By Charley Ruddell
Living in New York requires a touch of masochism. At the end of the day, sometimes a daily commute feels as cumbersome and irritating as boarding a rush hour F train strapped with a sousaphone.
“Thousand bucks a month to keep your pillow off the pavement / When’s it gonna work? When’s it gonna break?” frontman James Lockhart asks with exasperation on “What Does It Take?,” the newest single from NYC-via-Arkansas indie rock quartet Brother Moses (off their forthcoming sophomore effort Desperation Pop). The song’s accompanying video—created by Jake Ruth and band member John Lewis-Anderson—uses a NYC resident encumbered by a sousaphone to highlight how difficult the little things, like riding the subway or catching a car, can be in a city like New York.
“What does it take to be wanted?” Lockhart’s poses with fervor. For being a band with barely two years of NYC experience under their belts, Brother Moses seems to understand the city’s imposing tonnage on daily life. Amidst the angular guitar grooves of “What Does It Take?,” Lockhart delves into the loneliness of being one amongst millions. But while his perspective guides the narration, the song’s industrial sounds suggest another main character: New York City itself. Disguised as a gentle harmony are the sampled sounds of a subway car screeching to a halt; a girthy saxophone solo in the song’s midriff reverberates like it’s reflecting from the tile halls of Union Square station. There’s detachment in Lockhart’s voice when he sings the most New York lines known to mankind: “Let the water in the shower turn to freezing / Listening to Ira just to help you fall asleep.”
All of this isn’t to say “What Does It Take?” is completely joyless—in fact, its peppy guitar riffs and chipper demeanor imply a sense of fun. There’s an off-kilter pop-ness within the arrangement that feels akin to the guitar-driven indie pop of a band like Local Natives in their early days—Lockhart also sports a similar vocal huskiness to that of Big Red Machine. With every fluttering guitar riff and every gang vocal, Brother Moses is a band that knows the best way to reach people using raw emotion is with a saucy hook and a tempo over 110.
The song’s accompanying music video is as innocent as it is on the nose, cheekily capturing a struggle in mundanity using a metaphor with whimsy. It’s a video full of familiarities—a subway saxophonist, construction on Bushwick Ave, vibrant street art—that brings the zany energy of wide-eyed transplants to the forefront. As the final moments come to a close, the sousaphonist smashes a racket in a siege of frustration while the band members, clad in red acolyte robes, wail the song’s refrain in the background: “What does it take?”
No one ever said it would be easy living in New York. No one ever said it wouldn’t be fun, either.