Jonathan and Heather met when their respective bands played a show together. They began creating boy/girl melodrama pop inspired by 70s New York punk and 60s girl groups but created in an Auckland scene of opiate-infused garage rock 'n' roll.
This seclusion soon produced "Mars Loves
Venus," a lathe-cut EP pressed up by King Records, Geraldine.
The short run quickly sold out and Jonathan set to work demo-ing
up the band's first six albums. Heather and Jonathan's relationship
suffered, understandably. Heather was seen often in New Zealand's
society pages with champagne flutes in each hand, while Jonathan's
striving for sonic perfection within the constraints of four-track
cassette recording drove him to Smile-like levels of madness.
Dressed in his fireman's helmet, Jonathan
applied for a job at Marbeck's, a downtown Auckland record
store. It was while he worked there that one of those four-track
recordings, 'Talk to Jesus,' was noticed by local manager
and promoter Melinda Olykan on Auckland's college radio station
BFM. Pulling out her cheque-book straight away, she managed
to get Jonathan away from the store counter for a two-figure
sum, and soon the Brunettes were playing shows again. They
developed a reputation for quiet, intimate shows of fragile
garage pop, the audience laughing at the wry pop culture references
in the lyrics, and shushing each other for talking during
the songs.
The Brunettes finally released their debut
album 'Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks' in the spring of 2002,
and six months later put out a mini album, 'The Boyracer E.P.'
The uniqueness of these releases and the engaging charm of
their live show, gained them a swooning national fan base
in New Zealand, made them darlings of its college radio stations,
and placed them as the nation's undisputed number one bubblegum
pop band. Tours of Australia and the United Kingdom in 03/04
put the Brunettes in the hearts of indie-pop fans in those
corners of the globe too, with rapturously received shows
with Architecture in Helsinki, the Postal Service and the
Futureheads.
In June 2004 they released their second album,
'Mars Loves Venus,' which reprised the title track of their
very first release, and saw the production progress from the
bedroom Spector-isms of –Holding Hands Feeding Ducks,' to
a multi-spectral smorgasbord of pop production references
from the Grievous Angel to Paisley Park.
Since this release, the Brunettes show has
grown in stature to accommodate the so-dubbed "Lil' Chief
Pop Orchestrette," a changing, waxing and waning crew of amateur
instrumentalists associated with Auckland's Lil' Chief Records,
a company who have released some of New Zealand's most unassumingly
beautiful pop music of the last few years. Sometimes touring
as a five piece and sometimes playing as a ten piece Orchestrette
the Brunettes incorporate marimba, glockenspiel, banjo,
cello, trumpet, alto and tenor saxophone, the clarinet and
more.
In 2005 - to coincide with their first tour of North America
the Brunettes released their second E.P 'When Ice Met Cream'
featuring five tunes, some new and some favourites of live
shows dating back to 2001. Having been invited to tour the
US with the Shins, the Brunettes left New Zealand and joined
them on the road as a 7-piece. The five week tour was then
followed by an invitation to tour with Rilo Kiley for which
they slimmed down to a five piece.
2006 held a fun tour of North American
with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and then some much needed time at home finishing up their newest album.
In 2007 their 'Structure and Cosmetics' was released in North American and Europe by Sub Pop Records and the band embarked upon their first headlining tour of North America and Europe.
Now after a short break down under - the Brunettes are back travelling through Australia, the USA and Europe. |
