John & Brittany / It Keeps Evolving

In December of 2008, John Faye and Brittany Rotondo had never actually met, but had been communicating back and forth for about 6 months on.. **gasp**.. Myspace. Yikes. "She had been threatening to come to see me play for ages.. Hey, what's the address of the show?.. Hey, what time do you go on?.. Hey, what's the cover charge?.. I was honestly ready to just give up on her." Faye recalls: "Then I had this big show at World Cafe Live in Philly the day after Christmas, and I was doing this thing where I'd deliver tickets to people, so we set it up so that I would leave the tickets with someone at Dobbs on South St. and she'd pay for them there. Well, the day came when this transaction was to take place, and she was in the club, but the guy who was supposed to sell her the tickets called to say she didn't buy them.
Pretty pissed, I went down there to get the tickets back, and saw her walk right by me." 

John: Brittany? .. John Faye.. from IKE?

Brittany: Oh, hey man! 

John: Yeah, I left those tickets for you..

Brittany: Ohhh, yeahhh sorry about the tickets, I was gonna buy them, but I just spent all my money on weed.

Annnnnnnnnd so it begins :)

Well, as it turned out, she ended up going to the show on the day after Christmas after all.
As fate would have it, John and Brittany, along with future "Cigarillo" co-author Alex Ortiz, found themselves hanging out late-night after the show, quickly discovering their kindred rock spirits. "The first conversation we ever had was about The Beatles, The Ramones, art, life, death.. we skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the real stuff." It wasn't long before John took notice of some of Brittany's writing, which she had posted online. As someone who had typically always written on his own, John was drawn to the idea of putting music to Brittany's words. She had stacks of copy books filled with poetry and within one of the books was a poem called "Last Act." He was amazed at how effortless it seemed to sing the words, which called for a darker melody and delivery than just about anything else he'd ever written. Neither of them really knew it at the time, but "Last Act" was the beginning of a string of co-writes that would cement their partnership as a writing duo to contend with. "It was a really fun and new experience to write together but I didn't think it would go beyond those first couple songs, and I definitely didn't expect it would grow into a full-fledged band. Christ, she didn't even know how to play guitar at the time!" OH YEAH. We forgot to mention that Brittany had never played guitar before.. ever.. until June of '09. On her birthday, she received her first guitar, which she aptly named Penny Lane. Once she had that guitar in-hand, all bets were off. John & Brittany became jointly obsessed with creating music together. They would hang out at Philly Sound Studios (owned by friend and fellow musician Mariano Mattei) for hours on end, working on playing "Last Act" together, jamming on new parts for songs as yet unwritten, and just becoming comfortable with the idea that they had real musical chemistry. Within six months, a year to the day after their first late-night hang, Brittany made her debut onstage, joining John's band IKE to perform "Last Act" (which was recorded on their album "Tie The Knot With All That You Got") in front of a sold-out crowd at World Cafe Live. It was a memorable ending to a year that had changed everything for both of them. 

[sound clip courtesy of "Up Close & Acoustic" with Charlie Silvestri]

[enjoy the entire podcast here]

If it seemed like 2009 was a year packed with unlikely turns of events from start to finish, 2010 proved to be just as interesting for this unique duo. They wrote more songs, and as Brittany became more comfortable on guitar, she started to display a knack for simple, catchy riffs and progressions, some of which John incorporated into early tunes like "Survive" and "Land of the Unforgiven." The real eureka moment came with "Cigarillo," a song that started at a late-night jam session which included Brittany's cousin, Alex Ortiz. Alex contributed the Spanish chorus lyrics to what would become J&B's signature song. The material that followed was a string of soulful, punky, energetic snapshots of whiskey-swilling rogues ("Devil's Allure"), angry middle managers ("Queen of Mean"), and drummers who lie about their relationship status on Facebook ("Tommy's Not A Widow").. yeahhh, pretty much any topic was fair game. The pair began playing open mics, sometimes 4-5 nights a week, just to get in as much stage time as they could, and, after a while, their joint and individual confidence onstage really began to show. "Brittany went from standing about 4 feet directly behind me onstage, trying to be as invisible as possible, to pretty much being the one who incites the audience now." As the two were getting better and better onstage, with the handful of songs they had under their belts, they were ready for the next big inspiration to hit. And hit, it did.. in the form of the 2010 X-ponential Festival in Camden, NJ. It was there that they saw Alejandro Escovedo perform. John had seen him play solo years before but this was the first time he had seen him with his full band, The Sensitive Boys. Both of them were immediately taken in by Escovedo's songwriting, energy, demeanor. It was the kind of positive inspiration every musician wants from a live show. The two immersed themselves in Escovedo's albums "Street Songs of Love," "Real Animal," and his earlier more-acoustic work. This was a 60 year-old man out on the road bringing it. A couple months later in September, J&B took a road trip to Virginia to see the band again, and before the night was over, they had the inspiration for one of their strongest songs to date "Fancy Dance," which is a tale of rock n roll rebellion.. told in 3/4 time. Nothing is quite what it seems with this band. Now it was time think about the next step: making a record.

[sound clip courtesy of "Up Close & Acoustic" with Charlie Silvestri]

[enjoy the entire podcast here]

While John & Brittany spent a lot of time harnessing their onstage chemistry as a duo, the songs seemed to be screaming out for a full band treatment. Drummer Jason Miraglia and bassist Mike Vivas had been one of the tightest rhythm sections in Philly when they played together in Fat City Reprise, but they had since both gone onto separate musical projects. Jay had become a friend and confidant of John's over the years and had recently finished a stint as drummer for the underrated pop band The MLM's. Vivas was busy plotting world domination from his underground bunker with his 7-piece band Southwork. It was a long-shot but it made perfect sense to try and get the two back working together again. Luckily for John & Brittany, this was the project that would re-unite Jay and Vivas. The full band made its debut on December 8th, 2010 at Steel City in Phoenixville, PA. It was an "un-plugged" show, and not without its rough moments, but it was a start. Once J&B made their full-on electric debut in early 2011, the excitement at their live shows was palpable. The group really wanted to translate that excitement into a recording. The timing could not have worked out better, as John was just finishing the initial stages of forming his label IT KEEPS EVOLVING. It was decided that John & Brittany's debut would also be the label's debut release. The band cut a 6-song EP with IKE guitarist Brett Talley engineering the proceedings. The full-band arrangements made the songs, which were already brimming with energy, really come to life. "Cigarillo" now had a rock dance groove Michael Jackson would have been proud of. 
"Dead Dog," which was born from a conversation between Brittany and her grandfather about the destination of the soul after death, took on an unlikely Cure-meets-Lemonheads vibe. "Queen of Mean" became an all-out punk pop stomp-along. "Fancy Dance" had all the magic of the show that had inspired it only months before. "Devil's Allure" had a cowpunk Johnny Cash twang. And "Land of the Unforgiven," with Britt's opening garage rock riff and John's surf-reverb solo, became the record's dark horse, echoing ghosts of The Cramps and Hoodoo Gurus, while exposing a bittersweet poetic sensibility. John & Brittany dropped on July 21st, to excited fan reaction and strong reviews from some of the toughest critics in the Philly press and radio community. J&B hit the road, performing both full band and duo shows at home and out of town, hitting places like Atlanta, DC, LA, San Francisco, opening for artists like Everclear, Jeffrey Gaines, The Smithereens and Matthew Sweet. "I can see the notes, I can hear them ring, and it's got me feelin' all right."