Following on from the release of the bright and enigmatic third single ‘Stay Up, Stephanie’ from his forthcoming debut album ‘Glitra’, guitar-pop artist and producer Brijs now returns to deliver the live video for his latest offering.
For ‘Stay Up, Stephanie’ the multi-instrumentalist takes to the camera himself for a live performance of his newest track. Taking cues from many of the minimalist music videos we have become used to since the coronavirus lockdown, this new clip sees the producer take up the full wealth of instrumentation at his disposal and create a layered live performance, alongside drummer Luke Seal, like no other.
Speaking about the new video, he said, “These videos are a sort of stand in for the live show. Like everyone putting out records at the moment me and the band aren’t able to be out there sharing these songs in the usual way – it absolutely sucks. We’d be doing the small venues circuit and building things that way. I’m super grateful to have my drummer Luke Seal join me for this one.
“Our thoughts are with all the owners and communities who are facing the threat of closure of their local due to COVID and encourage all musicians to keep the pressure on the government to provide meaningful assistance to keep them in business and to help support them by buying merchandise and making donations. We need them. I’ll take this chance to give a shout out to my local – the Forum in Tunbridge Wells. Love you, miss you!”
‘Stay Up, Stephanie’ is a succinct 3-minute psych-pop guitar led ‘gangthem’, filled with galloping drums, harpsichord melodies, Morricone mandolin tremolos, choral backing vocals and romping guitars. Much like all of the material from his forthcoming new LP, this new delight was inspired following the decision to quit his job and leave London for a group property guardianship of a dilapidated mansion in his rural hometown.
Stephanie, who was part of this group and training to be a teacher at the time, was well known for her early exits which often signaled the premature end to gang nights out. This signature act was topped on a friend’s birthday trip to Brighton where she quietly headed home to the AirBnB with the only set of keys, fell asleep and left the 12 other members of the party stranded outside the entire night.
Speaking about the new release, Brijs says, “This song is about that feeling of arriving at your favourite venue, with your favourite people in tow and having everyone invested in the night lasting for as long as possible. No one wants to be the first one to fall.”
The new album ‘Glitra’ follows the artist’s decision to quit his job and leave London, chasing a new perspective. The move began a chapter spent living as a property guardian in a dilapidated mansion in his rural hometown with a new group of friends. That time, and the resulting album, were characterised by a mood of pursuit.
“Our mid-twenties were a second coming of age. You do a lot of growing in your teens but something bigger happens in your twenties. It’s when we first become truly independent. We spent that time chasing what it meant to be ourselves outside of our upbringing.”
‘GLITRA’
“Framing life in squares, we’re tied up in triangles…
We see the same pictures, we paint them in circles”
Inspired by a quip about the Bloomsbury arts collective, the final lyric of Glitra’s closing track frames the structure of Brijs’ debut album: four tracks about time and place, three on love and the title track about friendship.
Cecilian
Velvet Ditch
Stay Up Stephanie
River Swimming
Shame
Comb
Mol y Sol
Glitra
Glitra, old norse for ‘glittered’, was supposedly used by the norsemen to describe the flickering reflection of sunlight on the horizon at sea. Brijs uses this image as metaphor for the underlying theme of pursuit that runs throughout the album.
“Friendship, joy, trust, intimacy, understanding, identity are all like continually shifting points on the horizon – they are boundless in nature and therefore endlessly pursuable. That’s how I see that period of time… A mismatch gang in a crumbling old vessel, travelling towards our personal unknowns and at the same time, towards each other.”
The album was produced by Rob Brinkmann, long serving engineer of RAK Studios (Drake, Royal Blood, Pixies, Clean Bandit & Mumford and Sons) and mixed and mastered at Abbey Road by Oli Morgan (Bastille, Princess Nokia). The album also includes two collaborations with songwriter Ed Nash of Bombay Bicycle Club.
