Bravo Victor are an unconventional duo made up of bassist Jono Burgess and vocalist Sophie Aked – that’s it. Together they craft slow-burning and evocative tracks like their recent single Fire and Ice, and despite their stripped-back setup they can certainly fill a space.
To find out a little more about how a bass and voice duo actually works behind the scenes, we caught up with Jono and Sophie for the latest.
Who needs six members? Bravo Victor are here to prove you don’t need a million musos to sound practiced, powerful, and dramatic.
HAPPY: Tell us what Fire and Ice is about?
SOPHIE: The lyrics for Fire and Ice are inspired by the poem from Robert Frost of the same name. I found, and continue to find, that there’s an interesting balance between apathy and passion. What the songs talks about the pitfalls of letting either one ‘rule’ a person’s mentality. I think history has shown us time and time again that extremism, in any form or from any view point, is not effective, and essentially debilitates society as a whole.
HAPPY: You’re a bass and voice duo. Explain how that works to us?
JONO: I play a five string Ken Smith bass, an amazing luthier from the states. The secret to Bravo Victor is that my bass is strung with an extra high string instead of having an extra low string which the more common way to string a five string bass. This allows me to play some more intricate chords on an instrument that doesn’t normally like that. I’m also for the most part playing very high up the neck, BASSically trying my hardest to not sound like a bass! On Fire and Ice though we recorded it in a very lively room so the room contributes a lot to the sound of the whole song.
HAPPY: Where do you typically start a song?
SOPHIE: Often one of us will just have a small idea – it might be a subject, a little part of a melody or little lick, and we will basically jam on the idea and let it grow naturally. A lot of songs are written fairly quickly. Fire and Ice actually was the exception to this – I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated writing.
Jono and I had a weird moment where we weren’t paying enough attention to what the other was doing and the song sounded really funky. It worked, it was just confusing because we were on separate pages. Things smoothed out after we played it live a few times… and listened to each other.
HAPPY: Jono, what do you favour amp wise?
JONO: I’ve been going between my Aguilar Tonehammer and my Morgan tube amp when I’m feeling strong!
HAPPY: With just a bassist, is filling out your mids and tops a challenge?
JONO: That’s a funny one because in the early stages of us playing together I was constantly trying to fill out the sound by playing with lots of delay and reverb all the time but sometimes I think the beauty of this project is the fact that there is space so these days the reverb/delays are more subdued… sometimes. Sophie also has a huge voice so sometimes I don’t have to all that much.
HAPPY: What pedals do you have on your board at the moment?
JONO: That is always tricky because I never know what might be on there tomorrow but at the moment I have a Chase Bliss tonal recall, a Eventide H9, a TC Ditto x2 Looper, and a Noble Preamp. Plus whatever I pull out of my drawer that day.
HAPPY: Do you have any favourite gear or pedal builders?
JONO: I think Chase Bliss Audio are doing awesome things at the moment but I also love Jack from Noble Amplifiers, his preamp was almost life changing for me, I can’t play without it.
HAPPY: Is there anything you’re really hanging out to buy at the moment?
JONO: I am super interested in the new Empress ZOIA, that could be a real game changer for a lot of people.
HAPPY: How are you finding the reception to Fire and Ice?
SOPHIE: We were really excited to go back and do the track again in a live setting. We love performing live and have played this track on a regular basis for the last year or so. Since recording the EP we have really settled into the track, by playing it live. We both understand what the song is about better, and personally I’m really glad we captured a pretty magic take when we were rolling. Searching for that magic is a really fun risk of live music.
I think really happy with how people have taken to the video. I think it’s been helpful, for those who haven’t seen us play live to better understand how the duo works in practical terms.
HAPPY: How did you go about recording the track?
SOPHIE: We found a really nice live space and decided we would love to try and do the song there in one take. IT was a pretty simple set up – one Shure mic for Sophie, one in front of Jono’s amp and well as a direct line from the base and two really nice room mics. It gave a nice round and detailed sound to the track as well as feeling really vibey.
HAPPY: The genre of the duo is a bit ambiguous, what do you think about in terms of sound for when you write or perform?
SOPHIE: I think it’s really fortunate that Jono and I have such different musical educations and tastes. We really only have a slim cross section where we like the same artists. For me, from a vocal perspective, I tend to choose my sound on instinct. I think since the recording of the EP I have found more variation in my voice, and often the combination of my belting with the feel of the bass leads me to feel like I’m singing in almost an RnB sort of pop sound.
I love mixing in some jazz tones at the moment however, and doing this thing called ‘scassical’. ‘Scassical’ is a term I coined to describe the cross between scatting and more traditional classical inspired runs I have been doing live of late. There wasn’t any Scassical featured in Fire and Ice, but our next video Compass Love looks at it a bit more, as well as showing off some more of my classical range.
