet the band. I am completely serious when I say that these guys are some of the best live performers I’ve ever seen! - www.thatdevilmusic.net
It has not yet been revealed what bands and songs will appear on the Breaking Dawn, Part 1, soundtrack. Famed music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, has been handling the soundtrack and the songs submitted for it.
Breva‘s song ‘The Stairs’ is one of the songs that was up for consideration. However, the song did not made it onto the soundtrack. Instead, the band has offered Team-Twilight readers a free download of the song! - Kristen- Rob- Fans
See Article - Fan Pop
Veteran Sacramento Rock Band Breva Comes Full Circle
Words by James Barone
The music business, even on a local level, is tough to break into. It’s cliquish and nepotistic, and like any other field, it’s all who you know. For the patient and persistent, however, the rewards are there. Local hard rock/alternative band Breva, from Folsom, is just now ready to reap those rewards, with the help of some local rock heavy-hitters.
According to drummer John Dutra, Breva has “been a band for six years, but we’ve been playing together for eight or so.” They put out two self released albums—their eponymous, self-recorded full-length album in 2005 and The Great Communicator, a five-song EP in 2007—and in early 2011, they will put forth The American Landscape, a more proper debut full-length. This time around, Breva worked with Simon Says/Rock Inc.’s Zac Diebels, who served as producer, and Far’s Shaun Lopez, who mixed the LP. Dutra says working with these two stalwarts of Sacramento’s rock scene felt like Breva had finally come “full circle.”
“To come and meet that circle, that we’re working with these dudes now, that makes us feel like we’re really doing something good and trying to kick down some doors in the Sacramento scene, which we really haven’t tried to do before,” he says.
Originally, Breva was set to work with only Diebels on The American Landscape, but at their producer’s suggestion, they brought Lopez on to mix the album.
“Zac and Shaun go way back, and they’re good buddies,” Dutra says. “That was kind of [Zac’s] call. It was his suggestion. He said it might be best to get another name on it, give a little more power to it and get fresh set of ears on it to mix. We were totally stoked about that.”
The result is an album on which Dutra says Breva “is coming into our own.” Not only did they get to work with more established Sacramento musicians, but the band also took more of a collaborative and varied approach to its songwriting.
“The 20 songs [we wrote] that have been hacked away to 10 on the album have been single songs that have been brought in by one person, things that have been jammed out in the room and things that have been taken a piece from this song here with a piece of this song here,” Dutra explains.
On their last release, Dutra says the songs were generally written by just one person and brought to the rest of the band.
“This one is much more diverse,” he continues. “There are songs that Phong [Ho, guitarist] wrote entirely on his own, and we didn’t even touch them. We just practiced them and recorded them. There are songs that we have that are four years old that we’ve tacked new parts on to and took out old parts and extended parts and twisted parts around. The main point is we’re all super involved in every aspect of it.”
Dutra contributed by stepping out from behind his drum kit and writing a few songs on guitar. He says that he knows enough guitar “to get ideas across,” then leaves it up to Ho to embellish upon those ideas and make them better. Dutra says his proficiency on the guitar also informs his work on the drums.
“I think of myself more playing the drums like a guitar player or a bass player,” he says. “I’m not really a drummer kind of guy where I’m up there shredding and trying to do drum solos and four bar drum fills. I just try to play the song.”
One song that Dutra had a big hand in on The American Landscape was tentatively titled “The Mars Volta.” The title of the song has since been changed to “Paper Is Poverty.” Dutra says he’s got a hit-or-miss relationship with the music of The Mars Volta, but the song is certainly inspired by the work of the group.
“That was one of the last songs we had written out of the batch of 18 or 20, and I had come into the studio one day, and I just did this drumbeat,” he says. “I said to the guys to play something to it, because it was kind of a cool little beat that feels like it’s in a weird time signature, but it’s in 4/4.
