BIOGRAPHY

Brijean Murphy was born to make you move. Stepping out in 2018 as one of indie’s most in-demand pop percussionists, Murphy spends much of her time on back-to-back runs with a dozen different acts including Poolside, Toro Y Moi, and U.S. Girls. It’s a marvel that, somewhere in the whirlwind of the past year, she found time to record her first personal communiqué to the world: the dreamy, back-room disco of WALKIE TALKIE.

Combining Murphy’s upbringing heavily steeped in latin jazz, soulful R&B and the ‘90s pop, BRIJEAN is a hypnotic and danceable new direction for Murphy, and a fine compliment to her contemporaries on the 2019 indie circuit. Equal parts dance production, organic percussion and melodic mantra, WALKIE TALKIE transmits Murphy’s essence perfectly.

Murphy’s musical talents are family heirlooms: her father, percussionist and engineer Patrick Murphy, taught  Brijean her first patterns on a pair of congas that she inherited from the late Trinidadian steel drum legend Vince Charles (of Neil Diamond). Growing up in LA’s Glassell Park, Brijean was raised by a cadre of honorary aunts and uncles – a deep bench of jazz, latin and soul musicians in their own rites. This meant she grew up regaled by musical lore – larger than life tales of jazz luminaries, psychedelic trips and obscure cultural enclaves – sampling some of those family stories and weaving them into the EP.  

WALKIE TALKIE is Murphy’s collaboration with producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop (Bells Atlas, Meernaa, Jay Stone, California Honeydrops). In marathon sessions at their intimate home-studio, wedged between touring schedules that rarely-overlapped, BRIJEAN formed. Murphy’s layered percussion and hypnotic, expressive vocals coupled with Stuart’s harmonic palette evokes 70s disco, 90s house, and sly pop sensibilities. WALKIE TALKIE is a pure expression of the home-cooked, effortlessly chic aesthetic that is BRIJEAN.

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