By Tyler Friedman ’17,  Staff Writer

When you first hear their music, you would guess that they’re a polished, experienced indie-rock band consisting of four or five members. In reality, The Brazen Youth consists of two 17-year-old boys from Old Lyme, Connecticut, Nick Lussier and Charles Dahlke, who record all of their music in a makeshift home studio in Charles’s house. Despite the wide instrumentation that the listener hears in their music, Nick covers vocals and guitar, Charles plays piano, and Charles’s music software and special keyboards produce the rest of the drumbeats and other instruments. I met Nick and Charles this past summer at Berklee College of Music, and have been non-stop listening to their music since. In their career so far, they released a full album in 2014, titled New Life, and a single in 2015 of their song “Reassess Me.” They are planning on releasing a second full album in the near future. Despite being a young band new to the music scene, many of their songs, including “Reassess Me,” have thousands of plays on both SoundCloud and Spotify, and they regularly play shows in their area. They have also been featured on various morning TV and radio shows, their appearances ranging from interviews to performances.

Their album, New Life, is genuinely amazing. No song is quite like any other, yet the album is still able to remain cohesive. The songs range from more upbeat and pop-ish, such as “Alright” and “I Think I’m Gonna Find You,” to slower and more contemplative, such as “Lift Off” and “Lights Won’t Fade Up.” The album opens and closes with the more instrumental-heavy pieces “Introduction” and “Introduction (Reprise).” My personal favorites off of the album include “Release Me, I Beg You,” “1085,” and “Carrying the Weight.” The album as a whole is impressive both lyrically and melodically, and Nick and Charles are able to use their production skills to create a larger sound than one would expect from just two people. In addition to their album, their single “Reassess Me” is one of my favorite songs by them. The lyrics are beautiful and emotional, and the tempo and volume are artfully varied throughout the song. Overall, I highly recommend listening to The Brazen Youth’s music, as it rivals some of the most polished, renowned indie-rock in the music scene despite being such a young band.