Brody Bond - The Mo(µ)rning EPs LP
Artist Information
- Label: Independent Release
- Genre: Alt Folk
- Hometown: Baltimore, MD
- Influences: Tom Petty, U2, Mutemath, Pierce Pettis
- Sounds like: Noah Gunderson, Jon Foreman, Sandra McCracken, Denison Witmer
Biography
There is an ancient Japanese art called “Kintsugi” where broken teaware is mended by applying lacquer mixed with gold. The newly re-bonded fragments embody the idea of “beauty through brokenness.” The cracks are highlighted, not hidden, and the newly restored piece is considered even more beautiful and valuable than the original teaware. The art, the mending, and the healing represent rebirth.
Baltimore, Maryland-based singer-songwriter Brody Bond’s The Mo(µ)rning EPs tell this type of rebirth story. The resulting concept album, comprised of two conjoined EPs — the darker themed Mourning and the uplifting Morning — are about encountering the disordering and reordering of our lives. Joy comes in the morning, as the saying goes, but the discovery of this project is that joy also comes in the mourning. The album will be preceded by the single Before Love’s Arrival.
“When things you love turn out not to be what you thought they were, it’s heartbreaking. But it’s also disorienting, and that’s the terrifying part,” Brody shares. “But I’m learning that this type of pain might also serve to save any of us from what we thought was our salvation. If disillusionment is getting rid of illusions about reality, then it’s actually a gift, even though it’s a sadness.”
This 12-track body of work wasn’t informed by any preconceived or self-conscious influences. The Mo(µ)rning EPs record represents art by means of necessity. “In writing these songs, I wasn’t making a statement with regard to music styles. I was just trying to capture the ether around me, and put that into a language that was helpful for me, and will hopefully be helpful to others,” Brody confesses. The songs are emotive pop-rock with enlightened lyrics, dreamy ambient textures, purposeful grooves, folk-pop intimacy, and jazzy and modern soul flourishes. The Mo(µ)rning EPs project is produced by Jeremy Casella (Indelible Grace, Tennessee to Love Campaign) at different Nashville recording studios, including the iconic Sound Emporium, and the recordings features a cast of A-List players who collective resume includes working with Kacey Musgraves, U2, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.
The project also wasn’t informed by any strategic career goals. Brody has been making music since he was a kid. But in 2019, he found himself writing songs unexpectedly. While the songs came at a challenging time of self-growth, Brody found they were broadly resonant. At intimate house shows, opening up for a nationally-known act, and through an exclusive crowd-funding campaign, Brody discovered these songs mattered to others, as many people sang along and cried along to songs they had just heard.
The Mo(µ)rning EPs release is divided into two distinct halves, The Mourning, a path of descent and disorientation, and The Morning, the way out of the darkness through faith, change, and acceptance. The opening track “Original Invisible” is a gorgeous dose of dreamy acoustic pop lavished with ethereal synthetic textures. The courageously confessional “My Fantasy” balances pop-folk with a jazzy chordal sensibility. The project’s transition song, “What's In The Way Is The Way,” cross-fades into “Anchor To The Wind”—both are in the same key, and this represents the bridge from mourning to morning. The transition here recalibrates the listener to embrace Morning, the EP and feeling. The tracks in this suite shine with the light of rebirth. “Anchor To The Wind” is soaring folk-pop; “Fly With You” is elegantly essential singer-songwriter pop; and the song cycle concludes gloriously, with the stately “To Let The Love In.”
