Laurie Cottingham, the Eastbourne based creative behind one-man emo force Brightr, is a genuine veteran of the road. Having racked up in excess of one-hundred shows throughout 2015, including a stint alongside Prawn and the dearly departed Hindsights, he has recently from a European stint which saw him join The Front Bottoms on a couple of shows in-amongst headline appearances. That’s before delving into his personal music history and his tour managing career. Brightr is a culmination of his experience and most importantly, it’s all his own.
“It got a point with the other members in my last band where I was literally doing everything,” Cottingham opens up, speaking of his spontaneous decision to go solo. “When it got to a point where it felt like I was pulling them along and maybe I could do the whole thing on my own, I brought the band to an end.”
At this point Brightr wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye. His frustrations had brought him to a dead-end in his musical career. At that precise moment Laurie Cottingham was done. “I didn’t do it with a view to going solo. I did it because things were pissing me off and I felt like I was going to stop doing music,” he admits, recalling his short lived hiatus. “After 2 weeks of not being in a band I started to go insane.”
‘We’, the opening track from the debut Brightr full-length ‘Year One’, emerged shortly thereafter. There were no plans to take this new musical endeavour any further. “I did it to stay sane,” Cottingham reaffirms. It was an encounter with friend and producer Matt O’Grady that spurred Brightr forward, leading to the creation of the self-titled EP and its subsequent release in early 2015. O’Grady, whose work includes that by You Me At Six and the equally impassioned ‘Fools And Worthless Liars’ by Deaf Havana, provided the opportunity for Cottingham to refine his brutally personal creations.
“When I wrote ‘We’, I knew that what I was doing in Brightr was going to be different to anything I had done before,” Cottingham continues. “Because in bands I was writing lyrics that weren’t just representing me, they were representing the band, I would always hold back a little bit and use a lot of metaphor. Whether it was because I was really pissed off when I started writing Brightr songs, or whatever it was, I started to project a lot of personal stuff into it. I wanted to be more blunt and straightforward, to be more emotive.”
This emotion runs throughout ‘Year One’. As Cottingham describes his difficult year, music as ever provided an outlet. His unashamed honesty is ever-present in his lyrics, live performance and conversation. Cottingham is a self-described chatter, as his continuous thoughts permeate his music. “I was going through such a huge transition in my life that I think you can hear that in the vocals. You can hear me cracking when it all got a bit too much.”
“Usually I record vocals in the dark, or relative darkness. It all effects the mood of the music. I find that I think about things really heavily when I’m recording. It’s really important that the mood is right. The main thing that we had to watch in the studio was that we didn’t overdo it, and make it too produced. I think that album has retained a lot of that emotion. I wanted a really nice sounding record, and then do things live with the power.”
There is no danger of ‘Year One’ presenting itself as over produced. The subtlety of the sound even in its occasional grandiose moments underpins Cottingham’s brazen lyrics. This translates perfectly into his live shows too, balancing the one-man sound with candid anecdotes and self-reflection.
“When I first started playing live shows I had no idea what being a solo artist involved,” Cottingham recalls. “I went into it the same way as anyone else does who’s in a band, but playing a bunch of solo songs that you normally play in a band doesn’t make you Frank Turner. It doesn’t make you Dallas Green. Getting even close to that level is about the atmosphere you can create on your own.“
“I had a show where I felt really emotional and was carrying a lot on my shoulders. I thought at the time I was being really unprofessional because I spent so much time talking between the songs, telling people what they were about and what was on my mind. Telling everybody all these really personal things. At the time it was almost defiance, I had a few drinks and was in a really bad mood. But after that show the reaction was insane. People were coming up to me saying they’d really connected with the music. Rather than it being unprofessional, it has become the staple part of a Brightr show.”
It’s not unusual to see Cottingham on the verge of tears as he plays through his expanding repertoire, nor his audience hanging on his every word. At one of his shows we witness a girl in the front-row exclaim to her friend that she can’t handle the atmosphere anymore, before composing herself and turning back to find out more about Cottingham’s inner workings. It’s this magic that runs throughout ‘Year One’, painfully honest and immensely captivating. “I’m inviting the crowd in. In that sense the emotional content of the songs is really heavy. I feel like it makes it really heavy for me. It’s a lot more personal.”
As ‘Whisky’, the record’s hidden track, pulls ‘Year One’ to a close, the intricacies of the sound shine through. Cottingham explains how the record has reoccurring musical nods designed to give Brightr a coherent sound. It’s nothing flashy or over-produced but shows Cottingham’s dedication to the art of songwriting, as well as his heartfelt openness. ‘Year One’ is an insight into a troubled mind, crafted with passion and beauty.