“We started jamming to it, and it was tentatively called ‘The Mars Volta,’ because I just stole the drumbeat from that dude,” he admits with a laugh. “I mean, like, lick for lick.”
Imitation is the biggest form of flattery, after all, but Breva’s latest effort probably won’t remind you of the aforementioned prog rockers. The American Landscape certainly contains elements of progressive rock music and perhaps splashes of psychedelia, but the band’s sound is imbued with the sort of energy found in the alternative rock of the early to mid-‘90s. Lyrically, the album is just as hard to define, but Dutra doesn’t mind it that way. From the album’s title and its cover (a political cartoon drawn by Rex Babin of the Sacramento Bee) it could be speculated that the lyrics would have a hard-line slant, but Dutra says that’s not necessarily the case.
“I don’t think all of [the songs] are political,” he says. “I would say that maybe two or three of them are politically driven, but maybe there’s more than that. I’m not too into the politics part, so I can hear a song—unless it’s like Rage Against the Machine or something, where they’re driving it down your throat—it’s not like that to me. I guess I perceive things differently, and I think that’s how Andy [Mills, vocalist] prefers it to be.”
Dutra says The American Landscape will be available in February, but could be pushed back to March. He says the band may release the album digitally at first and then try to shop it around to labels. In any case, Breva seems to have found its place in Sacramento’s rock ranks.
Breva’s The American Landscape will be available early 2011. In the meantime, see the band play Jan. 27 at The Press Club. Show starts at 8 p.m. - Submerge Magazine
It has not yet been revealed what bands and songs will appear on the Breaking Dawn, Part 1, soundtrack. There is likely a slew of songs that were submitted for the soundtrack, and knowing that only 15 or so will make the cut, we can expect to hear about several that almost made it. Famed music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas (The O.C., Gossip Girl) has been handling the soundtrack and the songs submitted for it.
Breva‘s song ‘The Stairs’ is one of the songs that was up for consideration. However, the song did not made it onto the soundtrack. Instead, the band has offered Team-Twilight readers a free download of the song! The song is previously unreleased, but you can give it a listen right here: - www.team-twilight.com
Discography
The Great Communicator- EP Self Released- 2007: Including singles "Tallest of the Tall" and "Communicator" which both had airtime on KWOD 106.5 Sacramento and KRXQ 98 Rock Sacramento.
New LP currently under way with a release date next year.
Photos
Bio
Breva formed during late 2005, when inspiration and ambition brought together five people with a common musical goal. With influences varying from Grunge Rock heroes Soundgarden and Nirvana, all the way across the musical spectrum to Bjork and Radiohead, Breva set out to find their sound and place in the Sacramento scene. Their first release, a self titled and self recorded eleven track album, was an experiment that illustrates the bands visions that would later be more apparent on their debut EP,The Great Communicator.
The Great Communicator, released in September of 2007, is an eclectic mix of sounds. After a handful of songs were written and prepared for pre-production, Breva enlisted Robert "Flossy" Cheek (Deftones, RX Bandits, Tera Melos, Quitter) to take the lead in production and engineering. Five songs were recorded at The Hanger Studios, and were then mixed and mastered by Jay Trammell (Self Against City, Broken Iris) of Fat Cat Recording Studios, bringing an enormous magnitude to the EP.
In support of The Great Communicator, Breva went on three national club tours booked and promoted by an agent from the Mustang Agency. After countless disputes and broken promises, Breva breached their contract with the agent and self booked another two national tours, including a stint on the 2008 Vans Warped tour (Kevin Says Stage).
After loosing a guitar player in 2009, the four remaining members of Breva began writing a batch of over twenty brand new songs. August of 2010 saw Breva recording ten of their strongest songs with Sacramento musician and producer Zach Diebles (Simon Says, Automatic Static, Key to Arson). With Shaun Lopez (FAR, Deftones, Rev Smile) providing his highly demanded mixing skills, Breva is stepping into a whole new ball game. Their new album, The American Landscape, is slated to be released in early 2011.
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