Brite Lite Brite is a unique blend of electronic performance art and pop sensibility. Spin Magazine has described them as “twitchy, Scandinavian-sounding electro-pop”, and the world over has been taking notice. The duo of Andrea Stankevitch (Vocals, Guitar) and Lukas Johnson (Guitar, Electronics) have been ruling the Boston scene since their inception in 2007 and are now looking to take their music to the next level. Recently, they received the chance to do just that by winning the Virgin Mobile Freefest “Book the Band” Contest on Sonicbids. They’ll take the stage with the likes of M.I.A., Pavement, LCD Soundsystem and more on September 25th at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD.
Idle Chit Chat
Stankevitch started writing music at the age of 14. “I started taking guitar lessons and would just turn my poems and other writing into songs. I love storytelling, and most of my songs come from experiences in my own life,” she states. After years of writing and playing music, she decided to pursue that love of composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was there that she met Johnson.
“I heard Andrea around campus, and I loved her songs. I knew that I had to play music with her,” Johnson explains. Johnson was also a student at Berklee, studying Music Production and steadily becoming obsessed with the marriage of music and technology. “I always had a fascination with creating sounds with synthesizers and other controllers that process sound. I just wanted to get out all these sounds I had inside my head, and using technology was like having a brain to speaker interface,” he says of his first experiments with using production.
The duo originally began playing music together in a full band called Chatter, and they had yet to incorporate any electronic influence. Soon, the two found themselves breaking off from the full band and playing shows as a duo. They called themselves Acoustic Chatter as a nod to the band they broke out of. Over time their electronic influences began to creep into their writing, and they slowly evolved to the sound we hear today.
Turn on the Magic of Shining Lite
The more the duo experimented with an electric sound, the further away from Acoustic Chatter they became. Soon, they decided they would need a new name fitting of their new sound. “Luke has a home studio and it has a lot of bright LED's that light up from all of his electronics. It reminds me of a big Lite Brite. So, that's where the name Brite Lite Brite came from,” Stankevitch explains. With a new sound and a name to match, they set about creating their debut album “Universe Universe,” which was released in September of 2009.
Eyes on the Prize
Regardless of name changes and style evolution, the duo has steadily worked to create a buzz around their music since their start in 2007. Over their short time as a band, they’ve won numerous songwriting competitions, and even were selected by MTV to open for Locksley for the “Choose or Lose Tour” in the fall of 2008. And they lent their talents to the Gap “Born to Play” campaign with Sonicbids where over 700 live acoustic performances took place simultaneously in Gap stores all over the country.
“Using social media and networking has been so great for us. You don’t need a label these days. You can record at home, though you need some training to make it sound good. But you really only need to send your music out for mastering. Everything else is DIY,” says Johnson. “With Facebook, Twitter, Sonicbids, and even Myspace still, you can get your music to so many people. We’ve used all of the social networks to get gigs, whether large ones or just house parties.”
We Can Dance If We Want To
“Putting out a great record is key, but we really love the live experience,” Johnson states. As a witness to Brite Lite Brite’s live show, it’s hard to believe that so many sounds can come from two people. Johnson uses a uniquely designed controller for all of their live shows. It has over 120 buttons, 30 faders, and more. He uses synthesizers to create new sounds, and even runs Stankevitch’s vocals through the system as well so he can manipulate her voice as she sings. And though it is a huge technical undertaking that can sometimes seem non-interactive, the duo always make sure the audience feels involved. They turn microphones on the crowd and use their sounds (claps, cheers, etc.) to create synthesized beats and other sounds to incorporate in the song. And recently, they have added a visual aspect to the show with projectors.
“We want people to have a full artistic experience,” says Stankevitch. “We love when people dance at our shows, but we also want them to take in the storytelling and the true art of what we're doing onstage.” Johnson agrees, “If people don’t talk afterwards, it’s not great art.”
Get Free
As the date of Freefest approaches, Brite Lite Brite is in practice lockdown. They’re pulling together their set and trying to prepare for such a huge showcase. “We're practicing like crazy. It’s amazing to think that we'll be sharing a stage with artists like M.I.A. and Mat & Kim and just everyone! The line-up is everything you could hope for, and we are so incredibly grateful to have this opportunity,” gushes Stankevitch. “I’m also really excited because the venue is only about 3 hours from my hometown, so my family and friends from back home are coming to see us play.”
“The response we’ve gotten so far has been amazing. So many new people are discovering our music,” she continues. “We want to make a great impression. We want people to remember us.”
And the buzz is sure to continue, as the band is hard at work on a new record and will be releasing it’s first single as a free download this month. The song is called “I Lost My Heart Tonight.” A strange title that seems unfitting of a band with such heart and passion, Brite Lite Brite is well on their way to conquering many hearts at Virgin Mobile Freefest.
Check out more on Brite Lite Brite here.
