A blast and a half: The Brightside pursues new opportunities following release of Red Room

In a bedroom much like any other, guitarist Jesse Moran, drummer Nicolas “Nick” Luthi and lead singer Jacob Moran’s pixelated faces fill the FaceTime screen.

A large dog comes in and out of frame as the audio cuts in.

According to the boys, the band’s fourth and final member, guitarist Rory Turtoro, is at work.

Phoenix’s own band, The Brightside, didn’t start in a recording studio or on Roosevelt Row where the boys began playing at First Friday. Instead, it started in this same bedroom.

Long before The Brightside was sharing the stage with names like Drake Bell and Twin XL, brothers Jacob and Jesse Moran played at a string of open mic nights throughout 2012 before officially forming The Brightside in 2017.

“We didn’t start the band back (in 2012), it was just kind of me and him playing songs at open mic nights and stuff like that,” Jesse Moran said. “We weren’t super serious about music. Obviously we love music, and it’s always been a part of our lives, but growing up and trying to pursue the band we didn’t have the equipment (to start).”

According to Luthi, the blended combination of Luthi’s old school rock roots, Turtoro’s heavy metal, Jacob Moran’s pop style and Jesse Moran’s indie interest influenced the band’s pop-rock sound. The First Friday, mall and open mic performances encouraged the band to pursue music more seriously. This led to the production of “Best of the Worst in 2018,” a self-produced EP done from a band member’s bedroom.

“It’s actually the bedroom we’re having this interview in right now,” Jacob Moran said, a pair of round sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

Luthi said the members of The Brightside tinkered with software like GarageBand and Logic Pro to produce “Best of the Worst.” While they didn’t have a studio or a record deal, the band did have something else: Jesse Moran.

“Jesse went to college for most of the producing stuff, so at the time that was all we could afford. We were playing all these shows, but we had no way to gain traction with anybody because if you don’t have music out there there’s nothing for them to share or to listen to,” Luthi said.

“We just wanted to get something out, and so we did everything that we could to make it the best we possibly could with the resources we had.”

Now in 2019, long gone are the days when the band members relied on their laptops to produce music. The Brightside paired up with Halen Bouhadana, a producer for Electric Sound Music, to continue working on its sound.

Bouhadana worked with the band to produce “Red Room,” The Brightside’s first professional EP. Bouhadana said the musical collaboration was quick, but inevitably rewarding for both Bouhadana and the band.

“Just like any project of that caliber, it gets stressful at times,” Bouhadana said. “But it was very fun to learn (their) musical habits and where everyone was kind of coming from musically and how we can put that pretty much in a blender and formulate a signature sound for them.”

Fans like Sierra Ceballos, who first saw The Brightside during the Tempe music festival Band Splash in April 2019, said she appreciated the tight-knit relationship that the band has with its fans.

“They do enjoy engaging with the crowd, and they do have a fan base where if (a fan) says hi to a specific one of them who’s performing they’ll say hi back,” Ceballos said about meeting the band at the Scottsdale Twin XL concert in August 2019. “They’re pretty one-on-one, which I think is really cool. In the next couple of years I see them hopefully doing not only a lot more shows but also performing in bigger venues.”

When the band isn’t arguing over where to eat, an ongoing debate according to Jacob Moran, it’s working on re-recording old music and creating new content. The members remain tight-lipped about their future, but Jacob Moran affirmed that “raves” is a substantial hint for what’s to come.

“There’s a lot of new stuff that’s going to be coming out. It’s gonna be a lot different than what we’ve done before. We’re really excited for it. So there’s gonna be a ton of new music,” Luthi said.

Somehow Jacob Moran’s round sunglasses have found a home on Luthi’s face.

“As Nick would say, 'it’s going to be a blast and a half,'” Jacob Moran said.

Luthi echoed the sentiment. The band, sans Turtoro, bid farewell. The average bedroom and the boys inside it disappear as the screen fades to black.

Editor’s Note: Kaleigh Strong is a student reporter at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications.