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“I finally feel really happy about what we're doing and what we're making.”: Interview with Brian Joyce of Commūnion

Photo and interview by Molly Louise Hudelson.

I first met Brian Joyce when I interviewed Major League in July 2012, a few months before they released Hard Feelings. We ended up doing three more interviews: in May 2013 while they were on tour with Senses Fail, October 2014, right before they released There's Nothing Wrong With Me, and in February 2015, when he was the first person I featured on Inner & Outer Portraits.

In 2014, after former lead vocalist Nick Trask left Major League, Brian took over lead vocals. While this was "terrifying" at first, being able to portray the songs he wrote in the way he wanted lead to a "newfound happiness and confidence.” With There's Nothing Wrong With Me, he opened up, putting more of himself into the songs.

Major League announced last February that they were breaking up, but Brian had already begun writing songs for what would become Commūnion. While he knew he didn't want to do "Major League 2.0"- Brian describes the sound Commūnion is aiming for as "The Weeknd meets the Cure playing Breakfast Club soundtrack"- he didn't know from the start that he could be a "true frontman."

Commūnion recently played their first round of shows, supporting Bad Rabbits in Providence, R.I., New York City, and Philadelphia. I met up with Brian for this interview before doors opened in Philadelphia (check out photos from the show here). Take a listen to the band’s first two songs, "Blow" and "Runway Love", on Spotify here, and read on for the full interview!

CIRCLES & SOUNDWAVES: For the record could you state your name, what you play in Commūnion, and a random fact about yourself?

Brian Joyce: Yes. My name is Brian, I sing in the band Commūnion and a random fact is that my toe on my left foot is double-jointed, and it literally pops all the time.

C&S: You sing in Commūnion- in Major League, you were originally playing guitar and writing songs and then you started singing lead as well- talk to me about this transition from playing guitar, to playing guitar and singing, to just singing in this band.

BJ: Yeah- it's definitely super weird. There's a lot more stress, for sure. But I think I'm happier.

C&S: Really?

BJ: When I was just playing guitar with Major League, I was writing all the songs but there wasn't as much stress with the anxiety of- "okay, it's literally on me"- I was just part of the background music.

C&S: You were part of the band.

BJ: Yeah, exactly. There was a lot less stress there, but I also had the stress of, "Do I feel like my band's being represented the right way?" It would've been like this in any band, not just Major League- but you just always wonder…

C&S: "Is this person communicating what I'm trying to communicate?"

BJ: Whoever's up there [singing] is the face of the band- are they portraying, properly, what you're trying to get across? Being the songwriter and then giving it to somebody [to sing], it's basically like being a scriptwriter- you're giving it to somebody and going, "Hey, act this out" and hoping that it's being portrayed correctly.

And then being able to do that with Major League once I took over vocals, I started feeling this newfound happiness and confidence because I could portray it the way I want and it's… you know, it was totally subjective.

C&S: Did it feel vulnerable?

BJ: Very, absolutely. But I was happy to be able to portray the music the way I wanted it to be portrayed at that point. But then doing this, where it's no guitar- that's the hardest part because the guitar was always my safety blanket.

C&S: I remember that first show where you sang lead- it was a college show in Connecticut- you were freaking out- and then here you are.

BJ: My shirt was soaked that show. I was sweating bullets, yeah. When I had first taken over vocals for Major League my dad was like, "Well, I mean, you gonna drop the guitar?" and I was like, "I'm not Freddie Mercury, I just can't do that kind of stuff- that's just not me." That wasn't me at the time. I think it took me a little while to get to that point.

C&S: A little while of doing lead vocals and playing guitar for Major League to get to this point?

BJ: Yeah, exactly. After Major League broke up I was still under the same management [Matty Arsenault at Reclaim Music Group] because I was still doing music. I was talking to them, and I just mentioned, "You know, we lost David Bowie last year, we lost Prince, we lost George Michael…. It's just so crazy- I wish there was another artist like that. I wish there was somebody that would come out and do what Gerard Way did in the mid-2000s and inspired me to be like, 'Oh my god I would love to have that in a band.'"

