It’s always an interesting phenomenon when members of awesome-but-broken-up bands come together to start something new. On one hand, you sort of want them to return to their old, mind-blowing ways. But you are similarly interested to see what they will do next.
Regina’s Bright Black is one such band that benefits from its members’ past affiliations in addition to their eclectic styles of musicianship.
Comprised of ex-members of Ghosts of Modern Man and Geronimo, Bright Black cull sounds from both now-defunct bands but wield their songs in an entirely different light.
“Henry, Garrett and myself just started playing out of a pure need to do so,” says vocalist and guitarist Jonah Krieser. “My old band and their old band called it quits and people like us tend to get depressed and bored when we’re not playing music.
“There was chemistry there right from the get go, so we stuck with it and rehearsed as much as three busy adult men can find the time to do so.”
On the their debut release, entitled Curse of the Young, Bright Black set a high level of intensity and never waver from it throughout the entirety of the six song EP. Combining hard-hitting drums with driving bass lines and a guitar that skronks uncontrollably while adding layers of tar-dense melodies, the trio thunder far more relentlessly than any of their previous projects.
“There was no initial preconceived idea in terms of how we wanted to sound when we started playing together,” says Krieser. “I had some loose song structures floating around and we just sort of worked them until they felt good. After a few songs were fleshed out and we got comfortable, it became kind of apparent that we were riding the line between a ’90’s noise rock kind of thing (Jesus Lizard, Drive Like Jehu, etc.) and a straight up more classic, boogie rock kind of thing (AC/DC, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, etc).
“So I guess we’re the sort of band that you can shake your ass to while you, in turn, kick someone else’s ass,” he continues. “Or you could say we’re a good sound track for getting a root canal and a blow job at the same time.”
With an excellent EP already in the can, it’s likely that Bright Black have something of a live presence to back it up. While they’ve already been gigging around locally, Krieser hints that audiences outside of the Queen City will be able to witness the trio’s onslaught soon enough.
“Nothing is set in stone as of yet,” says Krieser. “We want to release this EP in a really nice vinyl package as soon as we can, so for now we’re working on figuring that out. We’ve been talking with our good friend Robb Morrison, who lent his incredible engineering talents and imagination to this EP about doing a full length soon, so that’s in the works.
“As far as touring goes, that’s really up in the air at the moment, but I imagine we’ll be gettin’ all hot n’ sweaty in Western Canada in the very near future.”