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In 1996 a compilation CD called Three Minute Revolution was released by RPM Records. The music was mostly power pop, and the theme of the set was songs that clock in at three minutes or less and still come off as complete songs. Nestled among the known bands like The Rockinghams, Vinyl Devotions and Montgomery Cliffs was a young band called The Swingset Police. Consisting of three brothers, Tom (guitar/vocals), Mike (bass/vocals) and Scott (guitar/vocals) Braam and hailing from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, The Swingset Police developed their sound in their childhood home with the help of numerous drummers before stabilizing the lineup with Peter Drefs. Their song on Three Minute Revolution, "5 4 3 2 1," was the kind that easily became stuck in your head, and their full length from that same year, Kadickadee Kadickadoo, gave plenty of clues that this was a band to keep an eye on.
It's been seven long years and much has happened. With a new name, a new city and an addition to the lineup, not to mention a lot of experience under their belts, the Brothers Braam and company have released Gravity and the Right To Fly, an album that makes good on the promises of 1996. An indie band all the way, they are quite likely under your radar at the moment, so allow me to introduce you to Braam.
Cosmik: It's been years since I did the Swingset Police interview...
Mike: Who is this "Swingset Police" you speak of?
Cosmik: Yeah, nice try there, Mike. I recognized the basic elements. Plus, "Braam" isn't exactly like "Smith," ya know? You guys were good then, but the quality level between then and now night and day. First of all, what prompted the name change?
Mike: Actually, when we decided to move from the lovely city of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to the hustle and bustle of Chicago, we felt it was time to change. After numerous ideas -- bad ones -- we finally decided to just use our name. Pretty clever, huh?
Cosmik: Devilishly clever. Van Halen may sue, though.
Mike: Thanks for noticing our musical progression. Sometimes us Braams kinda downplay our musical abilities, but you know what? I think we can play our instruments pretty damn well, and you will not find many drummers better than Pete.
Cosmik: I'm pretty sure you were a trio before, with different drummers sitting in. What changes have you gone through?
Mike: Peter [Drefs, drums] joined us full time when we decided to move to Chicago about 4 years ago, and just recently we added a new guitar player, David Emmanuel Ashdown. Tom had been playing guitar live, but he never really liked to. Our songs have progressed to the point where Tom wanted to concentrate more on his singing and his lyrics. Remembering them. Trying to sing and remember chords and words just got to be too much. Plus, Dave is a damned good guitar player and compliments Scott's playing perfectly.
Cosmik: A lot of the songs on Gravity and the Right To Fly are mellow, but you manage to keep a sense of mystery in there that keeps them from being lightweight. "Let It Snow" could have been lighter, but you peppered it with so many powerful sounds it ends up far from light. Do you write these songs with that in mind, or does that come in later?
Mike: That's what happens when little brother is the "THE" guitar player! But really... no it wasn't a conscious decision. The album, as you said, is a story with guitars, and we arranged the songs in order to create a roller coaster ride of emotions culminating, I hope, in the explosion of emotions of the songs "James I" and "James II."
Cosmik: The song that really blows me away is "Manhattan." I put the headphones on and totally melt into this album, and when that one comes on, it knocks me for a loop. So much power, but when I break it down it sounds like it might be relatively minimal instrumentation, like you could recreate it perfectly in concert. If that's true, how did you get it to sound so huge?
Mike: Now that was a song we consciously wanted to rock. It was the last song we wrote for Gravity, and we felt that we needed some energy early on in the story, and for the record. It's a very good song live, although it does tend to get a little loud sometimes. It was Scott's first venture in to alternate tunings.
Cosmik: That tuning makes all the difference in the world, too.
Mike: He used a dropped D tuning [Ed.Note: This refers to the practice of tuning the lowest guitar string down from E to D.] to give the song that deep feeling we were looking for.
Cosmik: Do you get a chance to play out much? And beyond that, how do you go about trying to get the band heard?
Mike: We try and play out about every four to six weeks here in Chicago. We really have been focusing on recording. As much as playing live is cool, a great recording lasts forever. My main goal over the last few months has been trying to get every critic, magazine and web site possible to give us a listen so that when we get the next one out, we will have a nice broad base of people to get the ball rolling. Our early mistake with "Gravity" was we thought it was so damned good it would take off on its own. [Laughs] But we are learning. Now it's up on CDBABY, it's on the Not Lame record sight. It's listed at the All Music Guide site, plus, of course, our web site. And web sites like yours, and nice interviews like this don't hurt either!
[Pictured left to right: Tom Braam, Peter Drefs, Mike Braam, Scott Braam.]
Cosmik: Glad to oblige. You're definitely up there on the quality scale. It sounds like you're ready for anything. What's the ultimate goal for Braam?
Mike: We love writing songs. We love recording our songs. We own our own studio. A Yamaha 4416 workstation... That's it. We plan on making A LOT more records. We will be done recording this next one by Christmas and we hope to have it out by February, 2004. I might be a little biased, but I think everything about this next record is better than the last. The experience we gained from the last one, plus what I hope is our natural progression as songsmiths, has not only made the next record sound even better but it's made the songs themselves better. It's always about the songs.
(C) 2003 - DJ Johnson