After touring the world and opening for bands like U2 and Depeche Mode, The Bravery, the New York band with hits like "An Honest Mistake" and "Believe," will be stopping by Tempe today.
The band will perform at the Clubhouse music venue on Broadway and Rural roads Friday night to perform with The Switches.
The band consists of: Sam Endicott (vocals), John Conway (keyboard), Anthony Burulcich (drums), Michael Zakarin (guitar) and Mike Hindert (bass).
Conway, keyboardist for The Bravery, discussed with The State Press his history with the band and how he currently enjoys life as a real-life rock star.
What brought the band together? What's your history with the band?
Sam [Endicott, vocals and rhythm guitar] and I were sitting there. We went to college together in New York in early 2000, we started playing together. That's where we met the rest of the band there. We're all based out of New York and we started writing and recording songs at home onto our computer, passing them out to our friends and putting them up on the Internet… Other friends started to find them and play them. Then we were playing shows and radios started playing our MP3s that were homemade. It was all happening pretty fast after that.
What was your favorite place to perform in New York?
Probably the most sentimental place is Arlene's Grocery, which is like a hundred-seat club/bar … We played there a lot and we did a residency there in 2003-2004, and that's where we got a lot of attention … At first we thought, "How can we fit a hundred people in a show?" But it ended up all being all sold out and selling hundred tickets was the biggest thing in the world.
How did you get your songs onto the radio?
The DJs somehow just found it and liked it. It's on specialty shows next, it's on cutting edge stations one day, and then it's in San Francisco, L.A., Boston. But DJs just heard about it and like the way it sounded and just played it. People would call us and tell us, "We just heard your song on the radio," and that was crazy.
What have your experiences been like in Europe and on the road?
Well our first tour ended up being [about] 18 months long and got to hit [about] 30-something countries, [so we've] been everywhere, starting in England and ending in Indonesia. So it was pretty wild and [we] got to see a lot of things; a lot of places and meet a lot of people and, you know, you stop in Singapore or Lithuania and you think, "Oh wow, music got me here, like I'm here because of the band." … It's a pretty cool thing. We all like to travel and try to push that side [of music] a lot."
Tell us, what's a day in the life of The Bravery out on the road?
In the wintertime, it's usually just sleep as late as you can on the bus, walk into the club to order some food [before] sound check, walk around, buy new socks and underwear and go out [to] dinner, look forward to the show, and then the show. [Afterward,] try to find bars and people to hang out with before we get on the bus and drive to the next city. Basically, sleeping and drinking with a little bit of rockin'.
What can fans expect at a Bravery concert?
We put on a pretty energetic live show. If you've never seen us before, a lot of people are surprised at how much our live shows [is] actually rock, compared to what they think we are from the record.
You've opened for U2 in Europe. What was that like?
When you open up for a huge band like U2 and Depeche Mode and you're in a giant stadium which is kinda fun, you know places you would never be by yourself, it's fun to watch them play 'cause when you have that many fans going crazy for a band it's pretty inspiring.
What's new for The Bravery?
Next month we're putting out a re-release of our album, The Sun and The Moon, [it will be titled The Sun and The Moon Complete] with alternate versions of every song on it, kinda like a remix album done by us, just an alternate take on every song. So it will sound completely different but really it's the same song. One side will be the sun side and one will be the moon side.
Reach the reporter at Nathan.bolek@asu.edu.
