The Brinks

Busy promoting their debut EP (released in December last year), the LA-based duo consisting of New York City producer, songwriter and keyboardist Matt Friedman and Australian singer, guitarist and songwriter Scott Mellis made time for Digital Journal.

Out now on Louder Than Life/Sony Music, Temporary Love was executive produced by Salaam Remi, known for his work with the likes of Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys. Amazingly, Friedman and Mellis only began recording demos together in 2015, finding an early supporter in the form of Pharrell Williams, who tweeted about the band to his eight million followers.

The Brinks have already chalked up a number of impressive accolades, with their debut single - the title track of the EP - receiving 10 million plays on Spotify. The song also peaked at number three on Hype Machine's Popular Chart and has also received airplay on Jason Kramer's KCRW show and Pharell's Beats 1 radio show. I spoke to the pair. - DIGITAL JOURNAL

The Brinks are not your average pair. The alt-pop duo, comprised of Australian Scott Mellis and New York-bred Matt Friedman, stepped into the music scene just a year ago with their debut EP Temporary Love, and have since created a presence on the Internet that got the attention and support of Pharrell and Pusha T. Now, Mellis and Friedman are using their transcultural influences to create a new brand of ethereal music.

“Scott has kind of this beachy Australian thing and I’ve got the more gritty, New York rap-like production, then together we have this laidback L.A thing going,” Friedman told BULLETT. “We got together to just do some song writing, we were both writing for other people at the time. We started making stuff that was weird and kind of our own. We were having fun doing it and it kind of snowballed into The Brinks.”

The two began working together just a year before the release of Temporary Love. With Matt producing instrumentals and Scott in charge of vocal melodies, the two took inspiration from The Beatles and The Smiths to create their own alt-pop twist.

“We write pop songs, essentially,” Friedman said. “I think with the songs we write, maybe on the 5th or the 10th listen, you hear it a little differently.” - BULLETT

The Brinks are a rare kind of talent. In fact, they’ve proven as much by earning the praise of soundsmiths as prolific and renowned as Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, Alicia Keys), Pusha T and Pharrell Williams.

The Brinks, the musical partnership of Matt Friedman and Scott Mellis, have been taking the internet by storm since the release of their debut EP Temporary Love in 2015. Since then, they’ve racked up 10 million streams for the record’s title track and landed at #3 on Hype Machine’s Popular Chart. That’s not to mention the support they received from Pusha, who called the group’s work “incredible” and encouraged his 9+ million followers to listen up.

“I don’t want to say the reception has been surprising,” says Mellis, “but it’s definitely been great. I can’t even describe the exact feeling!”

The Australian vocalist and songwriter needn’t worry about explaining himself. It’s been a fairly incredible journey for him already, moving from his hometown of Melbourne to the U.S. and quickly finding a creative partner in Friedman after friends connected the two for writing sessions.

“We were writing for another artist but we both realized that what we were coming up with was something a little different,” remembers Mellis. “We really liked it, though, so we decided, ‘Let’s focus on this and see how it goes.’”

Friedman on the other hand has spent the past decade or so cutting his teeth in the studio, performing on albums and cooking up beats for some of the biggest names in the rap game like Kid Cudi and LL Cool J. While he still looks back on that time fondly, the New York native felt ready to move in a different direction and found the perfect ally in Mellis.

We were both looking to do something like this for a long time,” he says.

The music that the two came up with is thoroughly modern music, indebted to the worlds of electronic dance and hip-hop production as it is to pure, catchy indie pop. The whole thing is anchored by Friedman’s devilish facility for melody and Mellis’ ability to capture a wealth of emotion in one simple lyric. It’s a fantastic meeting of minds that leaves listeners in awe, keeping the music on repeat.

“We both come from different worlds,” says Friedman. “Scott comes from a singer/songwriter world and I come from a background of rap and dark electronic production. It was the perfect time for us to tap into the sound we wanted to make for ourselves.”

With Temporary Love still racking up acclaim and airplay, the duo will soon be supporting the EP on the road and show no sign of slowing down any time soon.

“We just want to write songs that are memorable, classic and appeal to a lot of different people,” Mellis says. “We really want it all!” - ALL ACCESS MUSIC