If you missed our review of Ergo, Bria's single "I Think Not", you should definitely check it out to learn about the world of the artist you're about to be drawn into.
Bria McCollum (aka Ergo, Bria) has been playing music for thirteen years, being that she started playing piano at age 8 and grew into learning more classical music such as violin, viola and voice. She also played viola in the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra while attending performing arts school for voice. Bria stated, "I never took songwriting seriously until I auditioned for songwriting major on a whim for college". Music has always been an emotional outlet for Bria and she doesn't express feelings or views publicly, but she's found that she can through music.
Her EP begins with a beautiful piano track that kind of relaxes you. It's almost like it's your guided meditation for this EP. It's a beautiful invitation to this short, but sweet music journey. With things happening in the background, it's as if you're bracing yourself for it.
We're brought straight into the next track, "When You Call Me Lovely" (Wanna Be) that offers a rockin' beginning and takes you into a different world in the best way possible. Bria is striving to not only be unique but also pave a way for female rock artists, especially ones who look like her, that have always been left out and overlooked. With the music she has released thus far, especially with this track, she's proving that she will be the artist to make some major changes in the music industry. "Plethora" drives us further into this EP and seems to be my favorite track, it's one of those songs you can jump around to. The guitar riff is extremely catchy, Bria's vocals sound amazing, and the chorus is unforgettable.
Bria has been influenced by artists such as Highly Suspect, The 1975, Crown The Empire and Bring Me The Horizon as far as how she writes her music, but nowadays she is influenced by bands and people like Noga Erez, Skating Polly, and Poppy. When asked which three albums she could not live without, her choices were KIDS by Noga Erez, Favorite Worst Nightmare by Artic Monkeys, and Tell Mama by Etta James.
Moving on to "Comfort Zone", we're somewhat brought back to the intro track and things are slowed back down. It's one of those songs you can just lay in bed in the dark to and blast in your ears. It's that beautiful with tons of emotion. Hearing this live would be absolutely an amazing experience, I can already tell.
We have already reached the end of the EP with "Crash and Burn", but it's the perfect ending of a phenomenal debut EP. Bria creates the type of music you hear in music and tv shows, those songs that just play at the right time. Bria, as an artist and a human, wants to help amplify voices and help certain types of people who have been left out of pretty much every genre. As a songwriter who has participated in co-writing and writing for other people, she strives to break down the normal barrier of the classic cookie-cutter song which she believes nothing is wrong with, but it should not be the standard. One thing Bria would change about the music industry is to stop typecasting. "The way the music industry typecasts is insane and I feel like it will only worsen as time progresses. I firmly believe that bands and artists should be able to dabble in any genre they want."
You can keep up with Ergo, Bria on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can stream her new EP and other great music here. And you can check out her website .
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