PREMIERE | Br'er, "Forever Child"
The latest from D.C.’s own Br’er; photographed by Lindsay Hogan.
DC act Br’er has had a new album in various stages of development now for nearly half a decade titled Take Away From Me The Noise Of Your Songs. Developed as bandleader/BLIGHT. Records operator Benjamin Schurr was recovering from a respiratory illness; a series of creative, personal and spiritual awakenings took place while the world’s civic landscape became the altered and inverted existence we now contend with daily. Presenting the world debut of "Forever Child"; brace thyself for a nine minute masterpiece fit for the loftiest Broadway stage to the most humble, slightly elevated stoop of a chic little dive.
“Forever Child” is Br’er at their best; invoking magical realism in a transcendent vehicle that brings about the collision of worlds. Traversing through different sections and movements; Benjamin ups the performance ante to the hilt. Questions of maternal and paternal connections and their inherent complications are explored throughout the song’s various acts, as is a tale of possession and world shaking realizations. The serious and high emotional momentum propels the song forward across grandiose musical set pieces that exhibit heavy depictions of heart, scars that hurt and the visceral catharsis of healing. “Forever Child” showcases Br’er, like their BLIGHT. labelmates, making some of today’s most avant-garde music that take cues from some of the highest levels of intuition that yield results that are unlike anything else in the pop art markets.
Benjamin Schurr from Br’er provided the following reflections on the new single:
“Forever Child” recounts youth long forgotten. Sonically, It utilizes sounds found on early Br'er recordings and uses muted hazy tones to conjure up memory. Its a song of two younger people trying to right the trauma inflicted on them from their families and attempting to heal one another. In the process of doing this they assume the parental roles which results in the cycles threatening to repeat themselves and the erosion of their romantic relationship. Forever Child has been one of the most difficult songs for me to write and before we recorded it i don't think I actually ever played the song all the way through. I find that the songwriting process is less about what I want to say and more about what needs to be said. Its an odd feeling when you write a song that doesn't inherently feel "good" when you play it but feel a greater sense of accomplishment for something bigger than your personal sense of joy.
Benjamin Schurr shared further reflections on the new album:
Take Away from Me the Noise of Your Songs was written in a period ranging from my recovery from a respiratory illness which kept me essentially bedridden for 6 months until the time of the Charlottesville tragedy. It is an album of anger. It's an album of fear. It's a prayer to god. It's a seance. It's seeing ghosts. It's a wish to be forgiven. It's empathetic. It's allowing yourself to be afraid.
Looking back, many of songs emerged from moments of confused clairvoyance. The opening track, “Dread,” came to me and possessed my spirit in early 2016 as I was leaving the hospital. I felt frozen, and could sense in the air that we were in for a massive cultural shift.
“Diaspora” came soon after. Performing that song in DC the day before the election to a packed room at the dive-y Dew Drop Inn remains one of the most intense experiences of my musical career and the memory of it stands vivid against the sharp turn the mood of the country took just a day later.
Br'er has always been a band that was toying with time. Our albums have always been studio focused affairs, but after our previous two albums were so heavily edited and quantized, we really wanted to capture the energy of the current lineup as a group. Time was against us, though. Ben Usie moved to New Orleans while the rest of the band remained in DC. Br’er was beginning to fracture due to the natural strain of a group of people who’d been going hard for 5+ years.
Erik, Johnny and myself trekked down to New Orleans from Washington, DC, and spent a week learning some new songs from demos I made. We then went to Lafayette to track the guts of the album to tape. In the middle of this, Charlottesville happened, and we urgently tracked “Diaspora.” Needless to say the experience wore us all the fuck out.
Putting this album out has been an exercise in patience. Months went by and we started focusing on other projects. I asked my future bandmates Maura Pond and Hannah Burris to help add some strings and vocals to the album. More months passed, and Peter Larkin mixed it right before he moved his studio (which was basically the BLIGHT. band's home away from home) from Del Ray, VA to Santa Fe.
Days turned to months and months to years about what to do with this album, on one hand it was what I always envisioned Br'er to be doing, but on the other hand it seemed cursed and always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the seemingly never-ending obstacles and delays, these songs seem frighteningly more timely now than ever. I believe music’s sole purpose is to heal and give strength for the battles which life puts forth. I hope this helps.
Take Away From Me The Noise Of Your Songs will be available June 2 via BLIGHT. Records.