Experimental industria-rock gents RIBS remain one of the best Boston bands to emerge from scene circles over the past decade. As the band recalibrates with a new lineup, teasing out songs a few weeks ago while opening for Swervedriver at the Sinclair, a former member has branched out on his own with an entirely new sound.
Blake Fusilier, the former RIBS bassist now operating under the Fusilier moniker, today announced his solo EP, due next month, as well as his signing with Brassland, an artist-operated label started in 2001 by Alec Hanley Bemis and the National’s Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner.
With the news, Fusilier dropped a tiny snippet of music via his Instagram, an upbeat, electronic-soul sample that’s a departure from his work in the more rock-oriented RIBS. But it’s his time in his former project that helped shape the vision and ambition of this new solo entity.
“I decided to leave RIBS after we got home from touring,” Fusilier says in a press release. “We were all exhausted, but I was also energized by my time singing lead on our song ‘Gateway Drug’ in front of a club full of people and wanted to replicate that feeling. I spent the next summer riding a bus to Brooklyn every weekend to record. It was a disgustingly brutal grind, but I finally felt like myself.”
He adds: “A few months ago, I put my demos up on Soundcloud to send around and receive notes on mixes and arrangements as I always do. The reaction was so positive that I began to send it to new people just to stroke my own ego a little bit. I didn’t know much of anything about the music business per se so I asked advice from my good friend, Jen Brown at The Bomber Jacket. She sent a few demos to Alec Hanley Bemis at Brassland, and after also meeting a few members of the label’s extended family, here we are.”
Get stoked for January 2016.