Life’s Machine is the stunning debut album from Portsmouth-based five-piece rock, blues, and soul band Brave Rival featuring the hypnotic lead vocals of Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine.
Released to critical acclaim earlier this year, the album will be released on deluxe double purple vinyl format with pre-orders going live Friday 7th October via www.braverival.com/shop.
To celebrate the impending release on vinyl, the band will be releasing their fourth single taken from the debut album titled Run and Hide. It will be released Friday 7 October 2022.
“Run and Hide is a New Wave of Classic Rock banger that tells the tale of a stalker going a few steps too far. Something I think a lot of women sadly have had to deal with in one way or another”, says Brave Rival’s co-lead vocalist, Chloe Josephine.
“We went really big on the production of this song to really capture those massive 80’s rock sounds” explains drummer Donna Peters. “But there are elements of light and shade with a bridge that is reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac and Heart!”
The deluxe edition of Life’s Machine will be released on double purple vinyl and will feature four bonus acoustic songs recorded by the band live at St Mary’s Church, Portsmouth with their Producer Tarrant Shepherd at the helm.
“Vinyl was something we always wanted to do, but we also wanted to make it extra special,” says Brave Rival’s guitarist, Ed Clarke. We decided to make a limited-edition colour vinyl run of 300. Once they are gone, they are gone!” “The four extra acoustic tracks will be on side 4 and will include new and old original songs in a reworked way.
Brave Rival, who were nominated for “Best Emerging Blues Artist of the Year” at the UK Blues Awards 2022 and recently took part in the UK Blues Challenge 2022, recorded Life’s Machine in the picturesque Surrey countryside at The Mayfair Studio. The band enlisted the talents of record producer and engineer Tarrant Shepherd, an up-and-coming maestro of the control room who cut his teeth with Brit Award winning producer Greg Haver and award- winning multi-platinum producer and engineer Clint Murphy.
For Tarrant, this was his first professional album under his own stewardship, and he left nothing on the table. This team was a match made in heaven, and one that was a long time in the making.
Originally scheduled for a spring 2020 recording session, Life’s Machine was unceremoniously put on hold due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. A situation which stung all the harder for Brave Rival as the first lockdown occurred mere weeks after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised the funding to record.
Undeterred by the social distancing measures which forced the band to stay at home, Brave Rival took to technology to continue writing songs (many of which feature on Life’s Machine).
“We didn’t want to just give up and hide away,” says co-lead vocalist Chloe Josephine. “We wanted to keep the momentum going and keep ourselves from going crazy whilst stuck at home. We would have regular Zoom calls as a band to work on song ideas. Our guitarist, Ed, came up with a guitar riff that he would record at home, then our bassist, Billy Dedman, or our drummer, Donna Peters, would record their parts at home and the song would grow organically.”
The additional year ended up being time well spent as it allowed the band to fine tune their craft, writing upwards of 50 songs, ultimately allowing them to select the best stand out songs for the 12-track album.
“It was important for us to ensure every song deserved to be on the album,” states the band’s bass guitarist Billy Dedman. “We wanted each song to be a true representation of us and our sound. This demanded the best performances from each of us and the best production. Joining forces with Tarrant really was the greatest decision we made as it allowed us to achieve both of those goals”
For their debut album, Brave Rival also collaborated with some incredible musicians to bring their songs to life. On Hammond organ and keyboards, they brought in the amazing Jonny Henderson (Ian Siegal, Matt Schofield, Elles Bailey).
“I was absolutely blown away by what Jonny brought to certain tracks,” says co-lead vocalist Lindsey Bonnick. “We let him do his thing with songs such as Heart Attack, Guilty Love and Without You, I just couldn't imagine them now without his signature flair!”
For the title track of the album, Life’s Machine, the band required a bit of melancholy drama and found it in the form of a grand piano at 13 Sound Studios, Somerset. “Ian Shepherd was entrusted with adding his emotive playing and style to the title track as well as the album closer, Long Time Coming. The extra layers on top really made the songs come alive for us” enthused the band’s guitarist Ed Clarke.
And finally, to round out the album, Brave Rival turned to the abundance of talent on the Portsmouth blues and soul scene. Chloe and Lindsey, together with six beautiful soul and gospel singers, created the Bravian Choir. Their parts were performed and recorded at St Mary’s Church in Portsmouth and the results were epic. “The sustain and natural reverb in the church was insane. I had goose bumps whilst watching them sing,” recalls Brave Rival's drummer Donna Peters, “After hearing the songs with the choir mixed in, I started tearing up! It made the songs so beautiful.”
With all the elements recorded and mixed, it was time to turn their sights on mastering. Brave Rival knew they wanted someone with the right kind of energy and found it with Katie Tavini (Ash, We Are Scientists, Nahli). “What attracted us to Katie, was her impressive work ethic and back catalogue for such a young age but equally, Brave Rival is all about female empowerment, therefore, it was important for us to work with other female professionals in a male dominated industry” remarked Chloe. “We are so happy to have found Katie, her final touches to our album completely blew us all away!”
BRAVE RIVAL - 2022 TOUR DATES
TICKETS: WWW.BRAVERIVAL.COM/TOUR
7 October – Cornwall Rocks Festival
20 October – Tapestry Arts, Bradford (supporting Dom Martin)
21 October – Blue Funk, Rhythm & Blues Club, Manchester (supporting Dom Martin)
22 October – The Wharf, Stourport-On-Severn (supporting Dom Martin)
23 October – The Harlington, Fleet (supporting Dom Martin)
26 October – The Factory, Worthing (supporting Dom Martin)
27 October – Bourne Music Club (supporting Dom Martin)
28 October – Goin’ Up The Country, Chester (supporting Dom Martin)
29 October – The Mackenzie Hall, Brockweir (supporting Dom Martin)
5 November – Music Club, Coolham (Supporting Catfish)
10 November – The Blues Bar, Tring
11 November – Hallelujah Festival, Hartlepool
12 November – The Leopard, Doncaster
13 November – The Musician, Leicester
15 November – The 100 Club, London (Supporting Corky Laing)
18 November – The Yardbirds Club, Grimsby
16 November – The Bullingdon, Oxford (Supporting Corky Laing)
19 November – Parish Hall, Sedgefield (Supporting Corky Laing)
20 November – Whitby Blues Festival, Whitby
9 December – The 1865, Southampton (Supporting Laurence Jones)
15 December – Emsworth Music Club Xmas Party
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