Portland-based alt/pop My Brothers and I might be busy prepping for the release of their EP material, but the next piece in that EP puzzle belongs to “When You’re Ready”, for which the music video has been taking center stage since its release in late May.
We’re absolutely smitten with this quintet, so we decided to do a quick interview to celebrate all their (amazing!) release news as of late. Check it out below!
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How did you all meet?
Scott, Erik, and I (David) are really brothers, so we met because we had to. Then Jordan and Scott have been besties since 2nd Grade and Jordan held me when I was a baby. So he is basically our brother.
Your song “When You’re Ready” has a very unique sound, what inspired that?
For the entire EP coming soon, we wanted to write pop music and have it feel like it could be on Top 40 radio, while also staying true to what makes us different. In most of our new songs, we have a mixture of real instruments and samples. We wanted to create a hybrid that competes with a lot of the digitally created pop music you hear, without going full-blown digital. We have a lot of real piano, real guitar, real drums, and real bass, while also throwing in some synths and 808 drum beats. This is especially shown off in When You’re Ready. The vibe may feel familiar, but the execution is what we feel sets it apart. It’s organic pop!
The video for “When You’re Ready” has an interesting story that revolves around a dissatisfied model. How did you come up with the concept for the video?
The “When You’re Ready” music video idea was actually brought to us by the producer of the video. He reached out and pitched his idea and we really liked it right away. We knew we didn’t want the video to just be a direct narrative of the lyrical content and his idea felt like a pretty cool metaphor that makes sense with the lyrics without being a direct representation. We had a blast working on it and are super happy with how it turned out.
Who inspires you as artists?
We are all a bunch of music sponges. We love to listen to music and are constantly listening to the New Music Friday playlist on Spotify. So more recently we have been vibing on that new Shawn Mendes album (no shame). In general we have always been inspired by bands and artists like John Mayer, OneRepublic, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Coldplay, The Roots, and so many others.
Where to you hope to see yourself musically in the next five years?
I think we would love to be settling into a nice career and a nice rhythm of being full time musicians. This journey has been so much fun and taken a ton of work and will continue to take a ton of work, but I think if we could be releasing a 3rd or 4th album by then and have a solid foundation and fan base, that would be a huge blessing. For us, we just want to change lives. It sounds cliché but we aren’t just doing music because it’s fun. We want to make a difference in people’s lives and touch people’s souls with our music. Make them feel something deeper than just surface level. If we get to a place where we can be playing and releasing music and use our platform to be a light in this world, that would be reaching our ultimate goal.
If you could describe your sound, what would it be?
I think organic pop is probably the best way to describe our sound. We love all types of music. We grew up on jazz and rock and hip hop and blues. We try to just be ourselves when we write and not stray away from that jazzy guitar lick, or that fat hip hop drum beat. We find ways to implement the past in a pop way with real instruments.
What is your favorite part about working together as a band?
Collaborating in everything we do is so much fun. Whether its ideas for live shows, writing songs, or what to do for an Instagram story, we all just love being around each other and goofing off. We try not to take things too seriously and just stay true to who we are. If you ever get a chance to see us live, we think this shines through. We just have a blast and I basically view every transition as a chance to make the crowd laugh or smile… and occasionally cry (in a good way).
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Keep up with My Brothers & I here, and preorder their EP here.
