The Tribe

The Rolling Stonehill recently got the chance to sit and chat with Brendan Murray '14, an active musical force on campus, to talk about his love of guitar, his musical heroes, and his new release, The Tribe.

RS: How long have you been singing and playing guitar? Are you self taught or have you undergone any formal training?

BM: I started taking guitar lessons at a local music shop when I was a freshman in high school, but with a much different mindset for the instrument than what I do now. When I first started learning to play, I wanted to play classic rock style riffs like Aerosmith, Zeppelin, etc As I widened my musical landscape I got more into newer alternative rock like Wilco, Kevin Devine, Brand New, Gaslight Anthem, Sonic Youth. I started to become more interested in using the guitar as a device to work with songs I was writing, using the new voice I was learning from those bands. I stopped taking lessons when I graduated high school, but I still consider myself a student at the instrument. Whenever I talk to people I know who play I always try to pick their brain to learn more about it.

RS: Do you play any other instruments?

BM: I play a little bit of piano/keyboard but always struggle to feel comfortable writing and performing with the instrument. I'm hoping to take some more time with it soon to try to become more comfortable with it, because I love the sound of the piano, and would love to try and use it in my own work. I'm also hoping to pick up a banjo over winter break and use that. I love the sound of a banjo and think its such a versatile instrument, and more versatile than a lot of people give it credit for. It can be used to make things sound very pretty, like the way the Ballroom Thieves use it, or it can give a song a really folky sound like in songs by Neil Yong, or probably my favorite, it can be used to make things sound very angry or menacing with bands like Modest Mouse, so the banjo is something I'd love to get into.

RS: Talk a little bit about your new release, the Tribe. What inspired its content, and who came up with the cover design? It's awesome.

"The Tribe" cover design
by Jackie Kolgraf '14

BM: The Tribe is the EP I recorded this summer back home on Long Island at Island Music Lab, with a really awesome guy who did a great job working with me named Scott Byrne. Its a four song EP with all original material, songs I've written between the beginning of freshman year of college and the end of sophomore year. Lyrically, the songs just tell stories of different spots in my life, as basically all of my songs are autobiographical. When I write songs I try to be honest with how I feel about whatever I'm writing on. The final song and the title track “The Tribe” is about my group of friends here at Stonehill. Those 6 people I talk about in the song mean more to me than just about anyone who isn't family, and they've become almost like family since I've been up here. The song just talks about things I've been through with them. I decided to name the EP after that group of people because of how much they meant to me, and because they all impacted my life so much, and that life served as the backdrop to the song on the record.

The cover design is awesome, its one of my favorite parts of the record actually. One of the members of my “Tribe”, designed it for me. Jackie Kolgraf is an insanely talented graphic design student that goes to Stonehill, and is one of my best friends. We were talking about the project one day and I asked if she'd be interested in helping design it. I told her to just try to get inspiration from the name “The Tribe” and run with it, and she did an amazing job.

RS: Who exactly is Craig Finn?



Craig Finn of The Hold Steady

BM: Ah, yes this question comes up a lot. Craig Finn is the frontman of a band that means an incredible amount to me called The Hold Steady. He has this great story-telling ability to paint an honest picture, two halves of a tale really, the high that can come from feeling young and invincible, and the crash that can come when you take that feeling to far. They also use those themes to explore topics of destruction, forgiveness, and redemption, all themes that really fascinate and appeal to me. In the song I named after him, I reference one of my favorite songs, written by him called “Stay Positive” That idea got me through a lot of difficult stuff, both within my own mind and things happening around me. It became a mantra for me, something I would scribble on notebooks and in the margins of songs. The song is about trying to convince myself to stay positive, and whenever I do that, his words ring in my ear.

RS: What artists spark your creativity? What bands do you listen to in your spare time?

BM: I'm inspired by a huge range of artists. The Hold Steady are obviously a big influence, as are bands that I just love to listen to. I take a lot of inspiration from bands who play somewhat similar music to I'd like to make Wilco, Brand New, Modest Mouse, Gaslight Anthem, The Front Bottoms, Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine, Neil Young, the Band, are all big influences on me and I don't think me saying that would surprise many people. I also take a huge amount of inspiration from music I don't ever see myself playing, noise rock bands like Sonic Youth is a big influence on me trying to find new ways to use the guitar. Older hardcore punk bands from the 80's like Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Seven Seconds, the Youth of Today. I'm not a huge hip-hop fan but the stuff I do like, the lyrics always really appeal to me and want me to get a little better or smarter with my word play, stuff like Jay-Z, Kanye, Kids These Days, George Watsky. Really anything that feels like a real honest expression or can pack a punch when it comes to energy makes me want to do the same thing, which is why I pull from so many genres.

Really though, where I get the most inspiration is seeing people I consider friends make stuff that consistently stuns me with just how good it is. Devin and Martin in the Ballroom Thieves, Chris Borelli and his work in the 4LM project, Steve MacDonald of the Okay Win, and your stuff. It makes me so inspired to see people I know doing stuff that I enjoy so much, and it makes me feel like I can do it to, and it makes me want to do it so much more

RS: Tell us a little known fact about Brendan Murray, the artist.

BM: Hmmm. I guess a little known fact about me is that I would love to give hip-hop a shot as a form of musical expression in my own work, but I'm not sure if I ever will. Its so distant from what I try and seeing guys like you and Chris Borelli do it, I would love to do it, but I don't know if I ever will.

RS: What lies ahead for you? Are any new musical projects in the works?

BM: I'm hoping to record more towards the end of this semester and kind of doing the opposite of what I did with “the Tribe”. When I recorded that, I went into a semi-professional studio and worked with Scott as my producer, and came out with a high-quality acoustic record that I'm really proud of. This time around, as I write new songs, I want to incorporate new instruments and techniques and just record it myself. I want to bring in electric guitar and some effects, piano and keyboard, percussion, banjo, really I'm open to anything. I recorded my first song in this idea last week, and put it up on my sound cloud (http://soundcloud.com/brendan-murray/skinny-love). Its a cover of Bon Iver's “Skinny Love” and I use a kinda freaked out electric guitar running through a couple pedals and effects and ran my vocals through some reverb and other effects. It stands in pretty stark contrast to my acoustic EP, and I want to keep exploring that contrast in a lot of different areas, but I think my first impulse will always be the simple arrangement of acoustic guitar and honest lyrics. It just feels right to me.

Download Brendan's EP at http://brendanmurray92.bandcamp.com

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Rex Macipinlac '13
Image credit: Brendan Murray and Tremagazine