Chicago’s Brigitte Calls Me Baby released their debut LP in 2024, and just days later they were playing at Lollapalooza—one of the world’s biggest musical festivals and a hometown show. A couple of months later they were playing alongside Fontaines D.C., before being asked to headline shows in Europe for Morrissey.
“I think we knew we were going to tour the music, but we didn’t know how much we would actually tour,” says singer Wes Leavins. “And in that period of time, for such a new band, we were lucky to get the chance to be on some good stages. We did the Last Dinner Party tour, we did some dates with Morrissey, we did the dates with Fontaines, we did shows with Muse… I mean, all that was in the confines of that album cycle.”
He’s the first to admit his surprise that they were playing these massive venues. “I guess you could say, we just assumed we would be struggling a bit more, not to sound conceited or anything, but we assumed it would be much more like we load in, we do the gig, maybe we get 30 people there because we were a brand-new band.”
Grateful for the opportunities they’ve had over the past two years, Brigitte Calls Me Baby quickly went from being on an endless tour to going back to the recording studio. The world will get a chance to hear the follow up to that first LP, when ATO Records releases the band’s sophomore record, Irreversible, on March 13.
Your first record obviously did well: There were positive reviews; it got a lot of coverage, and you got picked to be on some big tours that took you across the world. Did you feel a sense of added pressure going into a second album, knowing that a lot more people were going to be paying attention because you were already a known quantity at that point?
Well, we definitely didn’t want to release a sophomore slump, as they call it. We definitely didn’t want to do that. But to be honest, we didn’t really have time to overthink it, because we were touring so much. The only time we could really write was on tour. I don’t know if we’ll ever write again, but for this record it couldn’t have been a better opportunity.
Why was that?
Well, you know, we obviously would write in the van or in the hotel and we could write a song, and if we felt like playing it, we could play it that night. So, we could play a song live the day that it was written. You try that out and you throw it in the set. You almost get a chance to trial and error some things and write new parts and try those things out. And I think a lot of the songs on this album were created that way.
Did the fact that you were always on the road affect the topics that you were writing about at all?
On tour you have a lot of time to think, and you have a lot of time to miss people. There’d be times where you wouldn’t see people that you care about for four months at a time, and sometimes longer. That’s a lot of time to be existential, but there were also many great times, and I think you’re caught up in this whole world of the band and the art and you kind of live and breathe it, eat and sleep it and everything. And so, it definitely makes it easier to tune into that part of yourself. It’s kind of like going to see a movie. Like for me, if I’m at home and I try and watch a movie, I can’t focus. But if I’m in a movie theater where the lights are low, and you’re in that environment, then I can sort of digest every nuance of the film. I think it’s similar with the creative process. You just got to get in that headspace. And when you’re doing that for four months straight, it’s very easy to lock in there.
I’m assuming when you wrote the first album that a lot of those songs were written in isolation or by yourself, as opposed to all being in a confined space together driving to the next show or at the hotel working on the songs together. Did it make for a more collaborative process than it was with the first record?
Yeah, the first record was definitely more of an isolated thing. And I think some of the songs were even written before I had met probably the biggest collaborator that I often write within the band, Devin (Wessels), our bass and keys player. So once the band sort of formed, then of course, we kind of realized each other’s strengths, and where the process could become not only more enjoyable, but a lot more fulfilling creatively. Now, we know everyone’s strengths, and that’s really great.
The cliché with authors is that you get your whole life to write that first book and then the second book there’s pressure to come up with something new. Did you get that sense with this record versus the first one?
Yeah, the first album definitely was, you know, some of those ideas were stirring around, particularly the title track, “The Future is Our Way Out.” I think that the beginnings of that go back to my teenage years and I used to have that phrase. I would write it with Sharpie on white t-shirts and wear it just because I liked it. And I think I didn’t know it was going to end up as a song, but I knew that something was there. And so, it’s funny, you look back and it’s all marinating and becoming slowly what it’s meant to become. But with this album, it did feel a lot faster. You almost felt like you couldn’t trust the process, because suddenly it was done. I’m sure it’s a very common experience for artists, but that was a new one for us.
I had read somewhere in the press materials that while you were on tour you would visit grave sites when you could. With OCD, one of the treatments is to confront the inevitable through exposure therapy. Is that, in a way, what you were doing? Trying to get comfortable with the concept of life coming to an end, or am I digging way too deep into this?
