CD Review

Philadelphia's own Brothers Past are taking a big step forward with their new album, This Feeling's Called Goodbye. Shedding the jam band clichés of long drawn out group improvisations and songs that sometimes seem like excuses to get to the jam sections, this album spotlights Brothers Past's new focus on songwriting. Each song unfolds like a story, partly because of the intelligent lyrical statements and partly because of the to-the-point song structures.

There are some serious standout tunes to be found within. "Simple Gift of Man" is a masterpiece that hits hard and drips of emotional reckoning in a user friendly, embraceable format. It goes through many different moods before climaxing with an exhilarating end section like a puff of fresh air. This is a nice treasure to find in today's formula driven, cookie cutter, mass produced messes that the major record labels push down the publics' throats.

The more electronica oriented songs on the disc could all easily become dancehall favorites if marketed right. "Forget You Know Me" is possibly the best example of this potential with its hypnotic catchy vocals and danceable beat. "Words Like Weapons" does the same thing, but just in a more dark and personal way.

"Everything Must Go," the last song on the album, is another one that takes you on a journey. It is very bubbly and it, simply, just flows well. The verses are flooded with very hypnotic ahhhhhh background vocals throughout, that bring you into the Brothers Past world one last time before the conclusion of the album. The song (and album) finish with all of the instruments abruptly ending and the word "goodbye" being delicately sung. A classy ending indeed.

With This Feelings Called Goodbye, Brothers Past focuses on the art of songwriting and does it in a unique way that sets them apart from the pack. When you combine strong, well-written, catchy songs like "State Police" and "Simple Gift of Man" with electronica laden powerhouses like "Celebrity" and "Words Like Weapons," you get a detailed glimpse into the future of quality, from the heart, music.

I had the opportunity to speak with guitarist/vocalist Tom Hamilton about the album a couple days before their big album release party in New York City at the Bowery Ballroom. We spoke about the song writing process, recording in the studio and, of course, the songs themselves.

Tell me about your writing process.

Being on tour it's hard to sit down and really write stuff out. So a lot of times when I'm on the road, I work on bits and pieces. A little ditty here on guitar, or if I think of a line that I like lyrically I jot it down. Usually by the end of the tour I have an obscene amount of stuff. When I get home and have some time to relax and decompress and take things in, I will go through these books and all my notepads and see if there are any lines that strike me, or that I could expand on and go from there.

On the new album, which songs are old and which are new?

The oldest out of all of them is probably "Simple Gift of Man," which is about two years old. I remember we started writing that right after we released our last album, A Wonderful Day. It was out first tour, a big exciting time for us, and I started ripping this thing out. I remember soundchecking with it in Tallahassee when I only had half the song. I said, "Hey guys, lets play through this one a little bit so I can get some ideas together." That one took a really long time to write, it was one of those tunes where it was never finished to me. But I think we got it pretty right on the album. I also think it's cool because it's the one song with a guitar solo. If you're gonna do it, make it pay off and really make it big. I think we achieved that goal, without a doubt.

How was the studio experience for you guys?

After starting in a studio right outside of Philly called the Artistslab, it just kind of went south. Our producer was having some personal things going on and it was starting to reflect in the work. We felt the creative juices were no longer there in that room. So our manager Pete was like, "Hey man, a friend of mine, this guy John Altschiller, he's got a great room in New York, and you guys should go up and meet him and if you're into each other, we could work there." We went up there and it was like finding a long lost brother! We immediately all clicked. He was like, "Alright, lets get to work and have fun." His place is called Chiller Sound, it's in Manhattan. He was very insightful and more like one of us than our first producer was. He was a very chill dude. He has worked on some great projects. He did work with Phish, Dave Matthews, John Mayer and all the good stuff. It was a great time.

Where did the "Inhale" and "Exhale" songs come from? I like the way they break up the album a bit.

They were as sporadic as sporadic gets. We were finishing up the record, and to get everything completely done, we had some vocals to fix and a little bit of overdubbing to do, we booked a few days at the studio in New York. It was Sunday night, six o'clock, and we were done and we had the studio until midnight! So obviously we were unbelievably excited and elated about the whole thing being finished. So we broke out some bottles of wine, and everybodys smoking whatever, really kind of kicking back and patting ourselves on the back. So I was like, "Dude we've got six hours, lets try to do something with this!" So "Exhale" was my track. It was something I had been playing around with on the tour before that. So I went in the vocal booth with an acoustic guitar and threw it down and it worked. I think it's a beautiful piece. It's a mood, a vibe. To me, it stood for being spontaneous, the feeling of where we were at. The sense of finishing a product, it was such a great feeling. And you know how you hear all of the people talking? The hang-out room for the studio we were in was right next to where the vocal booth was. So I told our producer not to hit stop when I get done recording the track: I am going to open the door so the mic picks up all these guys partying, drinking and having a good time. They had no idea! All that talking and stuff is actually the four of us with quite a few friends sitting around hanging out.

For the "Inhale" song, Tom McKee, with his keyboard already set up in the studio, was sitting there with his headphones on playing this really cool thing. We were all peeking our heads over and I was like, "Dude, hit record. Please!" It was cool, and after he was done, we all took turns putting down what we wanted over it. Tom started it, and then I sat down and put something over it, and then Clay (Parnell) and then Rick (Lowenberg). It wan't thought out in any shape or form. I go and then you go, and you go and you go and then it comes back to me.

What is the story behind "State Police"?

That song is the epitome of how I was writing songs at the time: bits and pieces. I came up with the chorus in Colorado a year ago. I was having horrible, horrible girl problems and I wrote this really slow, really weird electronic song that, whenever I was in the van or had time on tour, I would be programming this really weird thing. It was kind of like our relationship was over and she was out sluting it up around town and was really pissed off. And I was like, "I hope that you're happy now," and that is how that came about. Again, that was another one where I had that piece, that chunk, but I couldn't find anything to go around it that would really work. So I just shelved it for a couple months. We then had some time off and I was sitting around the house and came up with the rest of the music. As sappy as it is, a lot of these tunes all come out of having to do something with chicks usually. I was kind of into this one chick, but she didn't know and I did't want to make things weird by saying, "Hey I'm into you" or something. So that's where the "I think that they're on to me" idea came from. That was the first tune that I wrote which made me realize that, when writing, I personally need to start taking these things pretty God damned seriously! That was the beginning of us trying to write the four minute song. It was a definite landmark in our career; we're gonna make songs, we're gonna make records, things that don't have twenty minute solos or epic musical interludes. I was listening to a lot of Beatles at the time. We made a concise decision to not pigeon hole ourselves. To not be an electronic band, to not be a jam band, to not be anything. To try to appeal to as many different people as you can. The nuts and bolts of the whole thing is that you write a song because you want people to hear it. And not that you want them to only hear it, but to see what you're saying, to feel what you're feeling, to do what music does to you. You know, things are shitty, my girlfriends banging a basketball team and I got no money and my parents hate me! Whatever it is. Then you hear a song and your like, "It's OK, because that guy feels this way too."

For more information, visit Brothers Past.com.