Not long ago, Barbara and Ethan Gruska — the fresh-faced siblings at the core of L.A.'s Belle Brigade — were deep in a rehearsal with their two bandmates. The goal that afternoon was reworking the songs on the Belle Brigade's self-titled 2011 debut so that they fit alongside tunes from the group's just-finished follow-up.
It took some doing.
A sunny blast of retro West Coast folk-pop, "The Belle Brigade" pulled deeply (and openly) from crowd-pleasing forebears such as the Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac. The new album, by contrast, begins with a digitally processed train whistle laid atop a booming drumbeat.
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"In a moment of frustration, I remember saying, 'I hate that first record!'" said Ethan Gruska recently, recounting the rehearsal in conversation with his sister. "And you were like, 'I don't hate it — I like some of those songs. I just feel bad for them.'"
From the outside, there's not much to pity about the Belle Brigade's debut, which earned rave reviews and led to a coveted spot on the soundtrack for one of the hit "Twilight" movies. Produced by Matthew Wilder, known for his work on No Doubt's 10-times-platinum "Tragic Kingdom," the album launched the Gruskas to instant tastemaker renown, a cozy spot for two grandchildren of the hugely successful film composer John Williams.
Today, though, singer-drummer Barbara, 31, and singer-guitarist Ethan, 24, say that all those echoes of older acts combined to drown out signs of the young lives they were writing about.
"My friends told me, 'I can't hear you in this record,'" Barbara recalled during a talk at the neatly appointed Silver Lake home she shares with her wife. "The album kind of defined us to the world — or the part of the world that's heard us — but in a way it was actually kind of uncharacteristic."
You get a much more vivid sense of who the Gruskas are from "Just Because," the Belle Brigade's knockout of a new album. Due March 25, it channels the ringing guitars and precise vocal harmonies that define so much classic L.A. pop, from the Eagles to that other rising family band, Haim.
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But songs like "Miss You in My Life" and the synthed-up "Not the One You Want" thump and shimmer with off-kilter textures that reflect their fixation on strange sounds. And the siblings' lyrics provide an uncommonly thoughtful vision of real-world romance, as in the album's gorgeous lead single, "Ashes."
"All the ashes in the air can be collected / And confined to the shape we used to make," Barbara sings over a tick-tocking groove, "But the weight is gone."
"They've grown into such great performers and songwriters," said Liz Garo, senior talent buyer at the popular Echo club in Echo Park. Last month she booked the Belle Brigade — rounded out onstage by bassist Keith Karman and keyboardist John Wood — for an extended residency in which the group played every Tuesday night in February.
"In one sense they're another local band slugging it out," Garo continued. "But at the same time they're a step beyond the rest."
The siblings started early, learning to play while growing up in the San Fernando Valley under the eye of their father, Jay Gruska, a prolific film and television composer. Barbara established herself first as a drummer for artists such as Jenny Lewis and Inara George, then teamed with her younger brother in 2008.
After building a following around town, the Belle Brigade signed to Warner Bros. Records, the company that had released many of their favorite albums by Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac. "Lenny Waronker alone sold us — just the fact that we got to sit in a room with him," Barbara said with a laugh, referring to the veteran producer and executive known for his work with Randy Newman and Elvis Costello.
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The jump, though, was disorienting for a band still figuring itself out. "We were on a major label, and that sounded like a really big deal," said Barbara. "People were telling us 'Radio this' and 'Radio that,' but I had never written with the intention of being a radio band. I had never even considered that to be a possibility."
The voice on the group's debut "was ours," Ethan said, "but funneled through the idea of what other people might want."
When the Gruskas turned their attention to a follow-up record, they were determined to "get back to our natural instincts," Barbara said, meaning a sound that was less polished and folky. Or as Ethan put it: "We wanted to get away from the cute thing."
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