THE LAUNCH BOX: Broken Bells

Broken Bells features two well known artists in the indie and alternative music scene, James Mercer (singer/guitarist for the Shins) and producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who has worked with many artists, like the Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, the Black Keys, Portugal. The Man, and most recently – The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The two of them managed to keep their project secret for quite some time. Having been fan’s of each others’ work, they decided to collaborate when they met at 2004’s Roskilde music festival in Denmark. It wasn’t until March 2008 that they started writing and recording together as a band. Together, they decided to take a different approach to their work – Burton avoided the sample-heavy style he used on The Grey Album and Beck’s Modern Guilt, and played only live instruments, while Mercer broadened his vocal style to include falsettos and deeper registers. Mercer and Burton announced they were Broken Bells in fall 2009, and late that year they released their debut single, “The High Road.”

They released their self-titled debut album in spring of 2010. They released the Meyrin Fields EP a year later, featuring previously unreleased tracks as well as the title track, which had been the B-side to the single The Ghost Inside.

In late 2013 the duo released a teaser for a forthcoming second album, entitled After the Disco, in the shape of a retro-futurist short film starring Anton Yelchin and Kate Mara. The album was preceded by the singles “After the Disco” and “Holding on for Life,” which had an old-school, psychedelic ’70s feel, right down to the production, with the latter track sounding uncannily like the Bee Gees. After the Disco arrived in February 2014.

Last September, Broken Bells released a new song called “It’s That Talk Again” recorded during their ‘After The Disco’ recording sessions.