Beste: So tell me, what is The Brightmill?

Steve: The Brightmill is a musician’s collective I started to get my songs made, and it’s a remote collboration between a rotating cast of musicians; session and feature musicians from all over the world, basically.

Beste: So nice. So first- how did you get into music?

Steve: I’ve loved music my whole life, and as soon as I learned my first two chords I wrote a song- that was the first thing I did. So I’ve loved writing songs my whole life, just the idea of it. I took lessons and music theory classes all through school, I got into Berklee and when there for performance- and even though I wound up working in a different field I never stopped playing and I never stopped writing songs.

Beste: So how did this happen? Tell us about how and why you started the Brightmill.

Steve: Well I was working as a stagehand previously for 15 years. While I was attending Berklee I started to work a little bit at Symphony Hall doing lighitng and stagehand stuff, and freelancing around Boston. Eventually I started working full time as a stagehand, and 15 years in the industry mostly doing lights, until 2018; I got a spot touring with the Willie Nelson Outlaw Music Festival, as the lighting crew chief. And that was awesome, that was the best Summer of my life. Ton of fun, ton of work. But unfortunately, the next year as I was preparing to do the next tour- down in Nashville- I got really sick and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. So, I had to replace myself on the tour and I haven’t been able to work as a stagehand since. That’s 5 years. So just in the last several months, just in an effort to pick myself up and forge ahead- you know, I turned back to something I could do with this condition; and also the next thing I was most educated in- which is music.

Beste: Do you want to tell us a bit about the people you have worked with on this journey?

Steve: Yes! I’ve gotten very, very lucky with some really awesome collaborations and I’m so grateful for them. The first song that I made “I’m Inclined” I just sent it off to a service that said ‘Have your song listened to by a professional’ and this guy Yoad Nevo reached out- he’s a studio owner in London- and he told me that he liked the track, and he would like to work with me, and he mixed and mastered both songs. And he’s fantastic- his impact on the tracks is probably as great as another instrumentalist. And I plan on working with him on all songs going forward. And then the other fantastic collaboration that I’ve had was Chuck Bartels, who I met on the 2018 Willie Nelson Outlaw Music Festival Tour. He is one of the best bass players I’ve ever heard in my entire life, and-

Beste: Right, yeah that’s why the bass sounds so mature.

Steve: Oh my God yeah he’s incredible- he’s one of the best musicians I’ve seen in person. We made friends on that tour that Summer and he graciously agreed to be on this track. I approached him with the first one as proof of concept, and asked if he’d be interested in doing a song together and he said ‘yes’ so. I’m very very grateful to both of them, I’ll never be able to- you know- thank them enough.

Beste: Right right. So I know you want this to be a Rock album and that you have many World Music influences from the musicians that you work with, right?

Steve: Right

Beste: There’s different kinds of percussion, I know you love that, and there’s a fiddle, yeah

Steve: Yeah

Beste: So can you tell us more about this different kind of instrumentation, and can we expect to hope to have more of this in your future work?

Steve: Definitely, yeah. I brought in Gray, the violinist, because- even though I love shred guitar- I’m more concerned with writing a good “rock” album than I would ever be with writing a “shred” album. And I just thought, how can I diffuse this, and not make it just a pure guitarfest. And you know, who can run with me, and sound good- and Gray has always been someone that I love to play with, I’ve played with before. He’s got excellent note choice, and he’s an incredible instrumentalist really. And like you said, the percussion: there’s a kit player from Nigeria and there’s a hand percussion from Colombia on that one, and I love the syncronisity of how those two worked together, so- you can definitely except more stuff like that. You can definitely expect Gray will be on a lot of tracks going forward. I like our voices together, and he likes my music, fortunately, and we get along so.. (laughs)

Beste: Awesome, awesome. Where does the name come from?

Steve: The Brightmill. Where I grew up, as a kid, there were a lot of old mills and factories that had been converted to practice spaces for musicians. You know, for $20 or $40 a month, a handful of kids could go get a place where you could go be loud, you could go be creative, you could- you know- play badly. And just hang out, hang out with other bands, go watch other bands and stuff. And you know, I just wanted to nod to that. That had a big impact on my life and music when I was a kid, so I just wanted to nod to where I came from.

Beste: Yeah, so the album art also shows this, then.

Steve: Yup! It’s got a kind of a water-wheel, spinning wheel, yeah. The “bright” part of the Brightmill is just: I’ve always thought creativity was one of the cleanest ways to gain success. You have an idea in your head, and you pull it out, and you give it to the audience and it’s- you know- it’s very honest. And it always kind of reminded me of Rumplestiltskin, spinning straw into gold. And so that- that’s the “bright” part of the Brightmill. The creativity.

Beste: Yeah. It’s a very nice story, also. Not just the Brightmill, but you finding the strength to come back like this. I’m very proud of you.

Steve: Thank you very much

Beste: I don’t know if you want to put this in the recording or not, but this is how I really feel.

Steve: That means a lot to me.

Beste: So you have now, two songs recorded- and that’s on the website. What’s next? What are the future plans?

Steve: Now we’re going to try to crowd source either funds for the entire album, or if we can’t do that- we’re going to try to crowd source a song at a time. So, if people like the music, they can go to www.thebrightmill.com and there’s a page where you can donate as much or as little as you want. And all the music is there on all the platforms you would want to listen to. And yeah, basically we’re just going to try to raise the money to make more music. Either go song by song or- hopefully, hopefully knock out a killer, killer album.

Beste: And it will keep on being this international online collaboration as well?

Steve: For sure, yes. As I’m doing this I’m building my database of musicians and I hope to just keep adding to that, and getting cool feature players on different instruments and stuff.

Beste: That’s very nice. So tell us again, how people can help? We go to www.brightmill.com?

Steve: That’s right. www.thebrightmill.com It will have all our socials, you’ll be able to listen to the song on any platform you like, and there will be a link to donate. We’re trying to crowdfund an album, or if we can’t do that, we’re going song by song.

Beste: Yeah, and that funds musicians and music, and nothing else, right?

Steve: 100% of all donations go directly to artists. Musicians, graphic artists, or producers. It all goes to the production of the art.

Beste: Well, yeah. I am very happy to have had this chat.

Steve: Me too, thank you!

Beste: I wish you all the best, and I think it’s very well deserved- and the world is a better place that your songs are out there I feel!

Steve: That really means a lot to me, Beste, thank you very much!