Life’s Machine is the stunning debut album from Portsmouth-based five-piece rock, blues, and soul band Brave Rival featuring the hypnotic lead vocals of Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine.
The album is released on Friday 6 May 2022 and is available for pre-order from www.braverival.com/music. The first single Guilty Love, released Friday 11 February 2022, is available to pre-save from https://bit.ly/3G9BnsX.
Recorded in the picturesque Surrey countryside at The Mayfair Studio. The band enlisted the talents of record producer and engineer Tarrant Shepherd, an up-and-coming maestro of the control room who cut his teeth with Brit Award winning producer Greg Haver and award- winning multi-platinum producer and engineer Clint Murphy.
For Tarrant, this was his first professional album under his own stewardship, and he left nothing on the table. This team was a match made in heaven, and one that was a long time in the making.
Originally scheduled for a spring 2020 recording session, Life’s Machine was unceremoniously put on hold due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. A situation which stung all the harder for Brave Rival as the first lockdown occurred mere weeks after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised the funding to record.
Undeterred by the social distancing measures which forced the band to stay at home, Brave Rival took to technology to continue writing songs (many of which feature on Life’s Machine).
“We didn’t want to just give up and hide away,” says co-lead vocalist Chloe Josephine. “We wanted to keep the momentum going and keep ourselves from going crazy whilst stuck at home. We would have regular Zoom calls as a band to work on song ideas. Our guitarist, Ed, came up with a guitar riff that he would record at home, then our bassist, Billy Dedman, or our drummer, Donna Peters, would record their parts at home and the song would grow organically.”
The additional year ended up being time well spent as it allowed the band to fine tune their craft, writing upwards of 50 songs, ultimately allowing them to select the best stand out songs for the 12-track album.
“It was important for us to ensure every song deserved to be on the album,” states the band’s bass guitarist Billy Dedman. “We wanted each song to be a true representation of us and our sound. This demanded the best performances from each of us and the best production. Joining forces with Tarrant really was the greatest decision we made as it allowed us to achieve both of those goals”
Brave Rival have been nominated for “Best Emerging Blues Artist Of The Year” at the UK Blues Awards 2022. Vote for Brave Rival at – https://tinyurl.com/4wcf4545.
For their debut album, Brave Rival also collaborated with some incredible musicians to bring their songs to life. On Hammond organ and keyboards, they brought in the amazing Jonny Henderson (Ian Siegal, Matt Schofield, Elles Bailey).
“I was absolutely blown away by what Jonny brought to certain tracks,” says co-lead vocalist Lindsey Bonnick. “We let him do his thing with songs such as Heart Attack, Guilty Love and Without You, I just couldn’t imagine them now without his signature flair!”
For the title track of the album, Life’s Machine, the band required a bit of melancholy drama and found it in the form of a grand piano at 13 Sound Studios, Somerset. “Ian Shepherd was entrusted with adding his emotive playing and style to the title track as well as the album closer, Long Time Coming. The extra layers on top really made the songs come alive for us” enthused the band’s guitarist Ed Clarke.
And finally, to round out the album, Brave Rival turned to the abundance of talent on the Portsmouth blues and soul scene. Chloe and Lindsey, together with six beautiful soul and gospel singers, created the Bravian Choir. Their parts were performed and recorded at St Mary’s Church in Portsmouth and the results were epic. “The sustain and natural reverb in the church was insane. I had goose bumps whilst watching them sing,” recalls Brave Rivals drummer Donna Peters, “After hearing the songs with the choir mixed in, I started tearing up! It made the songs so beautiful.”
With all the elements recorded and mixed, it was time to turn their sights on mastering. Brave Rival knew they wanted someone with the right kind of energy and found it with Katie Tavini (Ash, We Are Scientists, Nahli). “What attracted us to Katie, was her impressive work ethic and back catalogue for such a young age but equally, Brave Rival is all about female empowerment, therefore, it was important for us to work with other female professionals in a male dominated industry” remarked Chloe. “We are so happy to have found Katie, her final touches to our album completely blew us all away!”
BRAVE RIVAL – 2022 TOUR DATES
Tickets: WWW.BRAVERIVAL.COM/TOUR
04/02/2022 – Cryer Arts Carshalton (Supporting Catfish)
27/02/2022 – Leeds Blues Rhythm and Rock festival 2022
05/04/2022 – The 100 Club London
08/04/2022 – The Drill, Lincoln (Supporting Crow Black Chicken)
07/05/2022 – Lincoln Rock & Blues Festival 2022
08/05/2022 – Bilston Rock & Blues 2022, Robin2
11/06/2022 – Brave Rival Album Launch, Echo Hotel Music Club, Hook
16/06/2022 – Tring Blues Club
21/06/2022 – Tuesday Night Music Club, Coulsdon
26/06/2022 – Cleethorpes Blues Rhythm & Rock Festival 2022
07/07/2022 – Bullfrog Blues Club, Southsea, Portsmouth
14/07/2022 – The Beaverwood, Chislehurst
31/07/2022 – Uckfield Blues and Roots Festival 2022
05/11/2022 – Coolham Music Club (Supporting Catfish)
02/12/2022 – Looe Blues, Rhythm & Rock Festival 2022
