Two years since the release of their fourth album, Bluebeard, The Brook & The Bluff is back with a new single, upcoming album and tour. The Nashville-based band is composed of Joseph Settine, singer and frontman, guitarist Alec Bolton, drummer John Canada, and Kevin Canada as the keyboardist. What originally started as a duo with Settine and Bolton has since become so much more, earning over 200 million streams since forming together as a band. Their newest single, “Super Bowl Sunday,” was released today, November 5th along side their upcoming album, Werewolf, which will be released March 6th.
After concluding their recent Bluebeard tour, The Brook & The Bluff returned to the studio for their upcoming album, Werewolf. The recording process brought the band back to their roots, as they played each song live ten times to bring the energy of their stage presence into the record.
In an interview with Melodic Magazine, The Brook & The Bluff opened up about their new song, their upcoming album and more.
Hey y’all! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. “Super Bowl Sunday” is so fun, but at the same time, a little sadder. Was that mix something that you guys had planned or did it happen naturally when you were writing it?
Joseph: I think as a lyric writer, I just kind of tend to gravitate towards those kinds of lyrics. When I think and look back at all the lyrics I’ve written, I feel like it’s kind of one of our things. We’ll have this pretty happy music and then whenever you really read along with what I’m saying, it’s like, “oh, this is not a happy person,” or something like that. I think that like a lot of my favorite music, I feel kind of like those things. I think it’s a good way for me as a person in general. I tend to take the optimist view, even though the words don’t necessarily say it.
So I feel like it’s always good that that kind of comes through in the music underneath. Definitely not the happiest song that we’ve ever written, but damn, it sounds triumphant though.
I’ll say that one is definitely like this confluence of Alec and I, our like writing partnership, just at its peak. There have been a bunch of songs kind of like that, you know Alec really brought in the instrumental and the cord progression and the like musical vibe.
Alec: Yeah, it’s kinda like our M.O. Happy, sad, happy, sad. It’s like, melancholy, but hopeful. Like wrapped in hopeful for the future, you know?
So how did that start to take shape when you started writing and recording the song?
Joseph: Honestly, I feel like the shape was kind of as we just went and like the shape was coming along. I feel like I can remember this moment where we were writing – or I was writing the lyrics – and we were just sitting there talking about it and the idea of like Super Bowl Sunday. I think I had randomly said like, “but it was Super Bowl Sunday.”
And then in the room we were like, does that work? Like, is that gonna be the corniest thing of all time or is it like something that is super relatable? I mean, we’re a group of dudes and I was approaching it from this idea of my life had kind of fallen apart. I feel like it’s a tendency of guys to shrug things off or to be like, “oh, I’ve watched the Super Bowl with my boys every year for the last 10 years. My life is falling apart. I need to talk about it, but I’m gonna go watch the game.” Kind of the idea of shirking your responsibility to just do this thing that you’ve always done, or go and find comfort in this thing that you’ve always done and be a little bit resistant to growth or change.
Alec: It’s like, what happens if something really important in your relationship happens to be on the same day as the Super Bowl?
Joseph: I feel like in the room I was like, “all right, I’m gonna have to write some weighty lyrics that makes this not the corniest thing of all time.” And you know what? We could look back in 10 years and it could still be the corniest thing of all dude.
Did writing that kind of song feel cathartic or more uncomfortable, would you say?
Joseph: That one, I think is probably more cathartic ’cause it’s more of an introspection thing. And just because of the music it’s like really triumphant to play, even though it’s not necessarily like a triumphant message.
I know “Super Bowl Sunday” is just one piece of a bigger puzzle. How does “Super Bowl Sunday” fit into the larger story of the album?
Joseph: I would say the story of the album is more so than anything us returning to our basics as a live band. We have done three records with a ton of studio tricks and this time we were just like, “all right, let’s just plug up and play.”
And as far as that [song] goes, this was one of those first ones that kind of broke the door down of like, “okay, we’re just gonna be a rock band again.” I mean, narratively and lyrically more so than anything. A lot of it is just dealing with the same things that I was talking about. I went through this crazy year of just resisting this feeling of change and growth. I feel like people in general can be like, “I wanna stay where I am.”
Whether or not things are bad or good, sometimes you don’t want to take that next step. And I think a lot of these songs are me just trying to take some of those next steps, and coming to grips with that, and just like your life kind of totally changing from what you thought it was gonna be.
Without giving too much away, how would each of you describe the album, both emotionally and sonically?
Alec: I mean, sonically it is the most fun album to play I think we’ve ever written. We did have this ethos of wanting to build the songs together in the room first, and craft songs that already felt incredibly good to play live before we even brought in the studio. That made it really fun ’cause we would just sit in there for hours, and jam and play it. And then you’re like, you pick the ones that are already super enjoyable to play. So it’s like playing these live on tour, it is such a fun release of energy.
I feel there’s a lot of energy in the songs. They carry an emotional character, at least when I play them. It’s hard to describe with words, but there’s like an energy to it that carries an emotional weight that is like, it’s like some kind of driving force. I feel like that and the emotional part of it are kind of tied into it together with me, I guess. I don’t know, it’s always such an interesting combo of melancholy lyrics, but it’s like hopeful music. But there’s something else, there’s like a depth to it too. There’s a togetherness to these songs I feel as a band. Or it’s like we’re just like riding down the highway together, just fricking jamming.
