Glimpses of the South Florida Scene: Sweet Bronco

interviews with the folks making it happen. This week, Fort Lauderdale's Sweet Bronco.

Chris Horgan laid the foundation for Sweet Bronco some years

ago, exclusively playing acoustic solo sets of his own recordings. We

were privy to one of these at the Dewars' house party, a kind of memento

of the act prior to its becoming a three-piece. It was sweet and smartly executed, which is the kind of base a

solo-act-turned-band requires before it becomes brilliant. This is where

Sweet Bronco -- now flanked by singer/electric bassist Jessica Glisson

and drummer Steven Copeletti -- is headed. The bits of electronica

interwoven into warm, melodic melancholy are what earned them the

description "disco folk-rock with a message," but it is their organic

dynamism that leaves them without a label. Horgan answered some

questions for us, and the good news is: We can (hopefully) expect a tour in the

coming months.

New Times: Talk to me about being a "disco folk-rock" band "with a message" -- describe your sound and that message.

Chris Horgan: I

absolutely love disco, and if I don't have someone there to stop me, I

will put a disco beat and disco bass line on everything. I think,

subconsciously, there's a part of me that wants to be Thelma Houston.

But all the songs I write are either folk or rock songs. So the

"disco-folk-soul-pop-rock" description dates back to a period when I

was working alone in the studio with no one to check my disco

tendencies. Sweet Bronco is basically a '60s rock 'n' roll band with

heavy power-pop, late-'80s-indie, and British-rock influences. I

feel like that's the sound we're settling into now. And that feels

like the right place to be. I'd rather not comment on the "message"

other than to say that there is one and it's probably best to let it

speak for itself.

 
I saw you play an acoustic set some months back at the Dewars'

collaborative?

I started Sweet Bronco on my own with the plans of forming a band

later. I played solo acoustic shows for a couple of years. I made

recordings wherever I could and planned to release an album in hopes

that it would attract the right musicians for the band. The stuff

currently on MySpace is from that period.

Once Steve and Jess got involved, things took on a whole new shape.

I had never imagined Sweet Bronco as a three-piece. I wasn't even

planning to play much guitar until Steve stoked my guitarist ego a bit.

Then something about the three of us together just felt very complete.

Usually I play them one of my songs and they come up with their own

parts. Then we collaborate on the arrangements. Normally I would have

a hard time relinquishing so much control since I usually have drum and

bass parts already in mind. But Steve and Jess both have a way making

everything they play feel so natural. We trust each other, and that

really helps the collaborative process.

In the same vein as the last question, how did Sweet Bronco come to be -- what were you working on prior to this?

I

was playing keyboards in a really great shoegaze band in Los Angeles

called Eskimohunter. I was also working on a solo album called Alive and Living Well

that I never put out. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just put those

tracks up on Bandcamp or something now. But Sweet Bronco was really

born when I wrote "North Star," and with that, set up the parameters

for the project.

And where did the name "Sweet Bronco" come from?

You'd

have to ask Courtney [Hambright]. It was her idea. I liked it and decided to try it

out for a while, and it just stuck. She suggested it right around the

time I was recording "North Star," and the trajectory of the project

seemed really clear from then on.

Songs like "Morning Night" and "Star Story" are so heartfelt,

itself to do that?

My lyrics are entirely intertwined with the music. The music is

inspired by how I feel, and then the lyrics are inspired almost

exclusively by the music. Nothing goes into the lyric that isn't

enforced by the music itself. The sound of the words is just as

important as the meaning. I consider it all to be a form of

self-expression, though it is intended to be taken for what it is in

itself. I intentionally leave things open for multiple interpretations.

My lyrics usually have more than one meaning to me when I'm writing

them. A lot of my older songs have come to mean something quite

different to me and, in some cases, feel even more relevant now than

they did when I wrote them. And it feels really good when that happens.
 

There's plenty of videos and MP3s of you guys to go around -- are you working on any sort of physical, or downloadable, release?

Robert

Rutherford has an enormous archive of local bands on his gingerman309

YouTube channel. He's posted most of our shows. That's pretty much

the only access people currently have to Sweet Bronco other than the MP3s on our Myspace page. The three of us recorded a five-song EP with

John Ralston and Greg Lovell at Elegbaland Studios in Lake Worth this

year that we're all really excited about. We've just hit a few snags

with the final mixes and artwork. The plan right now is to put it out

as a 12-inch 45-rpm vinyl release sometime after New Year's, but that could

change. John Wilkins took a couple of our tracks and did some

completely original remixes that are just brilliant. We'd like to put

those out somehow too if he hasn't already done so. 

 
If so, will this physical release contain any of the stuff on your MySpace, or it will be all new material?

The

EP will contain new versions of the full band playing four of the songs

currently on our MySpace page, plus one previously unrecorded track.

 
When can we expect to see you guys on tour -- are you playing any shows soon?

It might be a little while. But we're all hoping to see Sweet Bronco on tour a lot in 2011.

Visit Sweet Bronco's official website while you wait...