Brother Other started in 2018 as Matthew Saccoman and Paul Mauro. A few years earlier we were just two ordinary dads living in the same small town. As fate would have it, we met watching our kids practice on a soccer field in rural southern New England. Thankfully, we decided to introduce ourselves. It was clear the two of us had a lot more in common than long hair and beards. We were both schoolteachers, had two kids around the same age, and had spent our lives as musicians.
The more we got to know one another, the more we realized we had very similar backgrounds, influences, and tastes in music. After finally getting together to play music, we discovered our voices complimented each other in harmony. Our first show received a very positive and welcoming response. Brother Other was something special and deserved some room to grow.
After performing a few shows, we agreed that we didn’t want to be just another cover act. This motivated us to begin writing our own material. Between the two of us, we had plenty of musical background and life experience to draw from.
We began to share our ideas and notes. To this day, we continue to work to meld songs together and write about the things we know the best - gratitude, humility, and the triumphs and tragedies of the human experience.
In early 2020 we began recording our songs at Dirt Floor Recording and Production in Haddam, CT. Our debut album “You and I and Everything” was released in October 2020. Recorded and Produced by Eric Michael Lichter and Engineered by Guido Falivene (Dirt Floor Recording and Production), it features 8 original tracks with a variety of instrumentation including stripped-down acoustic tracks as well as full-band arrangements.
Between teaching and family life, we maintain a busy performance schedule and continue to write new material. Recording of the second album has already begun and we look forward to touring and sharing our music with you.
The first track, Melancholy, features Matt “Pistol” Stoessel (Cracker) on pedal steel and Eric Michael Lichter on drums, bass, and organ. This song was written shortly after major surgery. It examines an atypical winter day by comparing sadness, healing and self-forgiveness.
Illusion, Humble and Grateful, and Merry Go Round were recorded live outdoors at the studio and have that “out in nature” kind of vibe. Illusion is about the wanting of what everyone has and realizing it doesn't provide true happiness. It features Stoessel on pedal steel. Humble and Grateful is simply about gratitude, family and giving back.
Merry Go Round was written over a video call during the Pandemic lock down. It's about feeling of running in circles with the uncertainty that existed in the world during this time. It features Paul on the flute which gives it a whimsical “Going Up the Country” feel.
You Can’t Go Home Again is about feeling nostalgic and remembering the past better than it may have been. It is a full band arrangement with Eric Michael Lichter on drums, bass and slide guitar.
Litchfield County deals with the area where we live and how it became a safe haven for people looking to escape the pandemic in the city. The guitar leads were played through a Leslie speaker adding a dreamlike effect. Following a climactic bridge, the song winds down with a distant and haunting flute melody.
When the Dust Settles, another full band arrangement, is about someone who is running away from their mistakes only to look back with remorse.
The final track, Melancholy Reprise, is a softer stripped-down acoustic version of the opening track with acoustic guitars, vocals, and Stoessel’s ethereal pedal steel.
As You and I and Everything began to spread, it was featured on several radio stations in the Northeast, most notably Radio Woodstock 100.1 WDST. After being featured on their homegrown series, we were invited to do a program called the “Sofa Sessions” which was live-streamed in March, 2021. This later led to a show at the historic Bearsville Theater (Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Peter, Paul and Mary), for their summer Americana series. Later that fall, we were one of the featured bands at the Blackbear Americana Music Festival in Goshen, CT supporting acts including Michael Glabicki’s (Rusted Root) “Uprooted” and Adam Ezra.
Brother Other's debut album available for purchase on Bandcamp at Brotherother.bandcamp.com
