A Conversation with The Belle Brigade’s Barbara & Ethan Gruska – HuffPost 4.19.11
Mike Ragogna: Barbara and Ethan Gruska, you have a terrific new, self-titled album, and there are moments where your sound is like Simon & Garfunkel meets Fleetwood Mac. Are they among your influences?
Ethan Gruska: We definitely are influenced by Fleetwood Mac, we like Simon & Garfunkel, but most of our influence is from Paul Simon’s original stuff. We really love all of his solo stuff, they are some of my favorite records ever.
MR: Have you heard his new album?
EG: We were actually just talking about checking it out, we heard it’s really good.
MR: Yeah, it’s awesome.
EG: He is a big idol, and he is just amazing.
MR: Who else influenced you?
EG: Our influence comes from a lot of places, a lot of the stuff our mom and dad were listening to when we were young. A lot of Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor. Also, a lot of our friends’ bands in L.A., going out and watching them play and having them come and play on our stuff. It’s all over the place, I guess.
MR: Now, you’re the offspring of famed arranger, singer-songwriter, and musician, Jay Gruska.
BG & EG: Yep, right that’s our dad. (laughs)
MR: He co-wrote songs with a pal of mine Bill Mumy, the guy from Lost In Space andBabylon 5.
BG & EG: Yeah!
MR: You guys hang with Bill too?
EG: Yeah, I just saw him the other day. He was over at my dad’s house and we were talking guitars. He’s a guitar freak.
MR: And you’re also the grandchildren of John Williams?
Barbara Gruska: Yup, you’re right too.
MR: Can you look at the influence and that family tree, and see how that played a role in molding you guys?
BG: Yeah, there is no way we couldn’t be entirely influenced by growing up around that music. Basically, everybody on both sides of our family were either professional musicians or great musicians who don’t do it for a living. We were just surrounded by it. It was easy and unavoidable to become musicians ourselves.
MR: What is the creative dynamic between the two of you?
BG: Everything on this record that is coming out is pretty much 100 percent collaborative. We start songs every which way, but we always finish songs together. Sometimes, one of us will have a lyrical idea but the other one will help with the music or vice-versa. If I’m writing a song about something that’s my own experience, Ethan knows enough about who I am and where I’m coming from to collaborate on the lyrics and vice-versa. So, everything we do is collaborative.
MR: Barbara, I accidentally referred to your first track as “Sweet Lorraine” when we first chatted, though it’s actually called “Sweet Louise.” You were about to tell a story about why that’s significant.
BG: Yeah, I was surprised when you said that. We just found out that a few weeks ago, our grandpa heard our music for the first time. He was so surprised when he heard we had a song called “Sweet Louise,” because when he was 17 years old, he went to North Hollywood High in the Valley. He had a band and he wrote a song called “Sweet Lorraine” that turned into a local North Hollywood hit on the radio. I just thought that was a really funny coincidence that by accident, you called it “Sweet Lorraine.”
MR: Do you guys ever get together and play with your dad?
EG: Yeah, my dad would always listen to stuff that I was writing when I was young. He would always help me out with a piano part or show me a cool bass line to add. He would even have a lot to say about the form of the song and even cutting out sections to make it more of a natural flow. My dad was always there for me as kind of a songwriting coach, I would say also, without being overbearing. It was just very positive but also very critical. That helped me a lot. I never really jammed with him, Barbara did though.
BG: Yeah, I started playing drums when I was young and my dad was my very first band mate. I would get him to come into the garage and have him plug in his mini-electric guitar and jam with me. Just electric guitar and drums. Pretty much my first interactive playing experience was with my dad.
MR: Was there always music playing in the house?
BG: Definitely, there was almost always music playing on the stereo or my dad composing music on the piano in the living room. The studio was also in the backyard, so there was music all of the time.
MR: Did your dad help you with this album? I know it was co-produced by Matthew Wilder right?
BG: That’s right, yeah.
MR: What was it like working with him in the studio?
BG: It was the best, we are very close to Matthew and we consider him a part of our family. So, to be with somebody that you just love so much and who had a lot of great input and ideas is really fun and great.
MR: Did your dad do any shadow boxing on this project?
BG: Our dad is a huge influence on us when it comes to the development of our songwriting. I started writing around Ethan’s age, which was around 21 and he started writing very young. We would always kind of test-bounce our songs off of him, and he would be very blunt about what he thought worked and what didn’t work. The songs we wrote for this record, we pretty much wrote in the sixth months before we recorded it. Those songs, we played for our dad, and he kind of gave them the thumbs up. This was the first point where he trusted that we knew what was right for our own songs. So, for the last time around for this whole record, he wasn’t a part of the writing process, but we wouldn’t be writing the way we are writing if he hadn’t helped us through the course of our lives.
MR: You have great lines like in “Losers” that go, “There will always be someone better than you even if you are the best.” When I hear a song like that, I just go, “Oh, my God.” I guess I like it mostly because of the message of if you’re going to use owning that million-dollar house, etc. as the criteria for being a winner, almost no one wins.
EG: Yeah, absolutely. It’s about living the most fulfilling life you can and that is a matter of removing envy and jealousy and competition. It is impossible to completely remove that, but the song was just kind of a pep talk to ourselves. It’s just an everyday reminder of what’s important.
MR: Okay, so how do you really feel about your new album?
BG: I like it.
MR: (laughs) I’m very much a fan of the vocal multi-tracking you did on the album, especially on my favorite track, “Lucky Guy.” It seems to be a lost art. When you do your three part harmonies. I appreciate that you guys have that as your signature sound. What were the mechanics of that in the studio?
BG: Depending on who takes the melody and who takes the main melody basically the main melody gets recorded first and then the harmony would go after that. Ethan and I would split the third part harmony.
MR: What musicians do you have on this project?
BG: Our friend Bram Inscore is playing bass, Mike Finnigan and Aaron Arntz are playing B3 and keyboard, Blake Mills and Harlan Silverman are playing electric guitar. Also, a bunch of orchestral musicians play on “Losers” and “Punchline.” Ethan plays acoustic guitar and vocals and I do drums and vocals, so yeah.
MR: Do you have any interesting news about The Belle Brigade in addition to your new album’s release?
BG: We get to play on Jimmy Kimmel the day of the album release on the 19th.
MR: You’ve probably hung out on the set before, huh?
BG: I’ve actually only played as a drummer on Jimmy Kimmel in other people’s bands.
MR: What advice do you have for new artists?
BG: The same advice that we try to give to ourselves everyday, which is just to keep on working hard. Even when you’re busy and you’re touring, just to keep on writing and keep on collaborating and trying to grow as a band. Never be satisfied with what you just finished, keep on going forward.
MR: Ethan?
EG: I agree, I think always just sticking through. If you’re writing a song, just keep on revising and getting it to the highest place that you feel it. Also, being honest and not being something that you’re not. That is a very hard thing to do. Sometimes, when it just comes naturally to do, it’s just a really rewarding thing.
MR: All of the best to you guys, please let’s do this again.
EG & BG: Thank you so much.
Transcribed by Theo Shier