Brutus: Striving For Perfection
Crossing post-rock, post-hardcore, with lashings of emo and shoegaze, BRUTUS make creating genre-fluid music seem as easy as breathing. Their debut album Burst did exactly that, catapulting them into hearts and minds the world over. Nest followed this, expanding on their template and what it meant to be BRUTUS. The Ghent trio were poised for another banner year in 2020 after the success of Nest, but the world – as we’ve all had far too many times – had other plans. Instead, they retreated into their homes and began writing again, creating the next chapter in their story. Ahead of the release of that new chapter, we sat down with the trio to talk all things BRUTUS and their new album, Unison Life.
“It’s almost unreal to think about it, it’s so weird. We recorded it in January and it’s now October,” bassist Peter Mulders ponders. Firebrand drummer/vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts, whose lightning-in-a-bottle live energy has practically become the stuff of legend, expands on that. “It’s six more songs everyone gets to hear [after four singles]. I had more stress with those singles though! We’re a band and we love making records. I think it would be easier to do like, this is the baby, and not ‘this is an arm, this is a foot’.” But that drip-feed approach that’s commonplace in the industry paid dividends; lead single Dust was adored by fans, as were the remaining three; Liar, Victoria and the latest, What Have We Done?.
As Mulders explains, “we overthought it. It’s a bit of storytelling, like what do we want you to hear first. There are so many combinations, and there’s no perfect combination [of singles]”. It all points to a band who are very intentional with their writing and their songcraft. Over time, that’s allowed them to zero in more and more on what they think BRUTUS is about, even as their sonic palette expands. “For me, it’s about energy, melody and emotions. And that’s it. We try to do all of that with a bass, guitar and drums,” Mulders explains. Clearly it’s successful; even the drumless opener, Miles Away, is centred first and foremost on making sure you feel something.
That’s in part because their albums explore themes; where Nest explored the idea of their relationships, not just with each other but with friends, family and loved ones, Unison Life asks the question: is there a perfect life? Does it exist, and do we want that? “Stefanie is chasing the unison life all the time,” says Mulders. “All the songs are based on her feelings, and what she’s doing in life to avoid or get to a situation where everything is fine and nothing is wrong. But it doesn’t always work like that.”
Take Liar, for instance. It does what it says on the tin, with Mannaerts spending the song calling herself a liar. “It’s the ugly side of getting stupid things out of the way,” she explains. “You lie about stuff because it’s nicer in the moment. But afterwards, you fucked yourself over because you lied.” “I think everyone does it,” Mulders opines, “but it’s very human. It’s very brave for Stefanie to sing about it, a lot of people will just pretend they’re not doing it. You think it’s a lie for the better because sometimes it’s easier and faster.”
There’s also the opposite side of the coin in Victoria, where they celebrate “the nice side about chasing harmony with your friends, with your family, in your life. [As an album] it’s not all negative, but it’s certainly not positive.” It’s a fine balance to strike, between emotional catharsis and celebrating happier moments and joy. From Mannaerts’ pained “I am so tired / of everyone that’s breathing down my neck” atop charging drums and swirling guitars in Dust to the aforementioned Liar where she howls “I never been honest / not even for a day”, to the post-rock swells of Victoria, it’s one that comes not necessarily easily, but certainly naturally to them. “We’re so typical,” Mannaerts laughs, “we wrote Dust, which is very negative and then next rehearsal it was Victoria!” Mulder agrees; “we always have to do counterweights, it’s in our nature to compensate all the time.”
Guitarist Stijn Vanhoegaerden let his bandmates speak the most tonight, but his answers are always considered when he does speak up. When we ask whether they always seek out some light even in darker songs as part of their contrast-focused approach, he answers “I think that [reflection] is in the songs we write. We do it musically, and Stefanie does it in her lyrics. It’s all a bit dark, but there’s some light somewhere. You need that little bit musically and lyrically, to make everything heavier.” He’s not wrong; while instrumentally, Unison Life might not be in massively downtuned territories, the reflection and the little glimpses of light in the dark, or vice versa, lend a whole new dimension of weight to their music.
Another theme that crops up during our conversation is how focused on writing the best BRUTUS songs they can the trio are. Where with Nest they had War that they felt helped to cement who they were and what they do, when we put the question to them as to whether they’ve moved on since then, it’s an unequivocal yes. “There’s something in the room that changes,” Mannaerts explains of the moment they knew they had something special on their hands. “It’s not that we don’t believe in the other songs the same,” she clarifies, but that they all had a specific moment, together, that awakened them to where Unison Life could go.
“We had that on this record with What Have We Done,” Vanhoegaerden recalls. “I remember thinking, I can’t believe we made this!” “What was very cool, and I can say this because I don’t play it,” Mannearts laughs, “Peter had a six-string bass that looks like a baritone. It isn’t, but I call it one.” (“Why do you have to say baritone? Don’t do it!” Mulders jokingly interjects), “they played the intro how it is now. It and War were something different. I see Stijn and Peter playing this and I hope we can make a beautiful song out of it – and I’m very proud of the end result.”
As we spend more time together, it becomes increasingly clear that part of just what makes BRUTUS so special is their connection not just to their music, but to each other. Towards the end, as we debate the merits of three piece bands, they gently rib each other for a solid ten minutes, falling about laughing without missing a beat or not answering a question. That’s something you can hear in every note of Unison Life; a band bonded not just by the incredible, dynamic and emotional music they write together but also by strong personal bonds between all three of them. Lastly, there’s unity of their vision too; they hope people can connect to their songs and maybe, just maybe, have an album that people come back to ten years later for comfort. Arguably, Unison Life achieves that; like a warm hug while you have a good cry, it’s both comforting and cathartic. And that’s what matters.
Unison Life is out now via Hassle Records/Sargent House.
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