Courtney and Brad
Photo by Jillian Jackson
Longtime friends and collaborators Courtney Swain (Bent Knee) and Bradford Krieger (Big Nice Studio) booked a recording session with nothing planned out. They had previously worked together on various projects, but had never co-written together. When they started playing and recording, they decided to radically commit to improvised parts and build arrangements in one-take performances. In the studio, they felt free to explore, not limiting themselves or each other, and found the process fun and effortless: no song took more than a couple hours from conception to finished product.
Drawing on influences ranging from Japanese folk and pop to slowcore, deep house, and d-beat, Courtney and Brad’s 'Our First EP' is a grab bag of experimental pop music. They write songs that are playful, texturally engaging, and covertly emotional. The EP is Courtney’s first release in Japanese.
Recorded during the same sessions as ‘Our First EP’ which released in March 2022, Courtney and Brad’s new album ’A Square is a Shape of Power’ delves further into their grab bag of influences ranging from J-pop, folk, slow core, deep house, d-beat, and Enka. Despite the experimentalism at play, the songs weave into a surprisingly cohesive whole of openly cheeky and joyful songs that catch the listener off guard with covertly emotional undercurrents.
Releases on DLR:
