Interview: Brea Fournier
Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet are an '80s and early '00s inspired pop-rock band based in New York City. Frontwoman Brea Fournier acts as lead songwriter, whose whimsical, consonant melodies are underscored by the unique edge each individual band member brings to the table. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, drummer Sophia Bondi's Laurel Canyon flair shines through in both her vast percussion skills and her backing vocal harmonies, which flow so effortlessly through her free-spirited musical expression. Bass player Noah Rosner brings the third vocal harmony to the table. As a trained jazz vocalist, he adds a surprising depth to the Dream Ballet's harmonic catalogue, both vocally and through his bass parts, which are as earwormy as the songs themselves. Lead guitarist Ben Shanblatt, a wildly talented player with a background in jazz and metal, maximizes each song's potential through intricate parts that carry the upper emotions of the music. The group met in their early twenties, playing shows around Lower Manhattan in the post-covid NYC arts school scene, and recorded their debut rock opera concept album Manic Pixie Dream Girl! with producer Barb Morrison in 2022.
Super excited to dive in today with Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet. Welcome! Tell us all about how you got started and how you ended up where you are now!
Thank you so much for having me! My name is Brea Fournier, I’m the frontwoman for Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet. My music journey began rather early, though the exact time of which depends on who you ask. My mom loves to remind me that she regularly played Mozart for me while she was pregnant by stretching a pair of headphones over her belly, and not much longer afterwards she had me in my first music classes. At 8 years old I started training in classical voice, which led me to the wonderful world of musical theatre, which eventually led me to writing my own music. And while I do consider songwriting to be my “life’s calling” or whatever you want to call it, I always find remnants of the latter two styles making their way back into my art time and time again.
Growing up in a rather conservative state as a very opinionated young woman with a unique taste in clothing and an undiagnosed anxiety disorder did not make me popular, and for so much of my life I felt completely misunderstood. When I was 18, I was accepted to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU and moved from the mountains of Salt Lake City to buzzing Brooklyn, NYC. It was then that I truly feel I was introduced to the artist I was meant to become and finally stepped into a full version of myself. My mission became to be so relentlessly authentic that it would piss people off, and so far I think I’ve succeeded.
When did the band first come together and how did that come to be? What was the first song you ever wrote?
I’d been performing under my name as a solo act for a few years before I met my now lead guitarist Ben Shanblatt when we were just 17 at Berklee College of Music’s Five Week Summer Program. We were ecstatic to learn we would both be attending college in New York City, he at The New School and me at Clive. Ben introduced me to his classmate Sophia Bondi. She and I instantly hit it off and she became our drummer. Our bass player Noah Rosner and I met a few times around NYU campus my freshman year, one meeting of which I can vividly recall was in a pretty energetic mosh pit. It was actually years into our friendship that I even learned he played bass, and turns out he’s phenomenal at it.
As our lead singer and songwriter, I had been writing on my own for years, so the Dream Ballet started out by playing arrangements of my songs I had previously fleshed out. The first time I can remember us really creating synergistically as a band was when I brought in a new tune called “Not My Soulmate” that I was so sure would be a straight-ahead rock song. The three of them had another idea, however, and insisted it was a country song. They were very much right. That was the moment I knew I could trust these individuals wholeheartedly with my music, and since then, I’ve realized my favorite feeling in the world is bringing in some lyrics and a melody and seeing where the four of us take it. It sometimes feels like solving a math problem–there is a right answer somewhere in there, and we all know when we’ve found it, but trying new things as we search for it is the best part.
If you could meet, play a gig, co-write a song, have dinner, have a drink with any band or artist (dead or alive) who would it be?