C&S: Did you know immediately that you wanted to do that?

BJ: No. Matty said, "Why are you waiting for somebody else to come along and do it? Why don't you just do it?" and I was like, "I don't know." We talked about it, and it was a really healthy conversation. After that it was kind of like, "You know what? Someone's gotta do it."

The whole reason why I started touring in the first place was because… I think the pessimistic side was, "Well, how many bands actually make it? How many bands actually get to play Warped Tour? How many bands actually get to do this and that and tour the world?" But then I started thinking, "Well, why not me? Why couldn't it be my band- why couldn't it happen like this?" It's gotta happen to somebody, so I think if you try hard enough…

And so [with this] it was the same thought process. I thought about what Matty said and I was like, "You know what? Why not me? Why can't I just be the next generation of it? Why can't I at least try to be a part of that?" Dua from Bad Rabbits is such an incredible frontman- from his interaction with the crowd, to- his vocals are insane. There's so many people who are true frontmen- and just thinking about that, I thought, "Well, why can't I be included in that? Why can't I take the reigns and try and swing in to that?"

C&S: Talk to me about stepping out on stage for the first time as just a frontman on Friday night in Providence.

BJ: Yeah. Terrifying. [Laughs.]

C&S: Was this more terrifying than when you first sang for Major League?

BJ: No. Major League was so much more terrifying and I think it was because I had shoes to fill and I knew that there were expectations [from] other people. Whereas this is my own thing, I get to do it however I want. If I wanna just stand there with a mic stand and not really do anything but hang on or whatever, then that's totally on me, I just gotta make it work and I have to make it my own. Last night [in New York] I was much more comfortable but it wasn't anything compared to what I went through with Major League as far as nerves and expectations.

I actually think the music video for "Blow" was more nerve-wracking than last night.

C&S: How so?

BJ: It was my very first time, just me with a mic. It was also a little strange because- Bad Rabbits has been pulling amazing crowds on this run and being in a room full of people, you feel a little more confident; everybody's there for the same reason. Whereas when we did the video, all the extras were just standing around drinking, watching, and I was like- "oh god"- and I'm just singing to a track so it's even weirder. But getting that out of my system- we practiced all last week and being able to practice and get in my own zone and get in my groove, that helped a lot. Getting up there on Friday, it was only scary in the fact that everything built to this and it was like, "Alright, here we go."

C&S: How did you get from "Why can't I be this frontman, rockstar guy?" to this weekend, these shows with Bad Rabbits- how did this band come together?

BJ: After Major League had broken up, I had a bunch of songs written, I had a bunch of ideas. Major League was supposed to go into the studio for another LP but we called it quits. We still had studio time booked so I went in with the producer- Chris Curran out of Reclaim Music Studios- and I was like "Hey, listen- no band." [Laughs.]- he's like "okay, so what are we doing?"

Everything was in my head and I told everything to Chris, and he was like, "I think I know what you're looking for." He and I sat down for an entire weekend and we had Kevin Burke- he's a piano player, freelance musician- come do some piano and stuff. It was the three of us and then Matt Chila from Major League [joined as] our guitarist- the four of us sat down and took all the ideas and helped them flourish into actual full songs. It was a lot of fun and it was great; we had a blast doing it and we were really happy with the way things came out. After that, we took some time to sit on the songs, let them marinate a little bit, go back, change things, whatever.

C&S: Major League broke up last February, so this was...

BJ: This was last January. We knew we were breaking up before we announced it, so this was last January that I went in and recorded everything and I did all of this before Major League's last two tours.

C&S: The one with Forever Came Calling, and then you went back to Japan.

BJ: Yes. So all of this was done before any of that, and I was like, "Listen, we still have things to finish with Major League, so once that's done, we'll revisit this." I did the last couple tours with Major League and then I wound up picking up a side gig with Capsize- which was great, I love those guys, they're wonderful and we had a blast- but it wound up lasting a lot longer than anticipated, just because that band tours nonstop- which of course I love, I mean, I did it for seven years.

