Breva: Into the Radar

By Supergina

Bands break up. A lot. However, one band with staying power is Breva. I write this knowing that in six months, the band will still be around. Which is worth taking a look into nowadays. I saw Breva perform at Over the Top Promotions’ big show at the Colonial Theater on May 31, and their performance was one of the best that I had seen in awhile. Something about their energy that night was different. I felt so proud of them to have stuck to their guns so long, continuing to define their sound through playing music essentially for themselves. The band has a strong rock sound that could be vaguely described as a mix between Deftones, Tool, Bear vs. Shark and Dredge. Check out the questions they answered for me; hopefully this will put Breva onto your musical radar.

Fringe: A lot of Sacramento bands bitch about Sacramento being a crappy place to call home. How do you guys feel?

Breva: Well, we like Sacramento but that would never stop us from moving where there’s a better opportunity for the band. It’s a really great base location for touring the West Coast.

Fringe: You’ve always stayed true to your musical style, not changing to the fads to please people, which is great! How do you do that when so many other groups are trying to mold themselves to “get signed”?

Breva: I think that the next CD we record will reflect a different attitude. We’ll still pursue what makes us happy, but we are really considering the perspective of the listener. And that attitude isn’t a pursuit to please people…I think it’s to please us, and make an attempt to take the feeling we get with certain parts or lyrics, and consider the listeners perspective so that the feeling isn’t lost in overindulgence, or hidden by other parts. It’s definitely a challenging way of writing and structuring songs, and we’ll be better musicians because of it…..whether we abandon that attitude or keep it.

Fringe: As a local band you’ve already released a few CDs, all of which have great production quality. Who do you go to for your recording and why?

Breva: I think one of the best decisions we made last year was to work with Robert Cheek at the Hanger Studios. He brought a new perspective to the production aspect of some of our songs…. and his role as band member and recording engineer with Quitter was why we sought him out. Jay Trammell of Fat Cat Studio mixed the CD. That was the other best decision we made last year.

Fringe: I like to get into motivation when it comes to music. I know your band is pretty diverse with influences, is there one thing that the whole band agrees on in making music?

Breva: We’re completely different people, and it’s hard to agree on anything! On top of that, we all frequently change, so things that we’ve agreed on in the past don’t hold true today. But we’ll play anything that makes us happy, whether it’s a seven minute song, or a two and a half minute pop song. If we dig it, we play it. We can agree on that.

Fringe: In the age where bands come and go so often, what keeps your band together?

Breva: It’s the music, the constant gratification of creation and expression, changing and experimenting amongst five people who respect each other. It’s very rewarding.

Fringe: If your band could play a show with any five groups, alive or dead, who would they be?

Breva: I’m speaking for the team here, so I’ll do my best. I’d say Pink Floyd, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Led Zeppelin, and Waylon Jennings, just so we could see him play.

Fringe: You guys going for Obama or Clinton?

Breva: We don’t talk about that.

Fringe: How do you feel about myspace and promoting?

Breva: It’s a great tool to keep in contact with fans and promote, but bands and people get lost in the popularity contest of friend numbers, and music plays, and the cyber world ends up replacing the reality of live shows and live entertainment. Personally, I feel that it’s done our band a lot of good, but we won’t drown in it.

Fringe: What’s coming up next?

Breva: We’re doing a string of Warped Tour dates at the end of June and July, and will be touring up California to get home for a couple months’ block of songwriting.

Find Breva on the ever-popular MySpace at www.myspace.com/breva