© Stefan Kohli

„Véletlenek sorozatának köszönhetjük, hogy ismerjük egymást” – exkluzív interjú Jeremy Zuckerrel és Chelsea Cutlerrel

© Stefan Kohli

Every friendship has its own story, and the case is no different when it comes to Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler. The super talented singer-songwriter duo got to know each other thanks to a series of coincidences, then ended up getting signed to the same label and management team.

Luckily, their friendship is fruitful when it comes to making music, as besides both releasing their debut albums in 2020, they released two collaborative EPs, „brent” and „brent ii„, as well. We sat down to chat with the two artists and talked about touring, the making of brent and brent ii and their solo work too – exclusive interview with Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler.

First of all, congratulations on your new EP, „brent ii„. It’s such a gorgeous body of work. But first, let’s start with the beginnings. How did you guys meet and how did you become friends?

Chesea: Jeremy and I started following each other on social media to begin with. Coincidentally, a few years back, he got hired to play a party at this college called University of Connecticut, and one of my best friends was attending the same college. I ended up visiting her that weekend and we coincidentally met at this party. Then fast forward to now, where actually we got signed by the same manager and by the same team at Republic, as well. It’s been quite a ride.

Jeremy: A lot of coincidental things that led us together. Randomly I saw a comment on YouTube that was like „I can’t imagine a world where Chelsea and Jeremy don’t meet each other”.

You created the first „brent” EP at a cabin in Connecticut. How did you come up with the idea to make a collaborative EP in the first place and then to do it at such an isolated place from the world?

Jeremy: When we went to the cabin the first time, I was there on my own for a couple of days, just like, somebody recommended it to me as a good place to get away and just write music alone. I was there for 4 days and the last day I just texted Chelsea „Hey, do you wanna come up?” ’cause I knew she lived in Connecticut. She just drove for the day and we hung out. We were talking about making music and she sat down and picked up a guitar and started playing a riff, and I was like, „Wow, what is that?” and it ended up being the riff from „better off„. We just literally wrote the song in a couple of hours and finished it that day. It was a really special song and I think we realized that first day how easily songwriting came to us when we were together. That was the first time we sat down to write music together. So I think from there, we knew we were gonna write a lot more music together. I don’t remember whose idea it was to go back to that cabin…

Chelsea: Definitely yours.

Jeremy: You think so?

Chelsea: Yeah, ’cause I remember you calling me and bringing it up.

Jeremy: As soon as we got the idea to go back to where we wrote our first song together, there was already magic in that. We brought our friend Stefan to sort of capture the whole thing and we were like, if we did that in one day, imagine what we could do in 5 days. It just turned out really well and it was a super natural process.

Was the creation process of „brent ii” different from the first one? How do you reflect on it?

Chelsea: I think it was different in some ways. We went to a different studio and we definitely had more of a concrete goal and vision going into it. I do think they’re very similar in a sense that Jeremy and I write well together and we definitely kind of write in a way that we would never do on our own. So I think kind of sonically, both „brent” projects are reminiscent of each other, although I do think, like I said, „brent ii”, we definitely went in with a goal of what we wanted to create.

Jeremy: Totally.

After working on 2 EPs together and being friends for a while, what is the most important thing that you’ve learned from each other?

Chelsea: Jeremy has definitely taught me at least to be more deliberate with what I’m doing. He’s very careful with his writing and it shows because his lyricism is amazing and his production is amazing so I’ve definitely learned a lot from his just about kind of going a little bit slower and taking my time.

Jeremy: Aw, thanks, Chels, that was so nice! That sometimes works to my detriment. A lot of the time I end up overthinking and it’s really easy to sort of get stuck in things when I can’t find the perfect thing. Chelsea really helps me break out of my shell in that way and just be creative and stop getting in my head about making music. That’s why I love writing with her ’cause it’s always so freeing. We just try all these different things whereas when I’m alone, it’s very, like, I know what I’m doing and I need to find out the perfect way to do it. With Chelsea, it’s like, let’s make whatever we want and let’s be free and just make something beautiful.

The first song on your EP is called „this is how you fall in love„. Can you recall the very first time that you fell in love with music?

Jeremy: Wow…

Chelsea: That’s a great question! My parents, they’re not musical in the sense that they’re super talented musicians, or anything. My dad used to be able to play the piano, but other than that, they’re very musical in the sense that they just love music. There was always music playing in our house growing up. I think the first albums I really came to love were „Room for Squares” by John Mayer and „The Rising” by Bruce Springsteen. I think that came out just after 9/11 so I was 3 or 4 years old. I really grew up on that kind of singer-songwriter-storytelling type of music. My first concert was Bruce Springsteen when I was like, 4!

