About the Artist
The music of Brigitte Calls Me Baby is equal parts elegant time warp and up-close exploration of our
modern-day neuroses. The Chicago-based band ingeniously spans genres and eras, merging the
lavish romanticism of mid-century pop with the frenetic energy and spiky intensity of earlymillennium
indie-rock. Centered on Leavins’ hypnotically crooning vocal work, the result is a rare
convergence of sophistication and style and unabashed sincerity.
As shown on their debut EP This House Is Made Of Corners—a five-song project made with nine-time
Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb—Brigitte Calls Me Baby possess a singular
musicality informed by Leavins’ eclectic upbringing. Originally from the Southeast Texas town of
Port Arthur, he grew up listening to Roy Orbison records at his grandparents’ house next door,
while his parents played him new-wave bands like The Cars and his friends turned him onto
Radiohead and The Strokes. At age 13, Leavins took up guitar and began writing songs of his own,
quickly discovering his distinct vocal style. “At first I didn’t like the way I sang and couldn’t really do
anything about it, but as I got older I started to appreciate it more,” he reveals. “My whole
inclination toward music came from being in this small town in Texas with nowhere to go and
nothing to do, and wanting to be understood without having to say anything.”
Upon moving to Chicago in 2016, Leavins immersed himself in the local music scene and soon
linked up with guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer
Jeremy Benshish, who joined him in co-founding Brigitte Calls Me Baby. As the band built up their
catalog, Leavins was tapped to take part in recreating a series of Elvis Presley songs for Baz
Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis, a turn of events that found him crossing paths with Cobb. “Dave and
I hit it off right away and started talking about the music we loved, and when we reconnected later
he asked me to send him some of the songs I’d been working on,” Leavins recalls. Soon after
sharing a batch of demos with Cobb (whose credits include modern classics like Jason Isbell’s
Southeastern and Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music), Brigitte Calls Me Baby headed
to Nashville to record their debut body of work at the legendary RCA Studio A.
Co-produced by Cobb and Brigitte Calls Me Baby and mostly recorded live, This House Is Made Of
Corners opens on a lush and cinematic track called “The Future is Our Way Out,” a prime
introduction to the EP’s heightened yet palpably genuine emotionality. “I want to be earnest even
when it’s uncomfortable, and write unapologetically about things like my intense fear of death,” says
Leavins. “‘The Future is Our Way Out’ is about that fear, but it’s also about hoping there might be
something beyond death, a way out of all the mess and the sadness that plagues us in life.” On
“Impossibly Average,” pounding rhythms and shimmering guitar tones form the backdrop to what
Leavins refers to as a “a bit of a self-loathing song, about trying to cope with someone’s very high
expectations of you.” And on “Eddie My Love,” Brigitte Calls Me Baby present a gorgeously aching
portrait of obsession and despair. “‘Eddie My Love’ paved the way for all the songs that would
come after it,” says Leavins, who first penned the track as a ballad. “It felt so vulnerable from the
jump, and made me realize that there’s no point in being anything but vulnerable in what we do.”
Newly signed to ATO Records after a much-buzzed-about set at SXSW 2023, with their full-length
debut due out in 2014, Brigitte Calls Me Baby remain intent on striking a balance between refined
musicianship and absolute devotion to emotional truth. “In so much music there’s a desire to be
perceived as someone who’s got it all figured out, but I never want to paint a picture that isn’t true,”
says Leavins. “I know that when I was younger I was looking for something to latch onto that I
could connect with and feel a part of, so I’d hope that our music could provide that for others. I
want to create something that helps people feel more alive, and that will last long after we’re gone.”