No, at first, it wasn’t intentional. It was in Europe and I did a lot of walking and would find myself passing a lot of grave sites and cemeteries, and they’re almost everywhere over there. They’re like beautiful parks, and you just easily find yourself walking along them and then it probably became a bit of what you mentioned, because I do have a diagnosed fear of that. And so, I think it definitely helped. And it sounds a bit cheesy, but it is true, and it made me appreciate what I was doing more. I was on tour, and I was going to play this gig, and all these people were going to come see the band and hear the music, and there was going to be this, you know, place where everything was okay for an hour, and I just like to stay rooted in reality as much as I can. And there’s no greater reality than the end of everything.
Is it safe to say that there is a general theme to the songs on this record?
Yeah, there is. And it’s how we got the title, Irreversible. It’s kind of realizing everything you do in life, decisions you make, decisions you don’t make, things that happen to you, things that happen to people in your life, things you decide not to do, all of it creates a result, and it’s often an irreversible one, in good ways and not so good ways. But I think if there’s a theme for the album it is that. It’s the whole idea of the lyric “Welcome to your life, there’s no turning back.”
When I listen to the first album then this one, it seems almost like two separate bands. In the past few years, have you noticed an evolution of the band’s sound?
I think I have. I very much believe, because I’m a nostalgic person, I’m a person who clings to things and I don’t really enjoy change very much, but it’s very inevitable, knowing that growth and change and all the different parts of yourself and your creative identity are bound to come out. And I’ve learned to embrace it. I don’t ever want to release an album that feels sort of like a direct continuation of what came before it; I don’t ever want to be like ‘well let’s rewrite what we just did’. I very much intend for anything that we put out in the future to be to be that way as well, to showcase growth and showcase the different parts because as a person, you change. Human beings change. But creatively, people don’t necessarily want change. They want you to stay the same forever, but it’s just unnatural to do that. And so yeah, that that is very true.
Was there a big difference in recording the first record versus the second one? Obviously, you had different producers and were in different locations, but did you go about recording your first album differently than you went about recording it this time?
Yeah, very different actually. With this record, we worked with Lawrence and Eve Rothman, the brothers, in LA. And they have a specific way of working, which was foreign to me, but I quite enjoyed it, which was we didn’t really work on anything over a five-hour day. If we were firing on all cylinders, we’d keep going, but if we hit a burnout, we weren’t going to just force ourselves to keep going. And that first album was a bit different, we pushed ourselves to keep writing and keep recording and never really stop until we just physically couldn’t go any more. We would have the label saying, ‘this is the deadline’.
And having experienced both ways of doing it do you have a preference?
They each have their strengths. I think this way was perfect for this record, because we did have a lot of ideas already from the long touring cycle where we could just work on these songs extensively, all in a room together every day for a long period of time. So, once we got with the producers, it was essentially just discussing with them, elevating sounds and tones and textures and trying different things vocally. And I think as a singer, the vocal experience of recording with them was my favorite. I was just free to explore, free to try so many different things. And you know that it’s a vulnerable thing to sing in front of people, especially people that you are only just beginning to work with, but it couldn’t have been a more comfortable vocal experience.
So, since putting out that first album, you guys have had a pretty impressive couple of years. People loved the album, you were on some great tours with people like Fontaine’s DC and Morrissey, and you’ve played some impressive venues. Is there a moment, or a couple of moments in particular that you think back to like, ‘I can’t believe this happened?’
I think you know, we knew we were going to tour the music, but we didn’t know how much we would actually tour. And in that period of time for such a new band, we were lucky to get the chance to be on some good stages. I mean, like you said, we did the Last Dinner Party tour, we did some dates with Morrissey, we did the dates with Fontaines, we did shows with Muse … I mean, all that was in like the confines of that album cycle. I guess you could say, we just assumed we would be struggling a bit more, not to sound conceited or anything, but we assumed it would be much more like we load in, we do the gig, you know maybe we get 30 people there because we were a brand new band. But a lot of bands welcomed us and gave us their stage, and that made a big difference for us. And, you know, we sort of hope to repay that to other bands someday.
That brings up a good point. Being a relatively new band, is there anything you learned from these groups that have been around a lot longer and have been playing bigger stages? Is there anything you took from any of these bands that you’d like to replicate?
I think knowing what you do, and no matter how loud the voices get, whether negative or positive, and doing it unapologetically, doing it without compromising based on what people say you do bad, or what people say you do good or what the expectation might be for the band, you know what’s best. You know what comes natural. You know what’s real and authentic. And a lot of those bands that I mentioned do that, and they do it well, and they’re applauded for it. and it’s just a reminder to never compromise your authenticity, because the minute you do that people pick up on that. And what’s worse than disingenuous art? I think that’s what resonated with me.
Photo courtesy of Brigitte Calls Me Baby