Jeremy: That’s awesome!

Chelsea: Yeah, my parents got me started really early.

Jeremy: I grew up in a pretty musical household in terms of, there was just always music playing in my house when I was young. It was mostly my mom and she’s always been sort of hip to current music so in the early 2000s, she was playing a lot of Counting Crows, Fountains of Wayne and stuff like that.

Chelsea: She was hip!

Jeremy: Yeah, was hip for the time! She’s hip now! She’s like, my biggest fan, so. I’ve loved music since, I don’t know if you guys remember Hit Clips? They were a little, tiny thing that you would get in like, a Burger King Happy Meal or like a McDonald’s Happy Meal, and you put the little disc in, it’s connected to the headphones and you literally get 30 seconds of music. You don’t even get the full song! They only could fit 30 seconds on it. I remember just loving those and just jamming out to 30 seconds of a Britney Spears chorus. I’ve loved music since I can remember.

Jeremy, we’ve seen you’ve been in Brooklyn durning lockdown, and there’s a song on the EP called „brooklyn boy„. What’s your favorite thing about Brooklyn?

Jeremy: My favorite thing about Brooklyn? It’s the same thing that’s my favorite thing about New York. There’s just so much going on all the time. I guess my favorite thing is just walking around with friends and stumbling into cool places and exploring. Before the pandemic, my favorite thing was to go to shows because there are so many venues in New York, small and large. That was the main thing that I did every week.

Which song of yours would you show to a person that doesn’t know you yet? It can be one of your solo songs, or something from the „brent” EPs, too.

Chelsea: Ugh, that’s a great question. I’m thinking! That’s such a good question! I feel like, honestly, my favorite songs that I’ve been a part of have been collaborations in one way or another. But if I had to pick solo song, I’d probably do „Crazier Things„.

Jeremy: I think my solo song would probably be „brooklyn boy„.

You did an online show for the EP and the stage design looked so cool. How did it come about?

Jeremy: I guess we always knew we were gonna do it because we did a livestream for the first „brent” and in the same way that we wanted to make „brent ii” a million times better and more deliberate than „brent”, we did the same thing with the livestream. There’s a very cabin-in-the-woods vibe to the whole visual aesthetic so we wanted to recreate that. We got like, a bunch of dirt and made the stage a forest floor. We got a bunch of trees in there. We worked with some of the same musicians as last time but we added a couple. We just put so much more time into the arrangements and our performance so I think everything was just so much better than it was last time, so it was really exciting.

And which song were you the most excited for to perform live?

Chelsea: „emily„, for me.

Jeremy: Definitely „emily„, or „the stars„, it’s really special.

© Meredith Truax
Chelsea, your debut album „How to be Human” came out just a little more than a year ago. How do you reflect on that record now?

Chelsea: It’s crazy, it feels really far away for me. I think because it was a year ago and also because I feel like I’m in a different place emotionally and as an artist. So I’m locked and loaded, ready to go on the next album and I’m feeling really good about it.

Is the next album coming soon?

Chelsea: It’s gonna start coming soon, I think. I’m just about finished with it. I’m getting there.

© Meredith Truax
Jeremy, how did it feel to release your debut album in the middle of a pandemic?

Jeremy: It sucked! It was really annoying. A big part of my process and routine, and I’m sure Chelsea is very similar, is spending so much time in the studio for months and months, putting together an album, releasing it, and then being able to tour it and being able to stop thinking about creating music and just think about like, performing for the fans and connecting with people. It’s a very necessary reset button for me that I didn’t get to have, so transitioning into making more music was really difficult and it’s really difficult not being able to look my fans in the face and show them how much the album means to me.

And finally, is there a message that you would like to share with your Hungarian fans?

Chelsea: I can’t wait to go to Hungary, at some point, when all of this is safe to do so! Like Jeremy said, touring is so important to me, if not my favorite piece of being an artist, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get to go to Europe a few times, but I would love to do a larger, kind of more comprehensive run of Europe. I’d love to meet everybody in Hungary.

Jeremy: Yeah, maybe we can come together.

Chelsea: I’d love that!

Follow Jeremy Zucker on his official pages below:
Follow Chelsea Cutler on her official pages below: