The band signed with Atlas Touring and will hit the road this spring
Brave Baby played at Lofi Brewery in September 2024.
“An album usually takes about three years to cook,” says Wolfgang Zimmerman, the drummer and producer for Brave Baby, whose album 3x blood marks the quintet’s return after a pre-COVID breakup. Their roots date to teenage days in Fort Mill, when Zimmerman and guitarist Christian Chidester recruited singer/guitarist Keon Masters to join their pop/rock outfit. The trio moved to Charleston, linking up with Jordan Hicks (bass) and Steven Walker (keys/percussion) to release two full-length albums: Forty Bells in 2013 and Electric Friends in 2015.
Despite a 2017 single, “Soothsayer,” that’s garnered nearly five-million streams on Spotify, the band’s output slowed. Zimmerman had a daughter, released a solo album, went through a breakup, and has another baby on the way. Masters recorded two solo albums and adopted a 13-year-old son in the same five-year period since Brave Baby’s 2019 split. Now, they’ve reemerged as fathers and thirtysomethings on the the 12-track 3x blood.
The album’s title comes from the song “Cloak of Love,” a cascade of sound that could be a Cher outtake from between her swampy era as Mrs. Gregg Allman and the big production of “Believe.” Masters sings, “Fool me once and I’ll take it on the chin/Fool me twice and I’ll let you have the win/Fool me three times blood and you better get to running cause I’m gunning for your skin.”
“This took three times the blood to make,” says Zimmerman, adding that blood also references the musicians’ decades-long brotherhood. Playing together doubles as a support group, offering a place to open up through song. “We can talk about this stuff for a while, and then we can crank up the amps and let it rip,” explains Masters.
(Left) The quintet includes Steven Walker, Keon Masters, Wolfgang Zimmerman, Christian Chidester, and Jordan Hicks; (Right) The 3x blood album cover features a photo of the sky over the Jenning’s Towing lot on the Charleston Neck.
The album cover, a photo of the sky over the Jenning’s Towing lot on the Charleston Neck, finds beauty in despair. “It represents our life. Charleston is the most lovely place if you have the means for it. For most people, it’s beautiful in the background.”
Although 3x blood feels good to listen to—it’s right at home on the beach stage at The Windjammer, where they performed in August—the lyrics are more visceral than ethereal. A layered soundscape begins with a raw recording, but crank the volume, and you hear Zimmerman masterfully manipulating the interplay of vocals and synth. “We like to take the organic stuff and play with it,” he says.
Brave Baby boasts a trio of songwriters, with Zimmerman taking lead vocals on tracks like “2 Things at Once” and “Recently.” Some ideas emerged from chord progressions and demos Chidester brought to the studio, like the breezy vibes of opening track “Quaker Smokes” with its meta lyrics about writing a song. “We try to channel the collective of the group and the stuff we’re all going through,” says Zimmerman. “We’re a five-piece band, so a song has to speak for all of us individually. The moments we do it best are when we’re singing about each other.”
Brave Baby recently signed with Atlas Touring and will hit the road this spring. The band’s new approach melds the wisdom of experience with appreciation for their shared creative outlet. “We’re still putting music out with intention while having fun,” says Masters. “The goal is to keep playing and writing songs together.”
Listen Up: Watch the music video for “Talking to Myself ” from Brave Baby’s latest album, 3x blood.
