By Emily Dubinsky
Staff Writer
From Costa to coast, The Brissey Group, which consists of three Costa alumni, Anthony Masino, Andrew Harley and Alec Kersenboom have been performing their garage rock and modern funk music in packed venues around the state.
In the band, Masino plays the keys/guitar, Harley plays the bass/guitar, Kersenboom sings and plays the guitar, and friend Trevor Ramirez plays the drums. The rock group started playing in Nov. of 2013, a year before they graduated in 2014.
“In high school we all just started jamming together and it clicked pretty quickly,” Masino said. “I don’t think any of us want to do anything else with our lives but create music.”
The Brissey Group’s music was recently put on the digital music service Spotify. Masino said he thinks this was an important step in their career, and he and the band are thrilled to see how the audience responds to their music.
“Although we are new to Spotify, we are excited to see what may come of it,” Masino said. “A whole galaxy of different bands get discovered through Spotify, so it’s good to think that at this point we are one of them.”
The Brissey Group has headlined at the Mint, San Francisco festivals, the Amsler, and the Hermosa Beach venue. Each of their performances brought in approximately 100 to 150 fans, whether it was a local venue or one in other cities.
“We’re looking to keep on with the new material and hopefully get bigger shows with a wider audience by recording more music, and hopefully getting more exposure from Spotify,” Masino said.
The Brissey Group creates and produces its music in its Hermosa Beach garage recording studio. In Sept of 2015, the band came out with its first album Puzzle Pieces, which contains many different types of music, rather than one genre.
“Recording our music independently gives us more power and control over it,” Masino said. “It is very convenient that we don’t have to travel far to record our work.”
Masino said that The Brissey Group does not have an exact pinpoint of inspiration however, each of the band members have many personal inspirations that they individually take from, which helps with their music experimentation.
“A lot of my inspiration comes from outside of music,” Masino said. “I haven’t figured out where the biggest force comes from.”
The Brissey Group’s name comes directly from their years at Costa, because it was inspired by past Costa chemistry teacher Randy Brissey. Because the boys enjoyed their time in Brissey’s class, they jokingly suggested his name as their band title.
“Our friends were making a pretend band and we were all throwing out absurd names, so I said Brissey because we all dug Mr. Brissey,” Masino said. “It just stuck with us.”
As of now, the members of The Brissey Group hope that their music will help pay for a roof over their heads and provide enough financial support to live off of. The group of boys gave up many opportunities, such as attending college, in order to pursue their passion for music.
“We are not going to school, so we are a team, partners,” Masino said. “With something like music, it’s hard to break the barrier from hobby to career.”
The Brissey Group would love to get signed to a label as long as they have the same vision. However, the group contemplates starting their own label called Good People that would also feature similar bands to themselves.
“We have to find the right label who can compliment our personalities and desires, and will appeal to kids that are going to dig our sound,” Masino said.
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