Prāta Vētra / Brainstorm
Story of BrainStorm is a story of best friends, who grow up together, went to the same school, shared the same dreams and together fulfilled them. Those guys come from a unique generation. Born in Latvia then part of giant Soviet Union they experienced the Soviet upbringing, the battle for a freedom and were part of the first generation to embrace new possibilities the freedom brought. Such experience of two radical systems has leavened their musical influences. As singer of BrainStorm Renars Kaupers admits: “The truly first influences of BrainStorm were Russian cartoons and Soviet Latvian popscene in 80-s. Regarding those cartoons - I still love those songs and listen to them at times. They have some kind of unique happiness and sadness at the same time that is hard to explain. And that is exactly how I see most of our songs. Only when we were some 14 – 15 years old we started to learn what happens on the other side of the moon.”
After BrainStorm conquered the hearts of music lovers in native Latvia and became a household name band took a chance on reaching the audiences beyond the borders of their motherland.
First internationally released album Among The Suns with its catchy single My Star in 2000 proved the ambitions were satisfied. Album got released in Europe and particularly Belgians, Scandinavians and Baltic people embraced BrainStorm’s piece of work. My Star for 16 weeks remained on Belgian national airplay charts. Band toured with own sold out shows and played festivals across Europe. Among The Suns found its way into hands of REM’s Michael Stipe who gave his judgment by saying: "For me the main thing about music is whether or not there is a songwriting, and I felt the songwriting is really strong." BrainStorm also captured the attention from legendary Bob Dylan who saw them on Swedish TV and praised their performance.
Inspired by such a welcoming reception BrainStorm recorded album Online that got released the following year. Ethereally dreamy single Maybe brought BrainStorm to other part of the Europe. Radios in Eastern Europe and especially in Poland couldn’t get enough of the song. Single went to radios in August 2001 and for the last quarter of the year in was without a doubt number one on Poland’s National airplay chart leaving Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head a runner up. Identically no other song had a chance to reach number one in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – Maybe was the one. That year BrainStorm had an opportunity to play a support slot for their own childhood heroes Depeche Mode in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia while supporting The Cranberries brought them to Germany, Italy, Belgium and Czech Republic.
For recording of the sequent album A Day Before Tomorrow BrainStorm choused to work with two producers - German’s Echo award winner producer Alex Silva who brought more of a rocky sound in and Steve Lyon. Well-known photographer Anton Corbijn stepped in to create the artwork and pictures. He got involved since music of BrainStorm captured his heart. “I think the songs have freshness, innocence and strength. There is this beautiful thing that great bands have something… Identity and I think BrainStorm has that,“ A.Corbijn explained. The most significant show BrainStorm did during promoting the album was supporting incredible „Rolling Stones“ in Prague, Czech Republic. The show happened to take place in a day when Mick Jagger celebrated his 60th birthday and BrainStorm guys gave him a saxophone as a present. Meanwhile in their native Latvia BrainStorm reached new highs and records. Their gala show of album support tour in Riga, Skonto Stadium was seen by 25 000 people and broke the record of the attendance of this stadium that previously belonged to Depeche Mode.
In 2004 BrainStorm in collaboration with well-known Russian band Bi-2 recorded a song Skolzkije Ulici (Slippery Streets) that was featured in Bi-2 album Inomarki. The cooperation proved to be successful. The song peaked number one position in Russia, Latvia and Ukraine and safeguarded BrainStorm’s breakthrough in Russia.
Summer of 2004 turned out to be a sorrow one for BrainStorm. Original bass player and long-term childhood friend Gundars Mausevics known with a nickname Mumins tragically passed away. In the memory of dear friend and faith in band’ s calling BrainStorm decided to keep the ball rolling.
BrainStorm once again teamed up with producer Alex Silva who this time worked on the whole album. The title of the new recording Four Shores emphasized the sore place BrainStorm guys found themselves after loosing Mumins. The touch of Mumins lives through the songs since the band started writing them before the tragedy. BrainStorm continued to work on the photos and artwork with A.Corbijn who has became a good friend and advisor. In between the recordings BrainStorm jumped into a tour bus and traveled ten European cities to support R.E.M.
Album Four Shores through the gateway duet with Russian Bi2 secured entered the Russian market. Since BrainStorm guys are fluent in Russian few radio single they recorded in Russian. With this move BrainStorm took over Russian audience by the storm. In Latvia album support tour was taken to the next level and final show in Riga took place in the biggest outdoor venue Mežaparks selling 40 000 tickets.
In 2006 first ever Best Baltic Act nominee was introduced on annual MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony and the decision of MTV viewers were unambiguous - the trophy belongs to BrainStorm.
Latvian version of the next album Tur kaut kam ir jābūt (There must be something in there) released in 2008 sees the new direction of the sound since band teamed up with well-known local hip-hop artist Gustavo. All the doubts and concerns from the fans and media disappeared after album was released. It got Platinum status along with sold out album support tour. In spring of 2009 the same album with Russian/English lyrics were released in Russia and Ukraine. Sold out solo shows and appearances in Russian leading festivals followed.
English version of the album titled Years and Seconds was released in 2010. For a song Count My Fingers featured in the album Fran Healy of the band Travis contributes lyrics. Fran reveals the lyrics came easy: „If the melody is strong then the lyric should come quick. I listened all the way through a couple of times and then went through it line by line so it took a couple of hours.“ Ken Stringfellow of The Posies also has written lyrics for a track Begging For Your Starlight while British rapper Mercury Award nominee Ty is featured on the recording.
