henbrain was born in the co-ops of carrboro,nc.evan lived at the bog,and sam lived at the hrc,where the band,pool voices practiced.michelle moved to hillsborogh road co-op in july2009.their singer left,but they continued to practice at the hrc.we were all about the big lewboski at the time,so michelle went to heckle sam at practice,saying"dude,are you f@cking this up?"
em,who played drums at the time,and sang and played fiddle,said"go get your bass then and well see you play."so i did,we jammed,and it was cool.but sam said all along,if you wanted a serious band,this isnt it.but evan and michelle took it seriously.
so the early henbrain shows were nuts(ill explain how we got our name in part2.)i told sam my favorite drink was a long island tea.so sam would buy me like 4 of them every show.drink your medicine,he would say,we got a show to play.these shows usually degraded into (gilbert godfried level)dirty joke telling and wrestling matches between sam and michelle.id have to dig it out,but i got a cd of a show where theres no drums for 5minutes cause sams passed out.
anyway,em left to tend to her farm and start a family.so for 2010-2012,henbrain consisted of whatever co-op talent was there at the time.the hen sound continued to evolve,at various times having,bass,guitar,keys,drums,trombone and violin.eventually,only michelle and evan were left,and it was the dark ages of henbrain.it really sucked,and we couldnt find anyone to jam with.
it got so bad,one night at a cave show,in front of a crowd of 3,my amp blew up,and i threw my bass at it in disgust,having been trying to get a band going since 1986.the next day,evan told me i needed to be more hopeful,or he couldnt jam anymore.
so we started playing at the station open mic a lot.it was a place for musicians to show what theyre about and hook up.i was shocked to hear,after the nightmare of trying to find a singer,that evan had run into erika at a party,and that she wanted to sing for us.sometime around 2012erika and her boyfriend zack came to the hrc to jam with evan and michelle.zack said,"i dont know how 2 basses is going to work,but ill try it."i said,"ill show ya."
and it was amazing,zack totally understood what michelle was trying to do with the two bass attack,and provided a ferocious 5string low end.erika was the siren you only get to jam with once in a lifetime.so we had really great keys,vocals, and basses,but our sound wasnt fully realized until we met derek sometime in 2015.he provided the metal we needed,but also,the delicate quiet touch,crucial to making dynamic music.
there were growing pains with the two basses.we were never in each others way,out of respect,in terms of playing.but we had to learn to seperate our frequencies,so the audience could differentiate between the two.it wasnt until we won that contest to record with mitch easter that it became totally clear what to do.mitch ran michelle through an orange amp(iommi used that brand in black sabbath,i think.)and then the henbrain sound was fully realized.
ill be writing more about each individual member in the weeks to come.so thats who we are.each one of us is very talented,but very humble,and together we have a sound that we cant wait to for you to hear.and we will always jam our asses off for you.
kaledo-art
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
jbbartram-illu
snowghoul
annaxmalina
ellievsbear
prguitarman