It’s been too long since we heard from Brain Ape. Eleven months to be exact, so it is a high time for a refresher.
Minky Très-vain and Sol Alex Albret are London based underground acts that you should already be familiar with if you follow the indie circuit or if you read Indieterria on a regular basis. Operating for more than a decade, with two albums, a record full of remixes and eight standalone singles, Brain Ape produces thought-provoking music which brings together rock, electronica, rap and galore of samples. Signed to Scratch Rock Records – a mixture of independent label and ethical clothing brand, the duo carves their own patch. In our eyes, this is what every independent artist should aspire to – being their own boss and being faithful to the principles of DIY.
Brain Ape by Forest Smith
This year, Brain Ape changed their modus operandi a bit. Instead of their intellectual engagement with the listener (you really need to look for clues if you want to understand their message) they decided to tackle the issues head on. And they released their new single, “mcmx. downing street” on the day of general elections.
There is a lot we wanted to talk to the band about: politics, how to convince young people to vote and why they decided for an in – your – face approach when musicians are supposed to “shut up and play guitars” to quote Frank Zappa. We jokingly asked them to prepare their own manifesto. What follows is over twenty minutes of a video interview that is urgent, funny and at times incredibly on point. It feels more like an episode of Panorama than your usual music business. Like our previous video interview, the band filmed and edited the footage themselves and then published it though their own social media ahead of Indieterria. Not many blogs would agree to do that as you take a risk, but we do trust Brain Ape and give them freedom in how they want to answer our questions. If we didn’t have this degree of mutual respect, we would not be doing the interview at all. We also find it liberating that we can trust independent artists to publish content this way. It is a more intimate, collaborative way of making music journalism.
It may sound a bit cliché, but we regard Brain Ape to be an incredibly important band. They are not compared to Fat White Family on a whim. Just listen to them speak, remove the boisterous attitude from the surface and what you will find is two incredibly smart, compassionate and driven young artists who are not given enough credit nor visibility by the industry.
Sometimes we feel like the music industry is engaged in a mockery of itself. Just a few weeks ago we have seen big names proclaim how important new voices in music were (the joys of campaigns), but as soon as a young band releases an incredibly important song ahead of elections, suddenly all you can hear is crickets. It surely will be even worse after the elections. We eradicate the voices of new generations of artists at our own peril.
We are accustomed to political songs being bold and aggressive, larger than life – just like the candidates that run for the office. But not every political song must be “Born in the U.S.A.” or “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. Think for a second of Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin`Bout A Revolution”. Sometimes a call to arms sounds indeed like a whisper. Well, in the case of Brain Ape, it is a call to vote. A change is needed drastically, but why not bring it about with a genuinely fantastic riffage and some rave inspired, yet quite mellow tune. You don’t have to hang people from the streetlamps or throw stones like it is French riots of May 1968 to be royally pissed at how bad Tories ruined Britain. In a way, Brain Ape are closer to The Stone Roses (“Bye Bye Bad Man”) in their delivery, taking a melodic approach to a message of dissent.
As usual, we hope you enjoy, both the interview and the single itself. And we hope you will get out there and vote for those who can bring real change, and one with a human face and morals while at it. The making of this interview took several days of four people, a sleepless night of editing and few days of promoting. We are not always being this open about how it feels for both music writers and artists, but we thought it was needed in this piece. Behind every unique article of musical coverage or a song, there are hours and hours of unpaid labor and obsessive passion.
Both musical journalism and making music have been stripped and devalued to a hobby, and we all fund our work ourselves, usually having another job. We do it because we believe in music and we know our value.
After the elections, this country must fund arts properly.
On behalf of us at Vanadian and Brain Ape – we now urge you to get involved.
Our coverage so far:
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2023/07/31/brain-ape-mcmx-drawing-room-band-video-interview
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2022/08/16/brain-ape-mcmi-fenchurch-king-video-premiere
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2022/06/21/brain-ape-mcmi-fenchurch-king-single-review
You can follow the band on socials:
https://www.facebook.com/BrainApeMusic
https://twitter.com/BrainApeMusic
https://www.instagram.com/brainapemusic
https://www.tiktok.com/@brainapemusic
https://www.youtube.com/@ScratchRockLTD
https://www.scratchrockrecords.com/group/brainape
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3TzQ9K97T8NVWx4nnIzMhl
Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 