Photo courtesy of Universal Music Group<\/p>\n
By Ashley Duong<\/span><\/p>\n On a freezing January night, singer-songwriter duo Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler found comfort inside a warm California cabin overlooking Big Bear Lake. Chelsea was writing lyrics on the couch while Jeremy sat on the floor, softly playing guitar and recording a voice memo, all while \u201cSociety of the Snow\u201d and \u201cMidsommer\u201d played through a projector with the sound muted. Their six-year-long friendship meant that a musical collaboration didn\u2019t look like clocking into the studio. Rather, they seamlessly intertwined creating art with living life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe always kind of sit in the studio and say we want the record to feel like a cozy, safe place for people,\u201d said Chelsea. \u201cAnd I really do think that\u2019s born out of \u2026\u00a0 us being friends and building this world that feels like friendship for a lot of other people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The blurred lines between friendship and professional craftsmanship are a recurring theme within songwriting\u2014but for Jeremy and Chelsea, the blending of the two leads them to their favorite memories and musical creations, including \u201cand the government too!\u201d off of their third project and first full-length album, \u201cbrent iii.\u201d The song came from one friend trying to support another.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt came from us having an honest conversation about what Jeremy was going through,\u201d said Chelsea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a cathartic way, Jeremy admitted to Chelsea that he \u201cwould scream at the stars for keeping us apart.\u201d He paused, laughed, and joked, \u201cAnd the government, too!\u201d In that moment of vulnerability, support, and hopeful humor, Jeremy and Chelsea knew they had a song perfect for \u201cbrent iii.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although this conversation was forever memorialized in their album, other moments stayed as shared memories within the brent universe. One of Chelsea\u2019s favorite memories was when \u201cwe stood on the side of the road and got crepes from a tin hut\u2026 and it was 10 degrees.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jeremy and Chelsea <\/span>met at a University of Connecticut fraternity party<\/span>, a random yet fateful event after being friends over SoundCloud. A few months later, that moment led to a musical session in a Connecticut carriage house studio where they created and released \u201cbetter off\u201d in 2018. They returned to the same studio to create what\u2019s known as the start of their musical journey and their first EP, \u201cbrent\u201d which has the now certified platinum song, \u201cyou were good to me,\u201d a song that solidified that the duo had something special together.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll never make a song as good as that ever again\u2026 I\u2019m just kidding! Maybe we will. Who knows!\u201d said Jeremy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward to six years later, they chose to try something different. Instead of returning to the Connecticut cabin, they brought the project to the other side of the country\u2014to a cabin on Big Bear Lake. This trip, however, was easier said than done, and it took several false starts and coordination to get here.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a year in two artists\u2019 calendars to devote to one project, but we got there,\u201d said Chelsea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once they arrived at the cabin, they found themselves back in a familiar songwriting routine, one Jeremy describes as a \u201crace against the magic disappearing.\u201d Yet, this race against the clock didn\u2019t phase the duo. Rather, they used it to their advantage, ending the album with the song \u201cgood things\u201d for that very reason\u2014fleeting moments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018good things\u2019 was the perfect way to wrap up the project as well because the song is about how things can\u2019t last forever and there\u2019s magic in things being finite,\u201d said Chelsea.<\/span><\/p>\n Their music creation process is fueled by their different individual lives, blending to fit into their collective universe. In some ways, that means individual songs written separately appearing on \u201cbrent iii,\u201d like the pair\u2019s solo songs, \u201clove you into loving me\u201d and \u201ctoothbrush song.\u201d Other times, it means their differing genres and specialties melding together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s exciting\u2014being able to dip into different spaces, feelings, and genres, and experimenting with instruments that wouldn\u2019t have experimented with if we weren\u2019t working together and challenged by each other\u2019s different musical tastes and upbringing,\u201d said Jeremy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Outside of their musicality, something else makes their creative process special: friendship. Their tight-knit bond provides reassurance and trust in each other, allowing them to motivate each other while staying considerate of each other\u2019s feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think collaborating with your friend is particularly challenging and beautiful because you\u2019re able to push each other to get the best out of each other,\u201d said Chelsea. \u201cI\u2019ve learned everything about collaboration and teamwork from spending the last six years doing this together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Their collaboration is a mutual learning process. Chelsea raves about Jeremy\u2019s talents in music production, a skill she attempts to pick up by sneakily recording Jeremy in the studio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJeremy is so talented in creating these sonic palettes and textures that really put you into the world,\u201d said Chelsea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other end, Jeremy admires Chelsea\u2019s ability to be \u201cspontaneously creative\u201d and how she\u2019ll run off during rehearsal and return 15 minutes later with a brand new song. He reflects on his own creative process and how he limits himself by putting walls up during his songwriting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cChelsea has taught me to shut down that part of my brain when I\u2019m creating,\u201d said Jeremy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet after three collaborations, one joint tour, and six years, the ever-changing nature of their musical partnership sustains the magic within the brent universe, pushing the pair to continue growing within their shared musical journey. Jeremy explains that the main difference between \u201cbrent\u201d and \u201cbrent iii\u201d is its lyrical complexity, one that develops due to personal growth and lived experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe older you get, the more complex your emotions get and the less singular they get,\u201d said Jeremy. \u201cWriting simple songs that were powerful for that reason, and now it\u2019s a bit more nuanced, a little bit more specific, and honest in a different way.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the future of brent is uncertain, their friendship is an undeniable constant, \u201cIt would be hard to envision us going the rest of our careers without working together in some capacity,\u201d said Chelsea. \u201cWe\u2019ll always want to be a part of each other\u2019s careers, whether it\u2019s some sort of collaboration or working on each other\u2019s individual stuff\u2026life is long, and who knows what will happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After releasing \u201cbrent iii,\u201d the duo embarked on a 13-show tour titled \u201cBrent Forever: The Tour,\u201d their first joint tour with sold-out nights across North America. While the tour ended on December 8th, Jeremy and Chelsea\u2019s years of personal and musical growth will remain memorialized forever within \u201cbrent iii,\u201d an album that marks the infinite nature of the magical brent universe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cbrent iii\u201d is out for streaming now on all streaming platforms. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo courtesy of Universal Music Group By Ashley Duong On a freezing January night, singer-songwriter duo Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler found comfort inside a warm California cabin overlooking Big Bear Lake. Chelsea was writing lyrics on the couch while Jeremy sat on the floor, softly playing guitar and recording a voice memo, all while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24057,"featured_media":45448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1523,15],"tags":[33,1128,1582,26,2205,2248],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45451,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45447\/revisions\/45451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}