Spring Break
Brown Shoe, Dirty Feet set to rock Luna's
Luke Soin
Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Features
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They've been likened to Sigur Rós and My Morning Jacket. The band consists of three brothers, Aaron, Ryan, and Bryson Baggaley, and their friend, Jim Mikesell. Recently we got a chance to chat with two of the four band mates.
What's the story behind your band name?
Ryan Baggaley: It was kind of random. Someone just said something about shoe and brown and there was no actual real (reason). We wanted a real simple name so you couldn't quite discern what it meant necessarily. So people don't associate anything with it already, they'll listen to our music for what it is.
I read a review online and the one thing they said they didn't like about you guys was the name.
RB: (Laughs) We've gotten that in a lot of write-ups. They're always like 'great band but horrible band name' and I love it because it's like whatever, what's a band name? I don't really put a lot of value in band names.
How did you guys choose what direction your music was going to take?
Bryson Baggaley: Musical influence. You grow up as a kid listening to certain bands and you want to play like them eventually but, this is like when you're 8, 9 years old, and then you kind of just keep that in the back of your head when you go into the practice room. You try and not bring that to the table but eventually there's little snippets of that sound so I mean it just depends really.
RB: The four of us, we don't really think too much. There's a lot of bands that have a formula to what kind of genre they want to fit in. I think we're all just so similar, what we like as far as what we listen to that there wasn't a lot of talking about what direction we want to go. It was just kind of someone brings something to the table or someone starts jamming and we just kind of go with it and if we all like it we just keep playing the song. If we don't we stop playing the song. There's not a whole lot of thought about how the song starts and where the sound is going. We all like the same kind of tones and sounds. There's so many different versions but we always liked the same tones and the same style of music that it didn't have to be a big discussion it was like, 'Oh that was cool.' So it's pretty simple for us - three of us are brothers so we live together (and) we all listen to the same kind of music growing up. But we all have our strong and weak points at what we do well. We're all kind of similar in our musical sensibilities.
That's interesting because a lot of brothers I know aren't as similar as you guys.
RB: Most brothers can't even hang out as much as we do (laughs).
BB: It's like 40 hours a week.
RB: We work, and then after we work together for eight hours a day, we go home and practice for another three or four.
What inspires your music?
RB: I mean depending on, like lyrically I think it depends. Sometimes it's a girl sometimes it's even like a friend or an idea you have about the way something is. You kind of can morph anything into it - it usually doesn't have to be an animate object. It could be anything you get fixated on and you want to tell a certain story as far as lyrically. As far as musically, I think all four of us probably all have a different thing that gives us our emotion and really pushes the song in a certain direction you know. Because I know when someone starts something a lot of times they'll be in a certain mood and it's very indicative of what we're playing.
BB: Yeah, a lot of it has to do with your attitude for the day I've noticed. Like if Aaron brings a song to the table or if it's just based off a jam warming up or whatever and it forms into a song, which has happened a couple times, it's really based on if you had a good day or not.
So if you're having a bad day...?
BB: Yeah, it's going to be a lot darker song that's for sure. But I don't know sometimes pretty songs come from bad days too it just depends, how you feel, how you want to bring the song out.
Where have you guys had you best show?
RB: That's a tough one; we've had a few that I really enjoyed a great deal. But they're all for different reasons. Like this one show, our first show, we played The Crest and we sucked, but from what we are now, that was like three years ago. So it was a lot different. The sound was still the same it was just how well the band plays together. It's crazy how much different it is over the years. That, in a way, was one of our best shows just because it was the catalyst to being the band that we are now and it was just cool because there was a lot of people there and it was fun and it was a great night.
Our best playing show that I've ever liked was probably recently in San Francisco at this place called Red Devil Lounge. I just felt like we all played (well) and the room was packed to the gills. We have a lot more fans out there and it was just a fun night. When you have that moment where you're playing music, everyone else is there to hear the music they've heard on the records, the room is packed, the sound is good and you're playing well - it's just really great.
Brown Shoe is playing tonight at Luna's with The Dirty Feet.
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