You may not immediately recognize Ethan Gruska’s name, but if you were a fan of the brother/sister duo The Belle Brigade, it might ring a bell, if you will.
Gruska, and his lesbian sister Barbara, released a couple of albums in the early 2010s before disbanding. The siblings, who are part of a musical dynasty (their grandfather is award-winning composer John Williams and their father Jay is a musician), continue to make music. Barbara worked on her wife Samantha Sidley’s 2019 album. Gruska has released two solo albums, the latest being the wonderful and eclectic “En Garde.”
Gruska was good enough to answer a few questions about his career and his solo work before the release of his new album.
WATERMARK: Because of your musical lineage – your father is musician Jay Gruska and your maternal grandfather is composer John Williams – do you think it was inevitable that you would also become a musician?
Ethan Gruska: I wouldn’t say it was inevitable. Many of my family members, who were not in music, were like, “Oh, man, don’t go through the trouble.” Even (for) my dad and my grandpa who have had a lot of success, it’s not easy doing it. It’s an insane amount of work and it’s up and down, even when you’re at a high level. It is in my blood and I’ve always been super drawn to music. I do feel like it was inevitable for me, but I don’t know if somebody else was in my shoes, maybe they would want to get the hell away from it. I was lucky to be drawn to it and to have people that I could ask questions.
As one half of The Belle Brigade, with your sister Barbara, you released an eponymous debut album in 2011 and “Just Because,” a 2014 follow-up. What were the challenges and rewards of collaborating with Barbara in a band?
I wouldn’t say that there were any challenges aside from the fact that we were just grinding it. We were doing a ton of touring and working so hard. That brings emotional challenges just because it’s really hard to be on the road that much. I know she feels the same way. It was really lucky, because we’re very close and we were learning so much together, that we had each other to rely on.
It would have been a totally different experience doing music without her because so much of my early learning experience, I had someone to lean on. I learned so much from that time. I got a lot of touring out of the way. I feel so lucky to be able to do more studio work and stay home. It was a great experience. We did so many years just going for it. I loved it, especially in retrospect [laughs].
Barbara is a lesbian and it made me wonder if because of that you were aware of a following for The Belle Brigade, as well as your solo work, in the LGBTQ community?
I’m not necessarily aware of that, but there are so many gay people in my immediate family that I just feel very close to that community.
In 2017, you released your solo debut album, the gorgeous “Slowmotionary.” Why was that the right time to make your solo statement?
Barb and I had decided that we needed to split off from the project. Not for any bad reason aside from having put all our eggs into that basket for several years. I think that The Belle Brigade albums that we made together, as much as I loved them, there was a lot of high energy stuff. In my soul, music is soft, sad ballads. I felt like coming off that project, I needed to go bare and minimalist. I’m always rebelling against the last thing that I did. That first release needed to be totally different from anything that I’d done before.
“Slowmotionary” was a piano-centered album whereas your new album, “En Garde,” with the combination of the electronics and acoustic guitar touches, on “Maybe I’ll Go Nowhere,” as well as on “Another Animal,” makes it clear that it is going to be a different listening experience.
I appreciate that you listened to it carefully like that. I get bored quickly and I like so many different kinds of music so that perfect storm combination usually leads me to do something very different. I’ve been producing a lot more stuff. Being in the studio and having more capability over some of the more electronic side of working influenced this record. I wanted to have more production value because that’s what I’ve been studying in the last few years to get better as a producer.
In “Maybe I’ll Go Nowhere,” you sing “nowadays/heaven is a place/where something’s always happening,” which sounds to me like a nod to the Talking Heads’ song “Heaven.” Am I on the right track?
Yeah, maybe so. It must be just so ingrained in my brain. Barb and I went on tour with k.d. lang for several months way back in the day and she would cover that song every night. It was one of my favorite moments. That song is in my DNA at this point. It must be a nod [laughs].
The upbeat “Enough for Now,” which features vocals by Phoebe Bridgers, is another example of a song that puts distance between En Garde and its predecessor. What was the inspiration for the song and its rhythmic energy?
That song was written in a different way. It wasn’t necessarily written for me. I do a lot of writing for other people. I often get together with people for cold, blind writing sessions and we just go. That was one of them. I liked the song and the upbeat production, the song felt good when we tried it. It’s usually just trial and error and instinctual. I wanted this record to have a little more that of that kind of appeal and energy because the last one had nothing you could move to. I wanted this to have a groove, something people could connect with in a more immediate way. I thought the lyrics had more of a universal sentiment to them.
To my ears, “Haiku4U,” featuring Lianne LaHavas, sounds like it has a Prince vibe. Are you a Prince fan?
Huge! I think he’s one of the greatest songwriters of all times. That’s probably my favorite song on the record because I think it’s the most bizarre. Also, because it’s the only one where I’m not singing the lead vocal [laughs]. I love not listening to myself.
What happened was I was getting together with Lianne to write for her project. We met for two days. I’m a fan of hers and I had a sense that she would not want to do a standard thing. I wanted to show her some of the weirder musical pieces that I had and see what she gravitated towards. I showed her this piece of music and I was expecting her to say, “Cool! Show me another one. That’s too freaky”. But she responded to it and had a lot of incredible things to say about moving things around.
Once we had this musical format, we were only together for two days, but we were having the best time writing these funny, tongue-in-cheek haikus and coming up with the song together. It was a great experience. She’s a blast and I think she’s amazing. The song sat around for a little bit. It thought it was really cool and I kept working on it. She was cool enough to let me use it for my project. I hope that one day it has a place in her world as well.
Ethan Gruska’s new album “En Garde,” from Warner Records, is out now and available for purchase on vinyl and CD as well as streaming on all major platforms.
