Talking motorcycles with Brookville's Andy Chase

Andy Chase from "Great Mistake" video (Photo: Adam Neustadter)

Picture yourself on a motorcycle in New York's Times Square, sometime after 1 a.m., with some tough coming toward you with the idea that you've been dissing him. You're praying for the light to change. You would be Andy Chase.

Andy Chase is a self-declared "long-time motorcycling fanatic" and a musician who, under the moniker of Brookville, is releasing his third album today, Sept. 29. So of course it made sense for him to speak with me about the album.

Huh? Yeah, that was my first response. I mean, unless the album is loaded with motorcycle songs, or he does all his composing while cruising on one of his bikes, what's the hook?

But I'm nothing if not open minded, I had nothing to lose, and you never know what might lead to a great story. So we connected, and now I've got a good story to tell.

Filming the video

That night in Times Square was the filming of the video for "Great Mistake," the first single from the new Brookville album, "Broken Lights." Andy had jumped at the suggestion they do the video with him riding his bike, in this case his Moto Guzzi Stone, around New York City. Shooting was scheduled to start at 1:30 a.m. in hopes that traffic would not be a problem. Wrong.

Andy Chase of Brookville on motorcycle in Times Square

Andy Chase during filming of "Great Mistake" video
(Photo: Adam Neustadter)

"We had to shoot everything four or five times because 95 percent of the footage was me stuck in traffic."

Part of the time the crew shot Andy on the bike from an SUV. The rest of the time he rode around with a camera on a tripod fixed to his windshield.

"I'm not sure it was entirely legal, there was a lot of equipment on the front of the bike," says Andy. "There was quite a lot of stuff in front of my face and I was glad we didn't see any motorcycle cops. I figured the cops in the squad cars wouldn't know the difference but those guys on motorcycles would have seen it instantly."

Hooking up the camera was a challenge in itself. The crew had to find the right camera to give the effect they wanted, and it had to be small enough and light enought to mount on the bike. And they had never done this sort of thing before.

When everything was set Andy did a test run. He took off OK, but at the first spot where he needed to turn he found that he couldn't. The gear attached to the camera impeded the fairing's movement above the tank, limiting his turning ability to about 10 degrees.

"To make u-turn would have required half a football field," Andy chuckles.

Although Andy normally wears only full-face helmets (he has an Arai and a Shoei), form took precedence over function for the video and he wore an open face helmet. Hidden under the helmet were ear buds, which played the song to him as he rode.

"You have to sing for real, or else it looks fake," Andy explains. Thus it was that he was sitting at a light, singing the refrain, "Oooooh, making the great mistake. Oooooh, making the great mistake."

Just at that moment, "A guy was jaywalking. A very tough looking, big guy you wouldn't want to mess with, and he crossed in front of me. He looked at me like, 'Are you screwing with me?' He seemed super pissed and started walking over to the bike. The light turned just as he reached the bike, then he saw the camera and tilted his head like, huh? And I pulled away."

Band tours and motorcycle tours

Andy hits the road on a tour to support the album today, and he doesn't expect to have much chance to ride until it's over. He does, however, make note of good roads while he's touring with the band so he can come back to them on a bike. His touring bike is his Ducati ST4S, a sport-touring model.

He credits his band tours with influencing his decision to tour on his bike. Growing up, Andy rode dirt bikes a lot but it was only when he started going on the road with bands that "I started falling in love with the American countryside. I'm particularly drawn to the West, both north and south, but for me, living in New York, it's 2,000 miles just to get there." He says he has ridden just about everywhere there is to go on the East Coast, however.

The music

And what about the music? We know he doesn't play "biker tunes" so what does he play?

In addition to Brookville, his solo project, Andy also plays with Ivy, a threesome fronted by French expatriate Dominique Durand and also featuring bassist Adam Schlesinger, of Fountains of Wayne. He describes the music simply as "indie pop" and although it is fairly laid back, Andy will tell you the uplifting music is married to very dark lyrics. It's that contrast that he finds interesting.

He'll also tell you that the Brookville music definitely comes across better when it's live.

"In the studio it sounds a little too earnest, so I back down. On this last record my producer pushed me to sing more openly, taking more chances with my voice."

Still, "I like my voice live, and I'll sing harder. Particularly with 'Dreaming On,' you really hear it explode live."

If you'd like to check out Brookville for yourself, here are the tour dates, with more to be added.