ZapTown

History has shown us that art draws from influence. One aspect to good art is that it takes something from the past and expands on it. Same goes for music, and in an environment where recycling the past has become a means of the future with one wave becoming a third, fourth, or fifth wave, it’s a nice surprise when you stumble on a band like Brighton MA, who create music by looking back without completely replicating it.

“We pay a lot of attention from the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Sam Koentopp, drummer for the band. “Good music has an eye towards the past. You cannot move forward unless you know where you came from. It comes across in the music and gives it a wider perspective.”

It’s that ideal that leaks into every aspect of their music, from writing to the final output. As Matthew Kerstein puts it on the song “Not Our Fault” — “Things were supposed to change slowly. Somehow things don’t seem to change at all.” So don’t call their music indie rock because Koentopp will tell you different. For him, indie rock is too modern of a term.

“We are modern kind of guys who listen to old music that comes out of that school of rock and roll.”

And from that descends an album like Amateur Lovers (Loose Tooth). The follow-up to their self-titled EP, also on the same label, explores the ideology and concepts of the ‘60s and ‘70s without trying to be that. It’s a fine line that goes back to the days of Ziggy Stardust or Highway 61 Revisited, where the process became just as important as the actual recording.

“Every decision that we made on this record was thought out,” he said.

Take the song “Eskimos,” for example. Tucked within a rich, twangy R&B, soul of a song lies Kerstein’s vocals all spread out and gravelly, like he is at the end of a cigarette-drenched night and the only thing left is for the sun to rise. Makes the lyrics “just got back from the North Pole, must have caught a head cold” more poignant. Kerstein turns into the anti-crooner.

“We know that happens to his voice. Three vocal takes, and his voice is a little gravelly. If we want his voice to sound like rust and gravel, we don’t do the vocal takes for a song like that on the first take. We wait until later. If we want it polished, we get it down immediately. The same philosophy also goes with the drums and guitars. We will go to a studio to get a specific sound from a specific amp. Or, we will pay close attention to those aspects and record specifically to capture those sounds.”

And this is what lies on the surface. To capture the inner-workings of the band’s conceptual being, it takes a pair of headphones and an interested ear to grasp the gentle perks and the simple accentuation that adorn each song from the urgency of “Underground” to the fragile outcry of “Old Parked Car,” like Edward Abbey telling a tale by the campfire.

To come to those results are not easy, Koentopp will admit. “There are so many problems that will arise. I may think that a song needs to be faster, while someone else thinks it needs to be slower. You need to be friends with that person to hash out ideas and write good music. Dialogue is such an important thing. If you can communicate with band members, you accomplish the emotion in music.”

That is why they like to keep it in the family as he considers each member to be a crucial part of his life. When Koentopp, Kerstein, and bassist Devon Bryant left the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, they asked guitarist Jim Tuerk to join forces and form Brighton MA. They all felt that the right decision, and it gave them a better sense of place, something the band name reflects on, a name that refers to Kerstein’s birth place.

“Like the songs, there is a longing in the name,” Koentopp said. “For people, the past is always something that was better and more beautiful. We like the idea that we as humans, are always trying to get back to the past in some form or another. It’s a sense of belonging and familiarity, and a place that does not really exist anymore. It’s there, but it is a part of your life you can’t really get to anymore.”

Between the rich constructs of the music to their simplicity in existence as a group, Brighton MA make music for the people.

“It’s our biggest goal in music, to make that audience feel whatever that song will make them feel. To me, that is the most important part to what I do.”