MusicAlex RawlsAll Songs Considered, Brass Bed, indie rock, Jonny Campos, Lafayette, NPR, Robin Hilton, The Secret Will Keep You, Tiny Desk ConcertComment

Brass Bed Go Behind the Desk

MusicAlex RawlsAll Songs Considered, Brass Bed, indie rock, Jonny Campos, Lafayette, NPR, Robin Hilton, The Secret Will Keep You, Tiny Desk ConcertComment
Brass Bed Go Behind the Desk
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The Lafayette-based indie rock band plays NPR's Tiny Desk Concert.

Last summer, I talked to Brass Bed's Jonny Campos about the addition-by-subtraction process that led to its then-new album, The Secret Will Keep You.

 "We played the songs over and over. We played the songs at half-speed to make sure nothing was stepping on each others' toes. We pored over lyrics. We pored over backing vocals. We pored over every detail so that when we got to the studio, we could execute." 

Their experimental side was limited to the production side, where they tried out old school outboard effects, nothing made after 1974. "We were trying to hit as much '70s sound as possible," Campos says. "The albums we were going off of were Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Those were our north stars. They could get brutal; they could get delicate and soft. That's the palate we wanted to choose from."

The album found a champion in Robin Hilton of NPR's All Songs Considered, and today NPR posted video of a recent appearance by the band on their Tiny Desk Concert series. The intimacy of the space and the PA limitations meant that Brass Bed had to get creative to achieve one vocal effect.