BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY

August 12, 2025 – Klub Hydrozagadka, Warsaw

Brigitte Calls Me Baby's music is an elegant journey through time combined with a keen exploration of our contemporary neuroses. This Chicago-based band brilliantly transcends genres and eras, blending the lavish romanticism of mid-20th-century pop with the frenetic energy and sharp intensity of early 2000s indie rock. Anchored by Leavins' mesmerizing, spoken-word vocals, they create a rare fusion of sophistication, style, and unashamed sincerity.

Their exceptional style is confirmed by their debut EP, "This House Is Made Of Corners" — five tracks recorded with nine-time Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb. Brigitte Calls Me Baby boasts a unique musicality, shaped by Leavins' eclectic childhood. Hailing from the small town of Port Arthur in southeastern Texas, he grew up listening to Roy Orbison records at his grandparents' house, new wave bands like The Cars from his parents, and developed a love for Radiohead and The Strokes thanks to his friends. At 13, he started playing guitar and writing his own songs, quickly discovering his distinctive vocal style. "At first, I didn't like my voice, and there wasn't much I could do about it, but over time, I started to appreciate it more," he recalls. "My inclination towards music came from living in a small town in Texas, where there was nowhere to go or nothing to do, and from the need to be understood without having to speak."

After moving to Chicago in 2016, Leavins immersed himself in the local music scene and quickly joined forces with guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer Jeremy Benshish — together they formed Brigitte Calls Me Baby. As their repertoire developed, Leavins was invited to re-record several Elvis Presley songs for Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film "Elvis," which led to meeting Cobb. "We instantly connected and started talking about the music we love, and when he reached out again, he asked me to send him some of my songs," Leavins recounts. Soon after sending the demos (Cobb's production credits include classics like Jason Isbell's "Southeastern" and Sturgill Simpson's "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music"), Brigitte Calls Me Baby traveled to Nashville to record their debut material at the legendary RCA Studio A.

Co-produced by Cobb and the band, and mostly recorded live, the EP "This House Is Made Of Corners" opens with "The Future is Our Way Out" — a rich, cinematic beginning that perfectly sets the emotional tone of the album, full of intensity yet also authenticity. "I want to be honest, even if it's uncomfortable, and shamelessly write about things like my panic-inducing fear of death," says Leavins. "'The Future is Our Way Out' is about that fear, but also about the hope that perhaps there's something beyond death — some way out of all this mess and sadness that plagues us during life." In "Impossibly Average," pulsating rhythms and shimmering guitars provide the backdrop for, as Leavins puts it, "a song about a kind of self-loathing, about trying to deal with someone's overly high expectations." Meanwhile, "Eddie My Love" is a beautiful, painful portrait of obsession and despair. "'Eddie My Love' paved the way for all the subsequent songs," says Leavins, who initially wrote the track as a ballad. "From the beginning, it was very revealing and made me realize there's no point in pretending — you have to be completely honest in what you do."

Following a successful, widely acclaimed performance at SXSW 2023 and signing with ATO Records, the band is preparing for the release of their debut full-length album, scheduled for 2024. Brigitte Calls Me Baby constantly strives to find a balance between refined musical craftsmanship and a complete devotion to emotional truth. "In many songs, there's a desire to be perceived as someone who has everything under control, but I don't want to create an image that isn't true," says Leavins. "I know that when I was younger, I was looking for something I could relate to and feel a part of — I hope our music can give that to others. I want to create something that makes people feel more alive — and that will last long after we're gone."