Brace/Choir :: Interview

Hailing from Berlin, Brace/Choir create a dreamy mix with touches of psychedelia and warm, pulsating beats. Their debut EP, Brace/Choir, arrived fully formed earlier this year and has been a favorite around here since. Legendary producer, musician, and provocateur Kramer {ShimmyDisc/Noise New York} saw fit to christen their maiden voyage as “fucking amazing.” Heady praise indeed … Brace/Choir took some time out from ramping up for their full-length to give us the skinny on all things Brace/Choir; an upcoming “soundtrack” project for the novella Le Diable amourex, living and creating in Berlin, instrument swapping, and attending a Satanic wedding …

Brace/Choir is Maxfield Gassmann, Alex Samuels, Dave Youssef, and Christoph Adrian.

First off, congratulations on Brace/Choir. I’d say it’s fucking amazing, but Kramer beat me to the punch … Can I ask the usual bit about how you all came together? How did you end up in Berlin? I got to say you arrived fully baked out of the oven …

Alex: Max and I grew up together outside Boston and have been close friends since the 3rd grade and playing music together since 7th grade. Our first gig actually happened to be in the living room of Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose daughter Maggie was celebrating her birthday (we went to school together). At the end of the night Skip Gates had had a little too much red wine and told me that I was the white Jimi Hendrix and that he was going to introduce Max to Max Roach – no bullshit! But that never happened … and now Max Roach is dead, so that’s a promise he’ll never be able to keep, but it’s all good.

:: Rebel Roar Cheyenne :: Brace/Choir {Self-released, 2010}