Bright And Early caught the eye of many last year with their release of Louder Than Words. We were lucky enough to catch up with JB to discuss the band’s second EP that is coming out this spring and is tentatively being titled Getting Through It as well as plans to tour throughout the rest of the year. Enjoy the read!

The band finished up working on its first EP, Louder Than Words, just over a year ago with John Naclerio at Nada Recording Studio. John has worked with Brand New and My Chemical Romance, among others. How was it working with him considering it was the first thing the band ever truly did together? 
It was great. He’s a really fun dude who knows how to keep you in a good mood while you’re tracking/messing up. It can get pretty frustrating in the studio sometimes and a good producer can keep you from losing your energy or giving up. We also wanted a raw, but professional sound and John gave us exactly that.
 
How did working with John come about?  
We hadn’t been in this band very long, and we knew that we needed some direction with our sound. I worked with John in the past when I was in The High Court and he was great to us. Matt and Pete went to John when they were in a band called Tell All, and they had a similar result. We all agreed that John could give us exactly what we needed so we figured that he was the go to guy. It’s really important to go with someone who’s going to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. Basically, we just all love the dude. We definitely recommend him to other bands. 
 
The EP was released back in mid-June and tracks especially like “Something Personal” caused an early stir. How has the reception been nine months later? 
It’s still pretty good! The reality is that we’re a small independent band, and Louder Than Words was our first release. It’s going to take longer for things to spread around. We had some sick feedback at first, but after a year of touring and playing shows, writing new music, and promoting ourselves, things have started to grow. The band has changed in a bunch of ways and people seem to stick by it. Our new music has a bit more of a Get Up Kids vibe or a Say Anything feel. I’m excited to see how people react to it.
 
Bright And Early just finished up its second EP. How did writing and creating music as a band progress from Louder Than Words to now? 
Louder Than Words was a collaboration of riffs and ideas that we had been tossing around in our heads since before we started Bright and Early. When we got together, they all just kind of exploded out of us without much of an effort. It was more of a release than something we built. We didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time writing with each other, because we knew we needed to get something recorded and put out asap. With the new EP, we had a lot more time to realize our ideas and work them out together. We really wanted to create our own sound. 
 
How would you compare the sound to the last EP? 
It’s a bit more rock and less pop-punk. The tones are pretty classic rock sounding. The drums are loud and booming. The songs are upbeat and catchy. Lots of tones and little guitar leads. Lots of vocals. Pete and Ben both sing on this new EP. Pete even sings some lead here and there. Neither of their voices were on Louder Than Words. We put an acoustic song on the EP as well. This is going to sound extremely cocky, but sonically it’s kinda like Guns and Roses meets The Get Up Kids. It’s just the best way to describe it. Big drum sounds, cranky guitars, and raunchy bass! It’s a bit different than Louder Than Words. LTW had a sort of message or statement, but this time I wrote more about the ups and downs of falling in and out of love. For instance, “Stick By Me” is actually a song I wrote to my girlfriend when we were going through some shit. The band really liked the song so we decided to put it on the EP. It fits us really well and the songs mean a lot to me. Even if we put this out and everyone hates it, that’s fine because we still love it.
 
I mentioned “Something Personal” earlier because the lyrics for that song are obviously what spun heads. Will we be seeing any tracks like that on the new EP? 
Nahhhh probably not! This EP was meant to have a different sound, but maybe in the future! The idea behind that song was based around the idea of a hip-hop diss or something like that. Some people just couldn’t handle it. We even received death threats from the ATL fan club. Shit is crazy. If you were me, you would understand that the song just had to be written. The scene was in a WAY worse place than it is now. It used to be embarrassing to call yourself a pop-punk band because you’d be associated with bands like All Time Low and Simple Plan. Anyone with some hair on their chest and a set of balls should be insulted by such a comparison. Things have changed a lot in the past year. However, I’m sure I’ll get pissed off again some day, and when I do, I’ll probably let it out.

How was your time in the studio? Who recorded the tracks? 
Well, it was technically produced by Doug Robinson (The Sleeping) and Matt Robnett (Playwork Productions), but neither of them were present in the recording of the EP. We originally tracked it in a basement with Doug, but it didn’t come out the way we had hoped so we decided to re-record it with a different approach. We recorded our drums and bass with Jake Caramanico at Philly Sound. The studio is an old church with a Neve board and it’s fucking sick. Jake is an up and comer producer and he’s phenomenal at what he is does. He also recorded our song for the upcoming Alkaline Trio tribute comp being put out on Pacific Ridge Records. We tracked our guitars and vocals at our friend Mark’s house in Lancaster, PA. I’ve done a fair share of recording in the past and it just seemed like the right time to step up and make it more of a solid effort. It was a group effort. Our friend Mark Peteritas is mastering it. I really hope that our EP can help Jake and Mark find some new bands to work with in the future. These dudes are great people and they love the shit out of what they do.

When could we possibly see a release date and has it been named? 
We’re thinking late May. We wanted it out earlier, but things just didn’t go the way we had planned. The EP is probably going to be called “Getting Through It” but we’re still tossing around some ideas. 

Was there any label talk before heading into the studio for this one? Is a label something Bright And Early would sign up for considering how many bands in your same community have labeled up? 
We discussed the possibility and felt that it would in fact be a good idea to get someone to push the record. We really just wanted to find a way to record a full length record. Putting out an EP seemed like the best way get noticed by some bigger labels. Hopefully it all works out. But to answer the question, YES, there is a label putting out our next EP. I would love to spill the beans, but I don’t want anyone getting pissed at me so I can’t just yet. 

What can we expect after the EP is released? When will we be seeing some more touring? 
We’re headed out in April with Punchline and I Call Fives for about 2 weeks. After the EP comes out we’re planning to hit the road for 6-8 months. At the end of that time we REALLY want to be able to record a full-length record. We recently started working with Buddy Nielsen and he has some big plans for us. He’s like the perfect manager for a band like ours. More specifically me. I’m a weird guy with too much to say. He doesn’t hesitate to put me in my place with some sort of cut and dry statement. It feels good to have someone looking out for you that you can really connect with and look up to as artist. He’s making sure that we take the right steps and length of time to find the right situation for our band. 

Has anything else been written that will not be making its way on the EP? Are there any plans to release anything else this year? 
We have been writing a lot in the past few months. There are plenty of new ideas. We are planning to record a full length as soon as we can find the means to do so. Hopefully things go ok! 

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else that you would like to add? 
Yes! Thanks for hitting us up man. We definitely appreciate the interview. Your site has been pretty on point for a while now. Def cool! Other than that, Knibb High Football rules!