RISE TWAIN
Echolyn guitarist joins forces with composer and author for organic debut.
“THE SONGS CAME OUT REALLY QUICKLY; THERE WAS NOTHING PREMEDITATED AND WE WEREN’T OVERTHINKING.”
YOU MAY KNOW Brett Kull as the guitarist with Philadelphia proggers Echolyn, but his latest musical venture finds him partnering with songwriter, classical composer, author and playwright Jeremy ‘JD’ Beck. The pair first collaborated in 2008 when Kull produced an album for Beck’s band The Scenic Route, and Beck then appeared on Kull’s 2017 solo album, Open Skies Exploding. When Echolyn decided to take a breather, a window of opportunity arose for the pair to create a brand new project.
“Jeremy brought something to my songs that I would not normally do,” Kull explains on the pair’s newly released, self-titled debut, which was written and recorded over 12 months.“After Open Skies Exploding, I knew I had to do a full-length album with him. He adds an unfettered and unafraid element to counter the precise, analytical process I sometimes use and guard myself with.”
Unsurprisingly there are nods to Echolyn in Rise Twain’s sound, given Kull’s central role in that band, but they have their own distinct identity. While musically Echolyn stretch out expansively, Rise Twain’s material is much more compact, with an organic feel; as if the late, great Jeff Buckley made a progressive album.
“Jeremy and I are both very song-oriented, so it’s always about the song,” Kull explains. “Whereas in Echolyn, it’s a little bit more open. You just have to be authentic when you write… no false pretence to it.”
Having both written music for clientele such as commercials and corporate meetings, with Rise Twain the pair adopted an organic approach to songwriting.
“Jeremy sat at a piano, I had an acoustic guitar, and these songs came out really quickly,” Kull explains. “There was nothing premeditated and we weren’t overthinking things. One of the great enjoyments of trying to write my own stuff is an intimate vulnerability.
“Jeremy’s a loose cannon,” Kull continues. “He’s a bomb of creativity that just goes off. Echolyn is experimental, but it’s also very precise. We all know what we want and how to get it. Whereas with Jeremy, I have to wrangle him in and I love that about him. One of the things that he likes about me is that I can focus him. Jeremy makes me a better songwriter and vice versa, plus we get along absolutely beautifully.”
With the album’s roots in classic singersongwriter territory, just how prog is Rise
Twain’s debut?
“I may be doing music that has been done before, but I’ve never done it before,” Kull says. “I have a certain style that’s me – my use of harmony, melody and rhythm – but I’m always trying to look for a new angle. So it feels progressive to me.”
Rise Twain shows are currently being booked for the autumn in the United States and the intention is for the band to exist in parallel alongside Echolyn, who have started work on a new album, and the protagonists’ respective solo endeavours.
“I haven’t felt this good about an album in a long time,” says Kull. “It seems we’ve touched on something really cool and universal.” nS