My Double, My Brother
Fullerton, California, United States | SELF
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Written on the website of the band The Fragrance is the phrase “We cannot help but make music,” a statement that, in retrospect, makes perfect sense with the music heard in Mosgo’s on April 3. The music that flows out of the southern Californian quintet has a certain unconscious nature—as if the individual members of the group are merely instruments to be played by a higher creative spirit.
“Every spring break we go on tour,” said frontman, guitarist, and lead vocalist Joel Hasemeyer. This year’s tour, called What We Found Beneath The Ground, took them through Arcata on the way to Portland and Seattle. The group was well received with a large audience thanks in part to lead guitarist and Arcata High alumnus Andy Leong. Leong’s connections in Arcata drew from all parts of the community, making for a diverse, cross-generational audience.
Pianist/accordionist Linzy Spann, bassist Evan Eliason, and drummer Matt Bushyeager make up the remainder of the band. Together the band seemed well-rehearsed, tight, and their sound punched through the air of the small venue.
The group has a powerful, expansive sound, drawing heavily from current indie artists.
“Overall we try to have an indie feel,” said Hasemeyer, with Leong nodding in assent. “Death Cab [for Cutie] and Arcade Fire, especially.” Hasemeyer’s voice rings out clear and honest over Leong’s churning and complex guitar parts. Spann often adds creative new sounds to the blend, including glockenspiel and accordion. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the band is the unique sound of Eliason’s fretless bass, which pulses and glides to the driving rhythm of Bushyeager’s drumming. Interesting bass lines are a staple of the band, many songs breaking down to the trilogy of lead vocals, bass, and light drumming before falling into a final soaring chorus.
Hasemeyer describes the writing process as a collaborative effort.
“I often write the lyrics, but each member of the band adds their own ideas when we get together.” Often Leong will come up with a musical idea for a song, and as the band rehearses, a new unique part is added for each member of the band. Lyrically, the music often provides a message of hope (“…and the sun will set/on our broken days/and we’ll watch them fade away…”)(from the song We’ll Watch Them Fade Away).
The group was formed at Biola University, a relatively small Christian school located in La Mirada, Los Angeles.
“We got together freshman year as a worship band,” said Hasemeyer, “then we started branching out and writing our own music.” In March of 2009, the group released its first EP, a six song collection entitled “Lift Your Heads and Rejoice.” The group doesn’t want to be perceived as a worship band any longer, preferring the all-encompassing description of “indie.”
Opening the show was the Giovani Quartet, a string quartet made up of AHS students Signe Nicklas, Chris Ives, Julio Lopez and Kira Weiss. They performed fabulously, playing everything from Dmitri Shostakovich to Phillip Glass. They would later join the Fragrance for their final number, Awake My Soul.
Hasemeyer is optimistic for the band’s future. He hopes to have a full-length album out by this fall or winter, and they are looking to be signed by a record company soon. At the present, though, he is in it for the music.
“As long as we can be able to play shows, we’ll be happy.”
- The Pepperbox
Discography
Lift Your Heads and Rejoice! EP
Photos
Bio
My Double, My Brother is a five-piece indie band that holds on to a profound hope in a seemingly despairing world. Based in La Mirada, CA, a small city outside Los Angeles, the band was formed at Biola University where all currently attend school. The group is comprised of front-man and guitarist Joel Hasemeyer, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Linzy Spann, guitarist Andy Leong, bassist Evan Eliason, and drummer Matt Bushyeager, who was added to the lineup in September 2009.
With the exception of Bushyeager, the whole band came into school and met as music majors in August 2007, and soon began leading worship for their peers on campus. After a year of playing together, My Double, My Brother found their passions and talents best exemplified in the creative process of writing music. Taking influence from bands such as Arcade Fire, Anathallo, Death Cab for Cutie and Fleet Foxes, the band managed to write and record a six song EP in early 2009.
With their debut album “Lift Your Heads and Rejoice!” the band has created art that pleases the ears and speaks to the soul. Singing songs with paradoxes of loss for gain, laments of hind-sighted rebellion and anthems of incomprehensible grace, My Double, My Brother seems to have touched on the timeless concepts of humanity. From the guitar-driven, celestial-painted, “O, We Shall Rejoice!” to the pulsing, tambourine shaking, make-you-want-to-dance song, “The Parade,” a wide spectrum of styles and influences have found a cohesive and harmonious effort in My Double, My Brother.
With three tours completed and an established place earned in Southern California's indie music scene, the band continues in their endeavor to share their songs with as many people as possible, all the while maintaining a passionate desire to create new and good music. “We strive to create great music and great art because we are all called to live beyond mediocrity. Our creative skills, gifts, and talents are not excuses to skate by with ‘good enough,’ but they are commodities that demand to be developed into excellence,” says Leong. Hasemeyer comments, “We have received grace and love far beyond what we deserve, and one of our most passionate responses to these gifts is to merely rejoice.” In the coming year the band plans to continue touring and playing local shows, all while recording their first full-length album, set to release in the late Fall.
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