In December I had just gotten out of the studio re-recording the finished version of "Blow" and Capsize was like "Hey, we got this Norma Jean tour coming up in March" and that's when the Commūnion camp was like, "Okay, what are you doing? Are you joining Capsize or are you doing Commūnion?" I talked to the Capsize guys and let them know- and everything's great, we're still great friends, we talk all the time. Once that was finished Matty was like, "As soon as we release 'Blow', that's it. Once this single's out, we have to keep going."

We released "Blow" on Valentine's Day and as soon as it came out we had a great response- we were absolutely thrilled about the response. When we did the video for "Blow", there was no drummer. It was literally just Matt and myself, and Chris was our producer. When we did the video we called Christian Mullen, who played in A Loss For Words, Handguns, [and] I Call Fives, [and] he played in ska bands when we were in high school. He's been on Warped Tour since he was 13 years old, so the kid's a monster on drums, and he lives right down the street from us. We called Christian and we were like, "Hey man, I know this is super last minute, but we're doing a video today, is there any way you can come record drums for the video?"… the kid literally learned the song on his drive to the video shoot and sat down and played. We were like, "Man, this is crazy." So, [we] talked to Christian, he was like, "I'd love to."

After "Blow" released, Mike Adams- who played bass and was the primary songwriter for A Loss For Words- called me and was like, "Listen, I don't know what you're looking for, I don't even know if I fit, like, the image that you want, but anything I can do to help, I would love to be a part of Commūnion" and I've been- I mean, we all grew up being fans of A Loss For Words.

C&S: When Major League played the final A Loss For Words show, you told a story on stage about touring up to New England for the first time, when your show got cancelled and you walked up to Matty...

BJ: Those guys took us under their wing. Our show got cancelled- we were up in New Hampshire, and had no business being there at that point because the show got cancelled.

C&S: What year was this?

BJ: 2010, I think. I went online and found that there was a show down the street. Our original plan was just to hang out at the show; we didn't even know that A Loss For Words was playing. We got there and I was like, "Holy shit, A Loss For Words is playing, and they're a pop-punk band and that's the same as Major League, so let's try and see if we can get on this show." I went up and asked Matty, "Hey, man, is there any way that we can jump on the show- we can open it, even just play like three songs or something?" and he was like, "Dude, play right before us- use all of our equipment, who cares?" After that, those guys took us under their wing- they took us on multiple tours. Chila and I wound up filling in for them on their final tour.

On Warped Tour in 2015, Matty was out with PVRIS, who he manages, and asked, "Is there anything you guys need? Like you need any help with anything?" [Major League] had just parted ways with our previous management and we were like, "Yeah, actually- that'd be great" and he took us on. He's been amazing ever since. I've never met anyone that sleeps less and hustles more than Matty.

So yeah- everything kinda came full circle. Mikey joined and then that's when Chris Curran- who was the producer- turned around and was like, "Well, screw it- I'm recording all the songs anyway, and I know everything- why don't I just play guitar and keyboard?" I was like, "Please, by all means"- there couldn't have been a more natural transition for everybody. Mikey and Chris live together in the same house and the studio's in the basement, so it was perfect- it just made sense for everybody to do that.

C&S: Let's go back five years ago or so, to when you were working on Hard Feelings- you were writing songs for someone else to sing versus starting to write songs that you were going to sing yourself. Did that affect your writing process at all?

BJ: Yes, absolutely. Because- "Seasons" dabbled in it for sure, but "Homewrecker" was the first song that- there was no filler words, there was nothing that I just threw in there for the sake of the song, everything I said in that song was absolutely my life growing up, my childhood and the things that had happened. I thought it was portrayed amazing, I thought he did an amazing job with it.

