Quick Q and A with Josh Lamkin (The Brilliant Inventions)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  14 May 2010

The Brilliant Inventions are one of my most favorite musical discoveries of the past year. Josh Lamkin and Eliot Bronson are the two talented musicians who call themselves The Brilliant Inventions. Their music is fresh and new but oddly familiar at the same time — their harmonies and distinctive guitar work are beyond memorable. As one reviewer said of them: “It’s no small thing to write songs of intelligence and depth or to deliver them in such a way that audiences are amused one minute and moved the next.” And that’s exactly right!

Check out the Brilliant Inventions’ website. Here’s a video link to The Brilliant Inventions singing “Better than a Heartbreak.”

You may be one of the first bands whom I’ve interviewed who does not have any kind of bio in their press kit. So, are the Brilliant Inventions just a figment of my imagination? Or are you both in the witness protection program and you’re really not Josh and Eliot?

Do we not have a bio?? There’s no good reason other than that we’re amazing businessmen.

Seriously though, I came to know you and your music when we met at last summer’s Falcon Ridge Festival. For me, it was a no-brainer that you’d win and get chosen as one of the Emerging Artists. Did you travel up to New York with any kind of anticipation or trepidation? It was your first “northeast” fest, wasn’t it?

Yeah it was our first northeast fest — we hadn’t really been up north much at all. But ya know, we believe in ourselves and what we do so we had really positive attitudes about Falcon Ridge and the Emerging Artist Battle To The Death. It ended up being way more than we thought it would be. Other than the festival itself being an overwhelming experience and meeting so many new people and everyone being so nice to us, we still are getting invitations to come play at great places up north because of Falcon Ridge. Who knew all you had to do was trudge around in mud for 4 days and you’d kickstart your career.

You both were solo performers before you joined forces, did you know right away that your voices would blend so harmoniously?

We’d sung and played and hung out before when we were solo and always liked each other’s music. But there was one time when we sat down before a long tour we were co-billing when we said we were going to try to act like a duo the whole time. We sat down to play a song and it was just magic instantly. A very memorable experience.

Have you studied other successful duos like the Everly Brothers? (Actually, to my ear, you share some similarities with Glenn Tillbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze. Must be the folk-pop sound or something.)

We’re massing Everly Brothers and Squeeze fans for sure. We get the Squeeze comparison a good bit — they’re so awesome. We’re big fans of all the great duos — Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates, Indigo Girls, even the Jayhawks and The Beatles have their duo-y aspects.

Tell us about your songwriting process. Are you kind of like a Lennon-McCartney team or do you still essentially write alone and then present it to each other or both?

We almost always write solo and bring to the other for finalization. We pretty much both can’t feel like a song is done until the other hears it and gives his blessing.