The Light Brights will release its debut this fall. (Scott Blackburn photo)
Coming from the Halifax/Dartmouth area, The Light Brights are Bethany Fulde (vocals/guitar), Chad Harrington (bass) and Andrew Dahms (percussion). The trio met in music school and has since created its own funky, bluesy, dancey rock sound.
The Light Brights have made a name for themselves in recent months, releasing a self-titled EP last fall and playing shows non-stop in the Halifax area.
The band is taking a break for the summer while readying its full-length release, The World’s A Changin’, which Fulde says “shines with musical-growth, and sings of the frustrations and wonders of both love and the Earth.”
Fulde and Harrington join us this week …
1. Tell us about The Light Brights. When and how you did you guys form?
Bethany Fulde: We met through the NSCC Music Arts program. After the first six months, and after playing in both rock and latin/R&B ensembles together, I asked Chad and Andrew if they wanted to play in a band with me. They were like YEAHHHH! They were more of a rhythm section to my old singer/songwriter stuff, but once school was finished we felt a little more free with our creativity. We started to mesh together and write together and really bring some soul to our new stuff — we’re not the same band you may have heard when we first started.
Chad Harrington: It was a music school thing, we met playing music together at NSCC. Originally me and Andrew were just Bethany’s rhythm section for her more folky sounding music. Then we realized we wanted to be a BAND. The new music is so much different, you can hear everyone’s influences. Very groove-based stuff … but also improvisational elements are in there too. We actually wrote most of the music together at band rehearsals. Bethany writes the most of the lyrics, but Andrew, our drummer, wrote a lot of them for a song Shine a Little Light, and I wrote all the lyrics for The Worlds a Changin.’
2. How did you get into performing/recording your own music, and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet in the ‘business’?
BF: We started performing and recording as The Light Brights about a year and a half ago, though we’ve all done both with other bands and projects in previous years. We recorded our first EP through school, though a lot of it was re-mixed and re-recorded at Sound Shelter Studio, which is Chad’s recording studio. By the time we released it (Sept. ‘09), we were already writing new songs and knew that we were starting to go in a different direction… that’s about the time I switched to electric guitar. We spent a lot of long days in the studio in the past six months, hashing out songs and getting the forms and lyrics and layers and tones the way we wanted them.
I think one major lesson we’ve learned is that things always take longer than you expect. I think it’s because we get so excited to do things like perform and record and tour that we hope to get it all done at once… but with all the marketing/promotion/networking to be done too, plus unexpected bumps along the way, it’s impossible, and it’s not worth rushing it. It’s all about working hard and prioritizing… which can also mean playing the waiting game.
CH: It’s a lot of work…. you can’t just play a few shows and expect people will notice you. You need to make sure you promote every show. No sense wasting a gig, you need to let as many people know about it as possible. Sometimes it’s hard to do it all, but we try and we’re getting better.
3. As I understand it, you guys are on a “show hiatus” for the summer so you can concentrate on preparing the new album. How is the recording and all that going?
BF: Well, our album is almost finished (it just has to be mastered!!), and we are really excited to share it with everyone! We want to really let people know about our new music, so we’re taking the summer to promote through album reviews, radio play, a music video (which we recorded in May) for our single, Do They Know, and a making-of documentary about the music video which includes interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
CH: The recordings sound GREAT, Andew Watt did a wonderful job mixing them here at my home studio (where we recorded the entire album) and were just waiting on mastering! Very exciting.
4. The album release and tour is planned for September. Are you still on target for that?
BF: Yes! We’ll be having a CD release party in Halifax in September, and a Maritime tour to follow shortly after. Dates will be released mid-July!
5. How extensive will the tour be?
CH: For fall, every inch of the Maritimes we can get to… eventually spreading to more of central Canada.
6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?
BF: Working on a music therapy degree…I know that’s still music but I can’t imagine it not being directly related to my life — I’d be so sad! It’d be great to incorporate music therapy and working in a third world country like Ghana or Peru. I plan to go down there and volunteer in the next 10 years anyways… actually, if I wasn’t doing music at all I would already be doing that.
CH: Something creative… I used to get my creativity out by customizing old Volkswagens. I guess I still do… but not to the extent that I used to. I’m still always dabbling in anything I can. My cousin and I are planning on filming a short nine-minute thriller in August to be released in 2011 sometime.
7. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?
BF: Black Keys — Brothers, Rheostatics — Introducing Happiness, Bonnie Raitt – Live at The Rainbow Room. Oh, and I haven’t listened to it lately, but if you’re reading this and want some poetry and live jazzy jazz you should really listen to Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner.
CH: I’ve been listening to ours. I’ve put so much time into recording and helping with mixing and such. A little overdosed at the moment, but (I’m) still enjoying the songs, so that’s good! Other than that… I’ve taken a liking to Zeus and Dan Mangan.
8. Other than the new album, what’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?
BF: I can’t wait to really get touring! Maritimes in September, Quebec/Ontario soon to follow. More Maritimes in the late spring. There will definitely be a new album within the next two years, as we’ve already started working on a couple of songs together, and I’ve been writing a lot of bluesy stuff on my own lately (which I know the guys will funnnk up even more!). There’s so much we have planned, it’s just a matter of time!
CH: Albums, more. Record a few bands I’m not actually in. I’ve got some solo music I would like to spend some time on, folk /dance, sort of an organic electronic fusion possibly, that short film … I want to build a custom electric bike. Too many ideas, not enough time. So main focus is on The Light Brights.
Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Tim Isaac of Lovestorm and Isaac & Blewett