Then once we did There's Nothing Wrong With Me, so much of me felt I needed to put more of myself into this now. When we would play "Homewrecker" live, [even] not being the singer I would still get this overwhelming feeling that I'd never experienced with anything in our catalog before. I just knew that I wanted to feel that way every time I play a song. So yes- there was so much more that went in to that.

C&S: When you were writing these songs first, had Major League already decided to break up, or was there ever a question of, "Well, maybe these will be Major League songs"?

BJ: There were certain things from songs- not necessarily the songs themselves- that I had written for Major League, whether it was guitar parts or drums or whatever, that we had thought about using. But once Major League broke up, it was just like, "Alright, then I'm gonna take everything that I had before, completely strip it down, rework it."

C&S: It's a very different style, musically, from Major League.

BJ: Absolutely. I mean, "Blow" is probably the closest thing to what Major League was- everything else is very keyboard-driven and Christian has a whole sample pad that he plays on drums, rather than his regular drumkit.

C&S: Did you know you wanted to go for such a different style?

BJ: Yes. I've always loved The Cure and all those kinds of bands…. When I went to Chris he was like, "Alright, what are you looking to go for with this new thing?". I didn't want to start another band and have it be Major League 2.0. What's the point? You might as well…

C&S: Make another Major League record.

BJ: Exactly. When I went to Chris, the synopsis of it was, "I want to sound like The Weeknd meets the Cure playing Breakfast Club soundtrack" and he was just like, "That's my shit- let's do it."

Chris is in the pop world. He's written for PVRIS, he's written for so many different bands [that are] all very pop-driven. We've gotten compared to The 1975, Japanese House- that kinda style- but I think for us the idea behind it is more like The Cure, or even The Smiths a little bit- this 80s emo-pop kinda stuff. We wanted it to be a darker vibe [and] dabble in that world a little bit.

C&S: Where did the band name "Commūnion" come from?

BJ: Okay so- I have religious tattoos, [and] I literally wear a crucifix that a friend got it for me that has a knife in it- but I'm not a religious person. My mom is; my mom is very religious.

C&S: And that's what "Just As I Am" was about.

BJ: Yes, "Just As I Am" was the first step to me touching this kind of stuff- I wanted it to sound like dark pop, you know? But the guitars that we used, and we recorded with Will Yip and there was no extra synths in there or anything like that.... Will is very, "If it doesn't come out of a guitar, naturally, then it's not happening." So "Just As I Am", you could almost say it's a Commūnion song with no pop.

There's just something so dark and eerie about religious imagery to me. We were talking about what we wanted to call the band and a couple different names that came up- Nylon was one of them, there was a couple different things that we just thought were cool- and Commūnion just stuck. I had mentioned it to Matty and the definition is "two or more people coming together for a common purpose."

C&S: There you go.

BJ: The way it started was me and Chris, coming together to try and start this thing. And then we filled it in with Chila, Mikey, and Christian- so that really stuck out, like, "Oh man, this fits what Chris and I are trying to do here." We were sitting around their table up in Thompson, Connecticut, hanging out, and I said, "What do you guys think about the name Commūnion?". Matty hit the table and he's like, "That's it." And Chris was like "I love it- I love the idea behind it." The logo, the two hands, that's "Commūnion" in sign language.

I really enjoy the religious undertones and there's always, to me, been something that… I like the things I fear. I fear the intensity of a religion and what it does to people and what it stands for and what people interpret it standing for.

C&S: You've released two songs, this is your last of three shows with Bad Rabbits- what's next for Commūnion? What can people expect?

BJ: We have a new single coming out called "Incarnation", which is an absolute, 100% religious song- the video's in a church.

C&S: Is it weird to be singing about religion? You said you like what you fear…

BJ: Right, yeah- "Incarnation" is the only song that has any religious tones in it or anything, and it won't stay that way- it's not like we're trying to portray as a Christian band or anything like that, it's literally just a name. It's just "Commūnion"- and "Commūnion" is not even really a religious term, it's just adopted by religion.

