In January, Congratz were in order for a female winner of a prestigious Belgian Award for best musician.
Attend a Brutus-concert and youāll instantly experience why this honour fell to their drummer and vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts. Equally well deserved by Peter Mulders and Stijn Van Hoegaerden, whoās roaring bass & guitars complete the magical Brutus-sound. Post hardcore at its finest.
Enjoy a close up of a close band and their new album, called āUnison Lifeā, which was presented in Ancienne Belgique late last year.
AC: I interviewed you guys once before, the early Brutus-years, way back in 2014.
Would or could you have imagined then that Brutus would be playing sold out concerts worldwide?
Stefanie: You dream about it when youāre sixteen. And you hope thatās what youāre going to do. But you never think it will actually happen.
AC: Did you notice some kind of turning point along the way?
Stefanie: I realized something when we did a European tour when the venues went from twentyfive people to sometimes seven-hundred. But we didnāt wake up one day, feeling bigger than yesterday.
Tourmanagement takes you to all the right spotsā¦
Stefanie: The booker we work with, has been around since 2016. We really work well together.
I think he understands who we are and we understand his vision.
AC: Do you feel you have been able to maintain enough artistic freedom?
Stefanie: With everyone we work, to be honest. I think if somebody would come and say, āyou can never do this againā, we would reply: āOK, but you wonāt ever do THIS again.ā (laughs)
Itās ok, I get that sometimes itās about strategy, but WE are all about the music. If someone would try to talk us into another course we would have question marks.
AC: Tell us about Unison Life, how it came to life, creating in confinement.
Peter: The previous album (Burst– 2018) was written during touring. But due to Covid, we had much more time for this one. We had no idea when the album would come out or when we would be touring againā¦
Stijn: That definitely had an impact on how the songs were written. We had the time, so we also took it as an opportunity to go more in depth, from song to song.
If we finished a track, we came to a certain point where we asked ourselves: āIs there anything else we can do ? Can we try different stuff? So we took it a lot further and went deeper for each and every song.
AC: Playing such a new song for the first time, must feel amazingā¦
Stijn: When a song comes to life, thatās one of the most beautiful things in the world indeed. Especially if you can do this with two people that you love and trust, and like to play music with. For me thatās likeā¦ every time we write songs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnāt but when it works it feels amazing.
AC: Do you have some kind of indicator which songs will be spot on?
Stijn: Maybe not to the outside world, but for us yes. There have been a couple of songs, written in the past, where we instantly felt the right kind of energy in the room.
AC: ArtistCongratz has a soft spot for Sugar Dragon.
Stefanie: Sugar Dragon came to life when we were on tour a lot. I had some troubles with my boyfriend but he was not the problem. So itās a bit of a tribute to him.
But Peter and Stijn could also relate to the song. Because we all went through the same thing. They didnāt have troubles with their girlfriends but the missing part, being away and longing for somebody makes it a direct ode to a loved one. So thatās what Sugar Dragon is all about.
Plus itās literally the translation of a nickname that my boyfriend has in Dutch. (ed. note Stephanies boyfriend is Stake-drummer Joris Casier, his band will be playing live in Cactus Bruges on April 15th)
(Suikerdraak? š Sugardragon comes from your previous album but we also want to know what triggered the new one.
Stefanie: Referring to your previous question, how to feel you wrote something special. We felt it with āWhat have we done?ā Itās not that itās better than other songs. Itās just all about the right time, the right notes, the right words. It came to life unforced. Itās the same as why some days are more special than others in life. You donāt know, maybe itās because you met somebody or the sun was shiningā¦It came from some genuine placeā¦How itās like to be in a band.
āWarā, another Brutus-Song was used in Tom Clancyās Rainbow Six Siege video game:
Peter: The producer of the game happened to be a fan. So we made it happen.
AC: Last Summer Brutus was invited as support act for none other thanā¦the Foo Fighters, but unfortunately their drummer Taylor Hawkins passed away, so it was cancelled. But it probably wonāt be long before you will get another invitation of that kind?
Stefanie: We will be waiting by the phone (laughs)
On top of Brutusā wishlist:
- āDefinitely make some more records as a bandā
- āTo do a tour with a cool band or a recording session or an EP with someone completely differentā
- “Other stuff would be nice but we will always prioritise recordsā
- “Making more songs, better songs, songs that touch people, songs that people can relate toā
- āWrite music, play a lot, as much as possibleā
AC: There arenāt many female singing drummers. The only ones we could come up with were Karen Carpenter and Sheila E.
Stephanie: There are The Corrs as well, but you will find a lot of drumming backing vocals.
The only reason Iām singing now is because Stijn bought me a microphone. (laughs)
AC: If you hadnāt done that, we would have missed this magical Brutus-combination.
Stijn: I would have found another way to make Stefanie singā¦Somebody asked me lately after the show: Why didnāt YOU start singing? Then we would not be having this conversation. (laughs)
Every song we make, always involves the three of us.
Stefanie Mannaerts
It always contains something of each and everyone of us. Those different kinds of influences make it fun. We try to put a lot of things into one song.
Want to catch Brutus live? In May they will also be touring in the U.S.
Closer to home, they can also be found in the line ups of legendary festivals as Pinkpop in The Netherlands. This Sunday they will be playing at Paaspop at Schijndel, also in The Netherlands.
Want to catch them in their homecountry Belgium, before they are headed to the US? They play at Durbuy Rock Festival on May the 13th.
Check their complete schedule on https://www.wearebrutus.be/live
AC: We came across another friendly band in the past, Slow Crush is also very successful internationallyā¦
Stijn: Oh yes we know them very well actuallyā¦ we follow each other.
AC: They are also famous for inventing their very own unique fuzz-pedal called Glow-Fuzz.
Peter: Yes indeed, itās very cool. We want to do that too šµ
Stijn: Actually I expect Jelle (Slow Crush guitar player) to send us oneā¦ (laughs)
Ed. Note: Fuzz pedals are a popular type of guitar effects pedal that use transistor technology to produce a distorted, fuzzy sound.) Read more about it in our previous blogpost ā¤µļø,
Slow Crush will also be playing in Bruges Cactus club on July 7th.
ArtistCongratz 