Lead singer Brendan Murphy talks releasing surprise EP Heaven Let Them Die, Canadian winters, and ‘boring’ marketing strategies
Brendan Murphy, lead singer of Counterparts, is currently holed up in his apartment. For good reason too: one, he’s talking to me, and two—perhaps more importantly—it’s minus six outside and snowing. While I’d be feeling claustrophobic if stuck in that kind of weather, Murphy’s reaction is the complete opposite: he’s as chilled as ever.
“Last week it got to minus 20,” he snorts. “So minus six is fine.” For Murphy, surviving the brutal Canadian winters is all about staying inside as much as possible. “I don’t really leave the house in general. But especially in the winter. It sucks. My girlfriend got me a ski mask for Christmas. You look cool wearing it, but you can’t even walk ten minutes without your face hurting from frostbite.”
Despite the egregious weather, Murphy has fostered a rich creative environment in his apartment. Something Murphy and the rest of Counterparts have clearly dipped into on their latest release Heaven Let Them Die.
As Murphy tells me, he always wanted this album to be a surprise. “Whenever I would see artists do that, it was just the coolest thing. You’re scrolling on Twitter then out of nowhere people start posting screenshots freaking out.”
However, the surprise album drop is usually a tact reserved for pop artists like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande —artists who don’t have to worry about record sales. Despite this, Murphy was adamant he wanted a surprise release.
“Big artists can do that because they don’t care how many records they sell. I’ve always pushed for it, but the label and management have said no. It’s a lot to do with how expensive it is to make music.”
Eventually though, Counterparts found a middle ground: an EP.
“With the EP, it wasn’t a full-length album, so it wasn’t too much money. It was a quarter of an album. So, we thought, ‘Let’s just surprise drop this one. It’s 16 minutes of music. Who cares?’”
And that’s exactly what they did.
Murphy, like many artists and industry professionals, feels the current music marketing model is broken and, frankly, boring. “I hate it when bands are like, ‘Hey, we’re releasing a record, save it on Spotify.’ Then you must wait—even though they’ve already finished the song. People are bored of it.”
While Murphy admits that while the surprise album tact was not ground-breaking in nature, it still felt like a ‘cool’ thing to do. Murphy also enjoyed the immediacy that came with releasing music as a surprise together. Giving fans the chance to jam out to the music for a few months before they see it live.
For their new record, the band worked with American record producer Will Putney. Despite not expecting much, the band very quickly locked into gear.
“We all had a bunch of stuff. We sat down and we had two weeks. It meant we could do four or five songs. We just gotta go through the demos and pick the best ones. We made the decision we wanted it to be heavier. Then that influenced what demo’s we did pick. Then made them heavier.”
The making of the record actually turned out to be Counterparts most creatively cohesive record to date. Murphy explains, “In the past, it was mostly one person writing the songs, with the other guys bringing in demos. But with this record, it was the most collaborative. I don’t usually contribute to the music. But I was there all day, because I wanted to be part of the process.”
Looking ahead, Counterparts will soon embark on a North American tour, followed by a stop in Australia in June. Given the current weather he was enduring, I dreaded to think of how the ultra-resilient Murphy would perceive our mild Australian winters. He laughs. “Australian winters I could just wear a hoodie and be fine. 10 degrees is still in the positives.”
Despite the weather differences, Murphy and the band are eager for their upcoming Australian tour. “It’ll be great. We’ve been a couple of times, but only as support acts. So, it’s cool that we’re doing this one as a headline tour. We’ll be able to give people an hour’s worth of music.”
Counterparts will be touring Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane in June. Tickets are available here.
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