Their first single, “Coffee and Nicotine,” is a catchy sing-along song that starts with a folky guitar twang and then moves on into a beautiful chorus with just the right amount of melancholy that would fit perfectly into any late 90s movie soundtrack.

On the band’s style, Burke said, “When we went into it, we had no concept of genre.” Even still, the band managed to settle into an Indie Rock groove reminiscent of the early 2000s “with some surf elements,” Burke said.

Burke has been playing guitar and writing music for 15 years and is the band’s primary songwriter and lead vocalist.

Baronikian handles the more technical aspects of things. “He’s an incredible producer, sound engineer, mixing engineer.” He’s also a piano player, though no pianos appear on the album.

Baronikian has equally high praise for his bandmate. “Burke has really good songwriting chops.”

For the two collaborators, putting together music is a process of discovery.

Their recording process was borne out of COVID when they couldn’t see each other as often as they would like to. The two would send voice notes with interesting riffs or melodies, slowly piecing a song together. Starting with small acoustic demos as a diving-off point.

The songs on the album are fleshed out with multiple guitars and drums, but because the way “songs are written initially means that they can be played pretty easily with just a guitar and a voice,” Baronikian said.

“Once we have something we are excited about, we will sit down and start layering things and adding and subtracting and coming up with little guitar melodies and riffs and vocal harmonies,” Baronikian said. “A lot of my contribution is refining or polishing some of the things he brings to the table. He brings really strong ideas, and I bring an additional ear.”

Burke said his style of writing music is improvisation, “I’ll freestyle lyrics or a chord progression and then record that in a voice memo.”

The unique way they create music means they often don’t know how to play a song when they are done recording, which is the opposite of how it usually works. Typically, Burke pointed out, musicians will jam until they find something they like then record. Bristol Mines will record an entire song then have to reverse engineer how to play the song in its entirety.

“We kind of start in the studio” and weave together the songwriting and producing simultaneously. The entirety of the album, except the drums, was recorded in a home studio.

The band gets its name from Bristol Mines, a place Johnson remembers fondly from when he was growing up; his family owns a cottage in Norway Bay. Johnson’s family took frequent trips to Norway Bay, he remembers biking to and playing in the area. “It’s always had a nostalgic kind of place in my head,” Johnson said.

One day Johnson was showing Baronikian Norway Bay on a map and “I was like, oh yeah, this is Bristol Mines. I definitely need to bring you there and we just thought, ‘that would be a cool band name.’”

The band’s music isn’t necessarily about Johnson’s youth, but he does admit one song called “Seasons” is about a summer romance at Norway Bay.

Ironically, the band started putting together songs, actively thinking about writing songs about relationships. The thought, “We’re not writing songs about girls.” In the end all but one of the songs is about relationships.

Bristol Mines’ debut album, Easy Target, is out now and can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!