GENRE: Indie Electronica
HOMETOWN: Boston
ARTISTIC APPROACH: DIY work ethic and passion for the craft.
www.britelitebrite.com
When Brite Lite Brite’s Andrea Stankevitch and Luke Johnson sit down to create a song, what emerges is infinitely more complex than what some describe as glitchy electro-pop. Johnson, who handles the electronic part of things, begins by creating sounds and beats at rehearsals and Stankevitch layers expertly-crafted lyrics and a melody over his synths, bass and sound effects.
“We have total control of our music and production – that’s what it’s really all about”
Once a basic song structure is in place, the duo revises and arranges the raw song until both are happy with the result. And with influences like pop stars Madonna and Lady Gaga and seminal electronic acts like Justice and Skrillex, what inevitably emerges is something indefinable, but most definitely worth listening to. “Our passion for songwriting, sound, and music technology motivates us to produce the style of music that we create,” says Stankevitch. “We’re a DIY band that wasn’t told what our music should sound like. We have total control of our music and production and that’s what it’s really all about.”
Brite Lite Brite’s first album, Universe Universe, was released in September 2009, and the band is currently in the studio recording their second album, Stalker, to be released May 2012. For the duo, the recording process is pretty non-standard, as they develop and use music technology that gives them hands-on real-time control of synths, drum sequencers, samplers and FX sequencers, which allows them to really feel the music as they create it. Take, for instance, their recent single, “Radioactive Love,” which was actually a live, in-studio improv performance that produced a single 20 minute audio file, which the band then edited down before recording the final vocal track. “Our live performances and our studio recording techniques are one in the same, which is part of what gives us our organic-electronic sound,” she says.
The future’s looking brighter and brighter for the band, who aims to keep producing songs that push the envelope of electronic music. “We also want to never stop creating the music we love and to share our music with as many people as possible,” she says.
Photo: “C.W. Southworth/MediaForge”