A dramatic, sonic and spiritual upheaval, Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s “We Were Never Alive” is a bold, anthemic return from one of Chicago’s most exciting newcomers – a high-octane eruption that solidifies them as one of 2024’s artists to watch.
Stream: “We Were Never Alive” – Brigitte Calls Me Baby
“Have you ever felt you were dreamin’ and life was just something that you never could believe in?” Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s Wes Leavins asks.
His voice radiates raw energy and achingly intense emotion as he sings hot on the mic, deep in the throes of a familiar existential reckoning. “The travel of night, the tunnel of light, a feeling you were never meant to feel again.” A dramatic, sonic and spiritual upheaval, “We Were Never Alive” is a bold, anthemic return from one of Chicago’s most exciting newcomers – a high-octane eruption that effectively solidifies Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s place as one of 2024’s artists to watch.
And watch them, we absolutely will: The lead single off their forthcoming debut album The Future Is Our Way Out (out August 2 via ATO Records), “We Were Never Alive” is just a prelude – a tease at all that’s to come from the Midwestern indie rockers. The new song is an exhilarating return for the band, who made a massive impact with last year’s debut EP This House Is Made of Corners: In our track-by-track EP feature, Atwood Magazine hailed the record as an “all-hits, no misses introduction… full of seductive, soul-stirring crooning, fervent post-punk passion, and heated indie rock sound.”
Have you ever felt you were dreamin’
And life was just something
that you never could believe in?
The travel of night
The tunnel of light
A feeling you were never meant to feel again
Standing on the side,
you’re walking on the water
The closer that I get,
the more I know I wanna
This life could feed a dream,
the waves will take you under
If I wake up, I won’t feel this again
Comprised of lead singer Wes Leavins, guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer Jeremy Benshish, Brigitte Calls Me Baby have exploded onto the scene with grace and vigor. Working with 9x Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton), the band make music that bleeds red with raw urgency and immediacy: Leavins’ powerhouse singing voice is a marvel to behold, yet it’s the way he and his bandmates come together as one tight, tenacious unit that makes each Brigitte Calls Me Baby track both unrelenting and insatiable.
“We Were Never Alive” is no exception, opening with a sweaty guitar riff and a cinematic groove that roar and soars with fine-tuned finesse. The lyrics find Leavins and co. wrestling with our inescapable mortality and the seeming futility of life. We try to hold on so tight, but we all loosen our grip eventually:
We werе never alive
Howеver real it seemed, it was just a dream
We don’t go and we never arrived
However real it seemed, it was just a dream
Until the end, it’s you and me
I look to you as long as I have eyes that see
And it’s the end for you and me
I wanna stay forever in the in-between
“Devin wrote the music to that song and I loved how dramatic it felt, so the goal was to match that drama in the lyrics,” Wes Leavins explains. “It became a song about how in the grand scheme of existence, the time we’re alive is so brief and insignificant. At some point, after you’re gone, when everyone who knew you is gone as well, it’s almost as if you never existed at all.”
And yet here we are, lungs breathing, hearts beating, bodies being.
We exist, unapologetically and uncompromisingly, here and now – and isn’t that all that should matter? “We Were Never Alive” aches with the weight of life’s fragility, and yet, Brigitte Calls Me Baby capture our own inner strength and staying power through a stunning and undeniably spirited performance.
Here’s to always and forever, even if it sometimes feels like never.
I know a place in your sleep, and my sleep
And two people who are not in love
It’s a deep sleep, no heartbeat
And no return
I’m buried in the city
You’re standing in the water
The people that we were,
they won’t be there tomorrow
The things we used to cling
were only ours to borrow
I’m hoping that someday this all will end
We were never alive
However real it seemed, it was just a dream
We don’t go and we never arrived
However real it seemed, it was just a dream
Until the end, it’s you and me
I look to you as long as I have eyes that see
And it’s the end for you and me
I wanna stay forever in the in-between
— —
:: stream/purchase We Were Never Alive here ::
:: connect with Brigitte Calls Me Baby here ::
Stream: “We Were Never Alive” – Brigitte Calls Me Baby
— — — —
Connect to Brigitte Calls Me Baby on
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Scarlet Page
© Scarlet Page:: Stream Brigitte Calls Me Baby ::
