Exploring the World of brent with Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler
Emerging from a cabin retreat in Connecticut in 2019, singer-songwriters (and more importantly, friends) Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler began their collaborative journey together with the creation of brent, an acoustic-driven album containing five songs that detail a poignant depiction of love and loss. Over the span of the last five years, Zucker and Cutler have come together now twice more, creating two more installments to their series: brent ii in February of 2021, and most recently releasing brent iii in November of 2024. Throughout the projects, the pair have built a world in their music for fans to find solace in, with key tracks such as “you were good to me” (brent), “this is how you fall in love” (brent ii), “black and white” (brent iii), and “A-frame” (brent iii) gaining immense traction and racking up millions of streams across platforms.
The pair’s brent series has grown into a three-part project that showcases their emotional storytelling, lush harmonies, and heartfelt lyricism. Both artists, known for their vulnerable and introspective music styles, painted a deeply personal and resonant body of work that captures themes of love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and healing. Their overlapping indie pop and electronic influences are particularly evident in the brent series, where their voices and styles complement each other beautifully.
On December 4th, 2024—just over a month after the release of brent iii—Zucker and Cutler held a press conference with º1824, a partner network of Universal Music Group designed to connect artists to fans, to speak on their experiences creating brent iii and the “Brent Forever” tour. Throughout the conference, the two artists were asked an array of questions extending across the entirety of their songwriting and production process, interpretation of music, inspirations, and aspirations for future projects. A few questions focused on the creative process leading into the album and specific songs, to which “A-frame” was directly brought up in its inspiration from the acoustics of the cabin that the two had stayed in. A representative of K-UTE prompted the question of whether any other songs on brent iii were inspired by similar soundscapes, to which Zucker evoked an anecdote from Cutler about their experiences writing “and the government too!” in the same cabin:
“A beautiful thing about our friendship is that we’re not just getting in the studio for a few hours, but when we go to make brent projects we typically travel together and we’ll stay somewhere for a few days together. We were in a cute little A-frame in Big Bear, California, and it was January, and freezing, and we had a fire going, and [...] the sun was setting, overlooking the house backed up right on a lake, and it was just so cozy and beautiful and definitely got us in our feels pretty quickly. We were both really, really excited to be there. There was this crazy, palpable magic when we sat down to start “and the government too!” and obviously the story of the song is that was what Jeremy was going through in his own personal life at the time, and again the beauty of friendship is being able to sit there and help your friend get these things off their chest and help support them, and digesting and processing that. That was one of my favorite moments of writing. It just came from us having such an honest conversation about what Jeremy was going through. I remember when he had said, “I would scream at the stars for keeping us apart,” and then he laughed, and he was like “and the government too!” And I said “Hell yeah, man, let’s just say that! Let’s just be so real with it.” It was such a special moment. I think the setting that we were in had a lot to do with it, just being able to get away and actually spend real periods of time together as friends, not just in the studio, not just as collaborators. It gave us the opportunity to be able to write songs that are so personal to us.”
Cutler’s story of their shared experience in their writing process truly encapsulates the impact that their friendship holds on their music. Their connection shines through their art and has touched fans across the world.
Another question prompted by Closer2Vision detailed the central theme of brent iii, to which Zucker and Cutler explained revolves around emotional maturity and complexity, and marks an evolution from the simplicity of the first two projects. Cutler highlighted the focus on exploring more nuanced and layered emotions, reflecting their growth as individuals and artists. Zucker emphasized that with age comes more intricate life experiences and multifaceted feelings, which influenced the storytelling in brent iii: “We were writing really simple songs, and they were very powerful for that reason, but now they are more nuanced, specific, and honest in a different way.” After five years of collaborating, both Zucker and Cutler agree that brent iii dives deeper into specificity and honesty than their previous projects, offering a richer and more evolved emotional perspective.
Having brought their tour “Brent Forever” to a close, both Zucker and Cutler explained that although they are unsure of whether they will be continuing on with future brent projects, they do not foresee a future in which they do not collaborate again in some manner. Both artists described their friendship and collaborative process in incredibly special ways and admire each other highly, and both mentioned that they likely will be including the other in personal projects in the future. Zucker and Cutler noted that they are not fully shutting the door on the possibility of continuing with the project, but would like to focus their energy on enjoying brent iii and giving it the attention that it deserves before exploring further projects.
You can listen to brent iii and the previous two brent projects on all streaming platforms, and you can connect with Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler on all social platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and X.