The Brook & The Bluff

For years, The Brook & The Bluff heard the same compliment everywhere they went: you're such a great live band. It was well-earned, since Joseph Settine, Alec Bolton, John Canada, and Kevin Canada had spent nearly a decade creating truly communal experiences inside venues across the country. They were a success in the studio as well—as 200 million streams can attest—but there was still a disconnect between those spaces, one the now-veteran band wanted to bridge if they could.

Werewolf (out March 6 via Dualtone) is the result, a record built from the ground up with a focus on how each song would sound from the stage. Stepping away from the road for the first time in years, the band met every weekday morning at Bolton's Nashville home, playing songs dozens of times before a single note was tracked. When they finally walked into producer Micah Tawlks' (Hayley Williams) studio, they sat in a circle and recorded everything live. It was an equal-and-opposite reaction to their maximalist 2023 album Bluebeard and an obvious next step for a band to create space for their hard-earned chemistry and excellence.

We sat down with the full band to talk about the new album, the pain of killing their darlings, and what song they can't wait to play every night.

Analogue: When I hear about the live-show approach on this record, I wonder if that came from frustration—like, were there moments on previous albums where you felt like something wasn't translating?

Joseph Settine: I wouldn't say frustrated. For me, the first three records—especially Bluebeard—came from this place of wanting to prove that we were also great recording artists, not just a live band. I wanted to show off, use every tool available. And then it felt like time to flip it completely. The question became: what's the most fun way we can make this next batch of songs?

Alec Bolton: We needed to do Bluebeard first. We needed to go as far as we could in the studio. And having done that, Werewolf was the natural progression—almost the equal and opposite reaction.

Analogue: How much of a deliberate conversation was that shift?

Settine: From the start. The whole guiding principle was: is this song going to be insanely fun to play live? We went in planning to write 20 songs and pick the best eight or nine. We ended up recording 14. But the whole time it was, are these going to be top-10 songs in our live set?

Bolton: We'd noticed that some songs in our catalog, the live version just ripped so much harder than the recording. Then there were songs where the studio track was the thing—and it made them a little difficult to get right live. We wanted to marry both. The framework became: don't even think about taking a song into the studio until it already sounds great in a room together.

Kevin Canada: We've had a lot of feedback from fans saying they enjoy seeing the live versions more than the album. So it felt natural. Let's just try to infuse that live energy directly into the studio room.

Bolton: Strip away all the bells and whistles and what do you have? It's four or five of us just with instruments playing songs. That's what it is live. There's probably a reason we were so into CCR and Tom Petty. It's just a bunch of guys in a room with instruments, and what can you do with that? That's the same question we were asking.

Analogue: You mentioned the word "fun" a few times. I'll ask the flip side—is there a song you're kind of obligated to play now that you'd rather not?

Settine: That's a trade secret. [Laughs]

Bolton: There's a couple. Like "Pastels" from our first record. We just built it in our bedroom, stacking loop on top of loop on top of loop. There are like eight guitar tracks going on. We've had a really hard time recreating that the way we want to with a five-piece band.

John Canada: And "Everything Is Just a Mess" is our second most popular song. I once called it a headphone song, which I may never live down. It has this insane energy in your earbuds. It's cool live, for sure, but it's not quite the same as some of our others.

Bolton: The recording of that song has a thing to it that is just really cool. It's not even a dig at the live version.

John Canada: Honestly, I've never stood in the crowd to hear it live. Maybe if I could experience how awesome it was from out there, I'd feel differently.

Analogue: How much were you road-testing songs for the new album?

John Canada: Road testing really stopped when COVID hit, six years ago. I think that's what shaped how we constructed Yard Sale and Bluebeard—they weren't built with live performance in mind. So this album was a way to get back to how we started: just the energy between us in a room. It feels very full circle. Personally, I think this is The Brook & The Bluff at our best—when it's just us, no bells and whistles.

Settine: I'd push back slightly. I listen to a song like "Everything Is Just a Mess" or to Bluebeard, and I think, that's us at our best too—our most experimental. It's almost like two different forms of the band. Hard to compare, honestly.

Analogue: Did the finished record land where you hoped it would? If you knew what you wanted going in...

Settine: Yeah. The vision was: is this going to be insanely fun to play together? And when I listen back, I think, 'Yeah, it's going to be so much fun.' We executed what we set out to do.

Bolton: And it starts with the songs. If we weren't writing songs we genuinely loved, none of the approach would have mattered. But we had ideas we were really pumped about. That's what made the whole thing worth chasing.

Analogue: You started with 20 songs and got to 14, then down to 10. How painful was that?

Settine: Two of my top five songs didn't make the album. So, pretty painful. But they're not going anywhere.

Bolton: It was the first time we'd ever written way more than we needed. And by the end, we all had songs that didn't make the cut—but we were so excited about the ones that did that it didn't really sting. The songs that didn't make it are still great songs.

John Canada: Whittling it down to 10 was hard. But there's something really nice about an album where every song is what you could call a banger. And the ones that didn't make it can find their moment after. It's hard for things to get buried that way.

Analogue: With a long run of tour dates ahead, how much do you think about staying well on the road?

Settine: It's been a journey, and we've all found individual ways to feel more stable. It's such a weird existence—you're not in the same place more than a day or two at a time, and every day you're basically throwing a party with these huge swings of energy. What's helped as we've grown is finding our own pockets of time away from the group so you can recharge and come back with the most presence. For me that's hitting a vintage store or a bookstore or just walking around. John's got a serious running commitment on the road.

Bolton: The hotel gyms are huge for me.

Settine: Which I do not enter.

Bolton: That's why we do it for you. [Laughs] You get your workout in on the stage. We also bring a football and throw it a lot—even just at gas stations. There's something about throwing a perfect spiral that is truly healing.

Settine: When you see it just perfect, you think: yeah, we're going to be fine.

Kevin Canada: There's something about being sleep-deprived together that bonds you as a group. Hilarious late-night conversations in the van, doing impressions, making each other laugh—half of it is delirious, but half of it is just genuinely fun. And just recognizing how lucky we are to do this for a living helps ground you. There are a lot of people working grueling jobs who are exhausted too. We get to do what we love. That's pretty special, and I try to reflect on that when things get tough.

John Canada: What you put in your body affects you—and it feels like it's multiplied by ten on the road. So I try to be as healthy as possible because I know I'll feel better the next day. But then it's like, it's LA, it's New York, we're staying up late, and that's fun too.

Settine: Pick your spots. This is why we only eat McDonald's.

Analogue: Let's end with a round. What's the one song from Werewolf you're most excited to play live every night?

Kevin Canada: There's a keyboard breakdown in "105" that I'm really excited about. It's a cool little funky moment. I'll go with that one.

Bolton: "Get By." It's not out yet, but there is just no room not to let loose and go as hard as you can on that one. We're going to kick some doors down.

John Canada: "I'll Have It Down"—track eight. It's not a single, but we played it as a full band for the first time just the other day and it's one that I think is going to go really hard. By midway through the tour, that song is going to be locked in.

Settine: "Gone for the Weekend." It's the only song on the record that starts with a minor chord, so it's got a different sizzle to it—and just so much guitar. And then honestly, "Werewolf" itself. We got to play it on a short run last fall, and every night you could see it connecting across the room. People wanted to know that song. That one's going to be something.

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