For the final two years, Brandon has been utilizing his all-time dream guitar: a Gibson Les Paul Particular Double Reduce in TV yellow. His Artistic Director, Caroline Ridings, calls it “Banana,” and when Brandon and I are chatting over Zoom to debate his new EP, Blush, Banana is in arm’s attain. He’s fairly thrilled to point out it to me:

“That is my child. I like this guitar dearly,” Brandon says. “Once I was 16-17 this was my dream guitar. That is nonetheless my dream guitar. The tone of it’s so fairly. I believe that is the very best guitar ever made up so far outdoors of getting one thing that’s custom-built for myself. That is the cream of the crop. I can do so much with it, too. I could make it sound tremendous massive and heavy. I could make it sound actually gentle and skinny. How I need it.”

The brand new EP, which consists of 4 songs and is Brandon’s debut on Secretly Canadian, sees him flex the complete capabilities of his dream guitar. It sounds tremendous massive and heavy (even whereas utilizing little to no distortion) on Falling when he fattens up the tone to assist the choral high quality of his layered, harmonious vocals. After which he performs it gentle and skinny with adept choosing below nimble Latin percussion throughout With out You.

Past the guitar’s sonic high quality, Brandon’s rhythms on the instrument are fluid and reactive all through Blush. Quite than writing riffs that he repeats alongside verses and choruses, the EP has a extra orchestral really feel. Sure sounds reply to different sounds fairly than being conjoined.

Guitar and voice are the first focal factors on Blush, with the chords, results, and lyrics taking part in off one another. Different devices like drums and keys enter the soundscape in particular moments to assist a cinematic swell or create a framework across the melodies as they dissipate into ambiance in direction of the top of a music.

“Feeling and movement. It’s taking you someplace. That is essentially the most experimental I’ve gone,” Brandon says of Blush.

A key side of that experimentation is that Brandon performed each instrument on the EP (apart from the saxophone). Drums, bass, and keys had been all him, and their formless nature is the results of constructing them across the feeling and movement of the guitar.

“My drummer in my band, he’s instructed me I play drums like a guitar participant,” Brandon says. “As a result of guitar is my first instrument, and more often than not it’s the very first thing I put down, I’m pondering how all the pieces else goes to work when it comes to the guitar that I performed.”

The guitar he performed on earlier releases like his 2020 EP Coming Clear, is much extra inside the bounds of conventional singer/songwriter music. He largely used his acoustic, a Gibson CL-20 Plus from 1997 (which he additionally loves), and a Squier Jazz Bass.

However since then he’s tremendously expanded his arsenal to incorporate a Hofner Jazz Bass, a fretless bass, a Fender 72 Twin Reverb, numerous pedals akin to Hologram Electronics’ Chroma and Microcosm, and, in fact, his dream guitar.

“I’ve all of the issues I have to make my favorite music so let’s give it a strive. Let’s see what number of possibilities I can take. Let’s see if I like them, after which additionally let’s see if individuals prefer it,” Brandon says.

In fact, Brandon has been taking possibilities since he began taking part in guitar as a result of he’s a lefty. At first, discovering a guitar constructed for left-handed gamers was troublesome, so he performed a right-handed guitar the other way up. Then he obtained the right-handed guitar restrung to be configured for lefties.

“I really feel like simply being left-handed typically is a drawback in life, however I like it,” Brandon says with a chuckle. “I believe it impacts the best way that I take into consideration taking part in. As soon as I had it strung the proper method all the pieces psychologically modified. I felt a lot extra comfy. I felt like I used to be in a position to be taught my method. I felt extra assured. I felt regular – Like I used to be part of one thing. Being left-handed you are feeling disregarded. Particularly in terms of guitars. It’s laborious to return by one thing that’s made for you. Regardless that it was a right-handed guitar that was strung left-handed it felt prefer it was mine now.”

For nearly a yr, Brandon stored his right-handed guitar strung left-handed, however finally, he knew it was time to seek out one thing constructed for a lefty. He went to eBay and located a left-handed Epiphone Les Paul Particular II in tobacco sunburst. The earlier proprietor had made completely different modifications to it as effectively like altering the pickup covers and including Telecaster knobs. When Brandon met him to purchase it the man was actually sketchy, however he lastly had an instrument that was made for somebody like himself:

“That was like heaven. I believe that was one of many happiest days of my life as much as that time,” Brandon says. After taking part in his first left-handed guitar for a bit he opened the physique and found the earlier proprietor had made modifications below the floor as effectively. “He wired it like a ‘60s Gibson so it seems like a ‘60s Gibson. I used to be not complaining. It’s this super-beautiful-sounding guitar. It’s simply completely different having one thing like that. In spite of everything these years, I’ve my very own guitar now.”

Brandon truly nonetheless has that first guitar, and he used it all through the brand new EP, however it doesn’t evaluate to how he feels about Banana:

“I’m for positive extra assured now that I’ve this factor. It’s simply so enjoyable to play. It feels nice. The neck is ideal. I actually don’t know how you can speak about it. It’s simply particular. I’m simply smiling, this rattling guitar,” Brandon says of the Les Paul Particular.

Brandon is carrying that confidence with him as he writes his debut album, which is coming quickly after Blush. Once I ask him in regards to the album, he merely says: “Individuals can count on me at my greatest.”

Blush is out now by way of Secretly Canadian