With Years and Seconds album release band did performed at leading global music industry festival SXSW in USA; supported The Magic Numbers in London, UK and had 2 sold out solo shows in such London’s venues as Jazz Café and The Relentless Garage; played main stage at major festival in Beijing China Modern Sky Festival and returned to Helsinki, Finland with sold out show in club On The Rocks.
At the last quarter of the 2010 BrainStorm released last decades Best off in Latvian and had 2 sold out shows at Arena Riga in total selling 24 000 tickets.
2011 is the year band returns to studio to work on new album for the release set in 2012.
After BrainStorm conquered the hearts of music lovers in native Latvia and became a household name band took a chance on reaching the audiences beyond the borders of their motherland.
First internationally released album Among The Suns with its catchy single My Star in 2000 proved the ambitions were satisfied. Album got released in Europe and particularly Belgians, Scandinavians and Baltic people embraced BrainStorm’s piece of work. My Star for 16 weeks remained on Belgian national airplay charts. Band toured with own sold out shows and played festivals across Europe. Among The Suns found its way into hands of REM’s Michael Stipe who gave his judgment by saying: "For me the main thing about music is whether or not there is a songwriting, and I felt the songwriting is really strong." BrainStorm also captured the attention from legendary Bob Dylan who saw them on Swedish TV and praised their performance.
Inspired by such a welcoming reception BrainStorm recorded album Online that got released the following year. Ethereally dreamy single Maybe brought BrainStorm to other part of the Europe. Radios in Eastern Europe and especially in Poland couldn’t get enough of the song. Single went to radios in August 2001 and for the last quarter of the year in was without a doubt number one on Poland’s National airplay chart leaving Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head a runner up. Identically no other song had a chance to reach number one in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – Maybe was the one. That year BrainStorm had an opportunity to play a support slot for their own childhood heroes Depeche Mode in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia while supporting The Cranberries brought them to Germany, Italy, Belgium and Czech Republic.
For recording of the sequent album A Day Before Tomorrow BrainStorm choused to work with two producers - German’s Echo award winner producer Alex Silva who brought more of a rocky sound in and Steve Lyon. Well-known photographer Anton Corbijn stepped in to create the artwork and pictures. He got involved since music of BrainStorm captured his heart. “I think the songs have freshness, innocence and strength. There is this beautiful thing that great bands have something… Identity and I think BrainStorm has that,“ A.Corbijn explained. The most significant show BrainStorm did during promoting the album was supporting incredible „Rolling Stones“ in Prague, Czech Republic. The show happened to take place in a day when Mick Jagger celebrated his 60th birthday and BrainStorm guys gave him a saxophone as a present. Meanwhile in their native Latvia BrainStorm reached new highs and records. Their gala show of album support tour in Riga, Skonto Stadium was seen by 25 000 people and broke the record of the attendance of this stadium that previously belonged to Depeche Mode.
In 2004 BrainStorm in collaboration with well-known Russian band Bi-2 recorded a song Skolzkije Ulici (Slippery Streets) that was featured in Bi-2 album Inomarki. The cooperation proved to be successful. The song peaked number one position in Russia, Latvia and Ukraine and safeguarded BrainStorm’s breakthrough in Russia.
Summer of 2004 turned out to be a sorrow one for BrainStorm. Original bass player and long-term childhood friend Gundars Mausevics known with a nickname Mumins tragically passed away. In the memory of dear friend and faith in band’ s calling BrainStorm decided to keep the ball rolling.
BrainStorm once again teamed up with producer Alex Silva who this time worked on the whole album. The title of the new recording Four Shores emphasized the sore place BrainStorm guys found themselves after loosing Mumins. The touch of Mumins lives through the songs since the band started writing them before the tragedy. BrainStorm continued to work on the photos and artwork with A.Corbijn who has became a good friend and advisor. In between the recordings BrainStorm jumped into a tour bus and traveled ten European cities to support R.E.M.
Album Four Shores through the gateway duet with Russian Bi2 secured entered the Russian market. Since BrainStorm guys are fluent in Russian few radio single they recorded in Russian. With this move BrainStorm took over Russian audience by the storm. In Latvia album support tour was taken to the next level and final show in Riga took place in the biggest outdoor venue Mežaparks selling 40 000 tickets.
In 2006 first ever Best Baltic Act nominee was introduced on annual MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony and the decision of MTV viewers were unambiguous - the trophy belongs to BrainStorm.
Latvian version of the next album Tur kaut kam ir jābūt (There must be something in there) released in 2008 sees the new direction of the sound since band teamed up with well-known local hip-hop artist Gustavo. All the doubts and concerns from the fans and media disappeared after album was released. It got Platinum status along with sold out album support tour. In spring of 2009 the same album with Russian/English lyrics were released in Russia and Ukraine. Sold out solo shows and appearances in Russian leading festivals followed.
English version of the album titled Years and Seconds was released in 2010. For a song Count My Fingers featured in the album Fran Healy of the band Travis contributes lyrics. Fran reveals the lyrics came easy: „If the melody is strong then the lyric should come quick. I listened all the way through a couple of times and then went through it line by line so it took a couple of hours.“ Ken Stringfellow of The Posies also has written lyrics for a track Begging For Your Starlight while British rapper Mercury Award nominee Ty is featured on the recording.
With Years and Seconds album release band did performed at leading global music industry festival SXSW in USA; supported The Magic Numbers in London, UK and had 2 sold out solo shows in such London’s venues as Jazz Café and The Relentless Garage; played main stage at major festival in Beijing China Modern Sky Festival and returned to Helsinki, Finland with sold out show in club On The Rocks.
At the last quarter of the 2010 BrainStorm released last decades Best off in Latvian and had 2 sold out shows at Arena Riga in total selling 24 000 tickets.
2011 is the year band returns to studio to work on new album for the release set in 2012.
