Wild and Vivid: Sophie Brochu’s Fauvely enters its Savannah phase
When Sophie Brochu left Chicago in 2020 to move back to her hometown of Savannah, she brought along Fauvely, her bewitching dream pop project. With a new environment and new bandmates, Brochu has been guiding Fauvely through its next phase, one that is finding inspiration in nature and transition.
Brochu began playing music in Chicago while in grad school studying creative writing, first as the singer for a jangly indie-rock band called Videotapes, and then in the shoegaze band Astrobrite. Brochu was encouraged to play guitar and sing in Astrobrite by band leader Scott Cortez, even though she had never played the instrument.
“He was convinced that I was the right person for this band regardless,” recalled Brochu. “He liked my voice, but I think what he really wanted was to be able to tell somebody the exact parts to play on guitar versus a bandmate coming in and writing their own guitar parts.”
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Brochu played in Astrobrite for several years and was beginning to come into her own as a singer and guitarist, but it was a tour in Japan in 2015 that convinced her that she wanted to take the next step artistically.
“I thinking the turning point for me was getting to perform in Japan,” said Brochu. “It was such an incredible and empowering experience. As I was starting to get better at guitar and a better singer, I knew in my heart I really wanted to start writing my own songs.”
When Brochu shared a few of her demos with Cortez, he went behind her back and created a Bandcamp page for her music. He even made up a band name for her.
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“I told him he can’t do that,” Brochu said with a laugh. “But he was such a good friend and encouraging. That was how Fauvely started. Him putting my music on the internet and me taking it down.”
The name Cortez gave her was Wolfly. It was that or Fauve, but Brochu didn’t like either, so she combined the two words into Fauvely.
“I liked the idea of the vividness of the colors in that art movement [Fauvism], but it also means ‘wild beasts’ and I liked this idea of wild and vivid,” explained Brochu.
Fauvely started as a solo project with different members shifting in and out as Brochu performed around Chicago. Eventually, Brochu was joined by Dale Price, Phil Conklin, and Dave Piscotti, who became regular members and played on Fauvely’s wonderful album, Beautiful Places. You can catch this line-up in a 2017 Audio Tree live session on Youtube.
“They became the core unit of Fauvely and I think with them I was able to hone this dream pop kind of sound,” said Brochu.
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During the pandemic, the restaurant that Brochu’s husband was about to open in Chicago fell through, so the couple decided to relocate to Savannah. But Brochu wasn’t ready to give up Fauvely and needed to find new bandmates.
“I really wanted to play in a band because I didn’t want this to be a singer-songwriter project,” said Brochu.
Brochu began playing Fauvely songs with Ty Thompson of Rev. Bro Diddley and the Hips (Brochu also plays in Black Hat with Thompson), and Susanna Kennedy. Fauvely has since added ubiquitous drummer Jalen Reyes and bassist Coy Campbell to the roster. Guitarist Andrew Sovine will be behind the drum kit at their next show in lieu of Reyes.
“You can look at it as the Chicago unit and the Savannah unit,” said Fauvely. “I knew when I moved here that Fauvely is my thing and I wanted to keep it. I wanted to continue playing the songs I wrote in Chicago, so it didn’t seem right to me make up another band name. I see it as a very fluid thing that will evolve over time and have different members. Its one big family unit.”
Brochu didn’t entirely stop touring and playing with the “Chicago unit,” and they even came to Savannah to record Fauvely’s latest EP, Alligator Rode, her first collection of songs penned in her new home.
“I started writing it when we first moved here and didn’t know anybody,” said Brochu. “Ty recorded it in his home studio. Dale, Phil, and Dale came down from Chicago, so it’s kind of a cool hand off of Chicago to Savannah.”
Alligator Rodeo was inspired by Georgia’s natural beauty, a wildly different ecology from Chicago.
“I was taking a lot of long walks through nature and through the woods and marshes,” said Brochu. “One of my favorite things to do is be outside. Even though I was writing about coming home, and this difficult transition, I wanted to write about it through this theme of animals.”
Brochu had encountered the title alligator on one of her walks and found herself relating to it in an odd way.
“It lived in this little pond near where I live and it started coming up to this road because somebody was obviously feeding it,” said Brochu. “Trapper Jack came out to relocate it. This is going to sound silly, but on my daily walks and runs I would see this alligator and I felt like there was a mutual respect. I’d leave it alone and it would leave me alone. It’s this sad story where he was ripped from his home and I felt like I related. I was taken from my Chicago home and was trying to figure out what my home was.”
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Brochu is slowly working on new Fauvely material, but is in no rush as she is currently writing a novel. She does have a few new songs that she is excited to play live this Friday at El Rocko Lounge.
“One of them I’m super excited about because it sounds like the first song that the Savannah line-up all did their own part and we did that together,” said Brochu. “I’m super proud of that.”
Whatever Fauvely’s next phase is, Brochu looks forward to continue evolving her music.
“I’m sure it will take shape and sound new and different than past material,” said Brochu. “I love the Beautiful Places record, but you know when you release something you start to feel this distance from it. It becomes something of the past. I don’t know what future Fauvely will look like, but I’m always working on something and it will come.”
IF YOU GO
What: Fauvely w/ Majic Dust, Dustin Price, and Tim Thompson w/ Mass Formation
When: Friday at 8 p.m.
Where: El Rocko Lounge, 117 Whitaker St.
Cost: $12
Info: fauvelymusic.com
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA concerts: Fauvely at El Rocko Lounge