So- yeah- we are releasing "Incarnation" and in a few months we're releasing our fourth single "Americana Summer" which is a very poppy, summertime song- it's gonna be the second song in the set tonight- and then we have a few things coming up this summer. Next Saturday we're playing the Wilmington Flower Market festival with LeAnn Rimes- which is super weird and cool- it's definitely gonna be cool.

C&S: That's a very different audience from probably anything you've done.

BJ: Right, exactly- but they asked us to be a part of it and we said, "You know what? Why not? Let's see what we can do." It's about pushing ourselves a little bit.

The production that's gone in to this so far- we just spent four thousand dollars this week on everything that we need to really sound like the record…. I've been in a punk band, I've been in a band that has production on a record and you get live and you just kinda jam out and hope it sounds as good as you can. Whereas with this, we want it to sound as close as possible to the record. Chila had never played keyboard before and it was kinda like, "Well, you're playing a keyboard now, kid- that's what we gotta do." So we got keyboards, we got the sample pads- it's not just a backing track of drum hits, Christian is actually playing the drums, just on the pad.

We wanna try and push our boundaries and see how far we can go and where we can take things. The way we see it is just practice for the future. We wanna keep shooting higher and higher and this was something we never thought we would get. Right off the bat, for your first shows ever to be supporting Bad Rabbits as direct support- we were kinda blown away. They heard "Blow" and sent us a message, like "Hey, you guys should come do this stuff with us." We were like- "We have one song." [Laughs.] "We should start recording other stuff."

C&S: I asked this the first time I interviewed Major League and this is something I ask every band I interview- how do you respond to or deal with any kind of negativity or "haters" surrounding your band?

BJ: I think it comes with dealing with it for so long… I'm sure my answer was much different when I talked about it with Major League because I was a very bitter person with that. I was young and I didn't take things too well and I got criticism sometimes for the way I handled things. I think the reason why I took it so hard with Major League was because- one, I was giving this stuff to somebody else to portray and then when we were getting negative feedback, it- my fault- brought down the morale of the band- "there's a reason why this is happening, we have to be better." Clearly there's stuff that people don't like, whatever- and you're not gonna please everybody and that's one hundred percent for sure.

And then again with Major League once I took over [lead vocals], I handled that criticism pretty hard because to me it was like, "Listen, I'm trying to do the best I can- somebody just left, out of the blue, and now I have to fill these shoes and I'm doing what I can." But to expect another human being to do and sound exactly the same as somebody else is just bullshit.

But through that, once I got over that, now with Commūnion, I finally feel really happy about what we're doing and what we're making. So in that, I think more understanding comes with it. You know- personally I haven't seen much negativity.

C&S: Yeah, I mean all I've seen so far has been people super excited about these songs.

BJ: It all seems really cool, and we're very happy about that. I think there was one comment on YouTube that was like, "Major League was better"- "Okay, well I did that too, so thanks." [Laughs.]

I think also, [with] everybody being older now- I just turned 28 and Matt's 27, Chris and Mikey are in their 30s and Christian's the youngest, he's 26- we just kinda... don't... care. We're making music that makes us so happy and we're all doing our thing. We're not, like, angsty 19-year-olds trying to prove our parents wrong. We all have our own lives going on, but we also feel very passionate and confident in what we're doing now. I think that's a big part of it- when you have the confidence in the rest of your band and your team, from Matty all the way down- you're just desensitized to the criticism because no amount of words are going to beat how fucking cool this is.

C&S: I can see in your face and your demeanor- you seem excited, you seem happy, feeling all the good things, which is awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

BJ: Yeah, of course, absolutely.

C&S: Is there anything else you wanna say, anything else people reading this should know?

BJ: Just keep an eye out. We have a lot of cool stuff that we're really excited to release- that's about it. Thanks Brian! Be sure to keep up with Commūnion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and their official website.

#interview #molly #communion #Commūnion #brian joyce #major league #a loss for words #matty arsenault #reclaim music group #reclaim studios #music #music blog #band interview #band interviews #bad rabbits

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