“Crawling into work / I wonder what my daydreams are worth / I’ll put up with the day-to-day dirt / But not forever.”
So opens “Make You Move,” the latest single from Milwaukee musician Brett J.B. Sure, a song about dragging yourself into a soul-sucking cubicle job doesn’t sound all that appealing, but focus on that last line: But not forever. Indeed, “Make You Move” quickly reveals itself to be a shimmering, open-hearted indie-power-pop anthem about breaking through the drudgery of the day and making a connection with another human being. You know, moving them.
“‘Make You Move’ began as a study of the classic David Bowie song ‘Heroes,'” explains J.B., who has been making music with the Milwaukee-based music collective Meltwater Pulse since 2018. “As the songwriting process progressed, the song became more upbeat and lighter in tone. The music video for the song was made using only Photoshop and free stock images. The final stop-motion style video contains over 1,000 still images.”
About that songwriting process. J.B. explains that “the Meltwater Pulse music collective is pioneering a new way to produce music,” and that “every member of the collective brings a different musical skill to the table, which allows each artist to call upon a wide variety of skills for their personal recordings. ” (Murphy Kaye is also a member of the collective, and provides production on “Make You Move.”) He continues:
For each song, artists in Meltwater Pulse submit a series of demos to the other artists. These demos are then critiqued, and those critiques are incorporated into the next demo. This process continues until the song has matured.
A friendly collective of talented people pitching in and helping each other actualize their musical dreams? Super cool! Consider us moved.
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