This is such a tough question as the list is extensive, but I’ve narrowed my answer down into two parts:
First off, I literally fantasize about having just one wild night out with members of my favorite bands from the East Village punk scene of the 70s and 80s. One of the first things I studied in college was CBGB’s, and I spent many nights in my dorm room procrastinating homework and heading down Wikipedia rabbit holes on Blondie and Talking Heads. What was really full circle about this fantasy was meeting Barb Morrison, the producer of our upcoming rock opera concept album Manic Pixie Dream Girl! Besides being a wildly talented musician with an impressive legacy of their own and a producer for artists like Debby Harry, Barb is full of all the CBGB stories I’ve ever wanted to hear (be on the lookout for their upcoming memoir!), and during our recording sessions, I took every chance I had to listen.
My second dream would be to get coffee with David Bowie, the man who certainly played some part in getting me into my dream college, as I wrote my application essay on his rock opera that was one of the most formative pieces of art for me, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. That album opened me up to a world where I could combine my love for theatrics and campy storytelling with rock music, and was absolutely a major inspiration for Manic Pixie Dream Girl!
Between your very first performance and now, how would you say the band has grown, as both a musician and a band?
Performance coach Wendy Parr once told me that it takes 100 gigs before everything that could possibly go wrong during a set will inevitably go wrong, and only then will you be prepared for anything the next 100 gigs might throw at you. Unsurprisingly, we’ve had things go wrong at our shows, and we’ve had many things go right, and I look forward to the learning experience each performance brings. As individual musicians and recent music school graduates, our skills have undoubtedly grown in recent years. During the album’s six month recording process, I really saw us strengthen our bond as creators. We recorded the basics for the entire album during a four day trip to Soundmine Recording Studios in the beautiful Pocono mountains. Being away from our busy lives in NYC allowed us to throw all our intensity into this project, and even after we wrapped each day’s 8 hour session, our nights were spent rehearsing and planning and listening to music and laughing and dreaming up our future. It was a collective creative euphoria unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and it certainly heightened our chemistry both on and off stage.
You have new music coming out. Tell us all about it!
“Petty Stuff” is the first single from Manic Pixie Dream Girl! and our first official release as a band. Within the album’s narrative, this song is a pivotal moment for the titular character. As she begins to separate herself from the static film archetype for which she was named, she comes to believe her good intentions are getting her nowhere in life. Instead, she gives in to her negativity and lets her frustrations loose.
I wrote it as a sort of rebuttal to the toxic positivity culture that is so rampant on social media. In my eyes, while positive thinking can of course be a useful tool, suppressing your emotions is simply not realistic and certainly isn’t good advice. Sometimes we all need a good rant, even if it comes across as “petty,” so I took this opportunity to list everything that makes me twitch–failed relationships, inequality, diet culture, even Gwyneth Paltrow gets a little shout-out–in hopes that it would give my listeners permission to be real with what they’re feeling, too. Anger is normal, and we should embrace expressing it in healthy outlets rather than make it an issue of morality.
What would you like to be remembered for in your musical career, when all is said and done, when future music lovers look for and covet your music, what would you like them to be looking for and remembering you for?
I want to be remembered as someone who never accepted or excused the cruel things in this world. I want to be remembered as a staunch intersectional feminist and someone who used her privilege to be a cheerleader for others. I want to be remembered as an artist that embraced uniqueness and authenticity, both within herself and the world around her. I want to be remembered as someone who didn’t apologize for her femininity. I hope the Dream Ballet is remembered as a fierce collective whose members Sophia, Noah, and Ben used their own vastly different yet exceptional talents to tell this story with me through my songs. I hope our future listeners know how hard we fought for this album and for our music to be taken seriously so that those who need it might hear it some day.
Where can we find you on social media and listen to more of your music?
You can follow me on Instagram and TikTok @breafournier, and our band on instagram @dreamballetband. Stay up to date with news on the full album’s development on instagram @manicpixiedreamgirlproject. Follow Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet on Spotify to make sure you don’t miss our future releases!
If you like what you’ve read/heard, please DM us! We love chatting with fans and fellow artists and would love to hear from you. In fact, message me and let me know what makes you feel petty, and we can revel in our angst together. Xoxo