Kevin: Yeah, it’s fun to have an album that kind of takes a different sonic path than like the last few albums. Especially for the live aspect of it ’cause there really is nothing like the feeling of just ripping a hard rock and roll vibey song like on stage, which we’ve always had so much fun doing over the years. Taking that into the studio has been really fun. I mean, there haven’t really been too many songs in the past where I just get to like rip an organ with a Leslie on it and just kind of shred in the moment.
And so I think the process has been really, really fun in a lot of ways. Like Joseph was saying, we cut it live for the most part, so we weren’t just going instrument by instrument. It was like we were all. Plugged in at the same time and we’re like, “alright, we’re gonna hit this song 15 times in the next two hours.”
And it just gets better and better each time you run through it, so the process of it was really, really awesome. Sonically it’s exciting. I mean, as much upbeat and rock and roll as it is, there are some moments that do take a dip back into the older sonic sound of The Brooke & The Bluff’s past albums. So I think it does have a good flow to it.
John: I would say emotionally it feels just like a big release of so much energy and so much music that’s been inside of us. It feels very natural. Everything that we’re playing is exactly what we would play just if we sat down to play it for the first time almost. Sonically, it’s just rock and roll. We got a lot of different tones and different things like that, but we kind of went with what sounds our instruments were making.
Kevin: It was kind of less studio tricks than in Bluebeard. There were a lot of cool studio effects and stuff. This is kind of more just like straight to the point; here’s our instruments, here’s us playing straight from the heart.
Joseph: Back to basics in so many ways. I mean, we went back to what we did at the beginning, when it was just John, and Alec and I at the beginning stages of our band. And even the production was pretty simple. I mean, Micah, our producer, plays bass on the record and then we basically just used all the great stuff that he has. We didn’t use any crazy plugins. He has the best mics you can have, so that all the stuff sounds great, Alec just turned his amp up all the way, and it really was just like going back to the beginning stages of being able to play music together. For us as a group, I think that was really cathartic. Like I mentioned, my personal year and we went through a lot as a group, like changing the lineup.
On the topic of burnout, sometimes you might have a really good flow going and you’re able to just push it all out and just like get through a song pretty easily. What song was the most fun to make and which one was keeping you up at night?
Joseph: I think the crazy thing about this record is I don’t know if I can point to a song and say that I felt that way about any of the 10 that ended up making the record, the latter way. I think like they were all, they were all kind of easy to make in a lot of ways.
I mean, there was one, there’s one song I’m thinking of, “Baby Blue,” where we had some arrangement things where we were kind of on the nth hour, like, “oh, are we gonna do it this way, this way, this way?”
John: One of the hardest parts was figuring out which songs were going to be on the album, because we recorded 14. We loved all of them, but we wanted it to be short. We felt like 10 was just a nice number. And, honestly in today’s day and age, if you get much more than 10, you’ll start to lose people.
Do you think down the line, you would release a deluxe edition or release them as singles?
Joseph: For sure. It was the first time we had more songs than we could put on an album.
Alec: I think that’s somewhat a result of the fact we only pursued songs that already kind of felt good together. Sometimes it’ll come alive in the studio and sometimes the songs legitimately do. And with this record, we weren’t gonna do that. I feel like there was a little bit of like, “are we actually gonna call it ‘Super Bowl Sunday?’” We had to figure out some of those things.
What is one song you are each most excited about?
Joseph: Damn, there’s so many. I truly am excited about all of them, but I think the one I’m most excited for and is also probably the hardest song for me personally to have written is “Can’t Figure It.”
Alec: It might be “Get By” right now.
Kevin: “105” for me.
John: I’m gonna go with the title track, “Werewolf.” I listened to the album the other day on a run, and it just hits hard. It’s a great way to start the album.
Would you say “Werewolf” is one of the songs you’re most excited to bring on the road with y’all?
Joseph: Oh, sure. We’ve tested that one on this last run that we went on in September. A lot of times you play a new song and you lose half the crowd. You just willingly accept that you go into it knowing that some crowds are just not gonna care, which is not an indictment on crowds. People go to a concert to hear the songs that they love. For us, it’s always a little bit different. If you have new music, you want to test it out, you wanna see if it works on people. That was one that just consistently, night to night. You could tell that people wanted to know it.
Is there anything else you want to add or tease before we get off here?
Alec: “Super Bowl Sunday!”
John: We’re going on tour.
Joseph: These songs are meant to be heard live, so come on out. It’ll be good. We’re all excited for it to be out in the world.
The Brook & The Bluff have also announced a nationwide headline tour supporting the new album, which will kick off in March 2026, and include stops at DC’s 9:30 Club, Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, NYC’s Webster Hall, LA’s The Bellweather, and Denver’s Ogden Theatre among many others. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit their website.
The Brook & The Bluff Werewolf Tour:
03/20 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
03/21 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
03/23 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
03/26 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
03/27 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
03/28 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
03/31 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
04/03 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
04/04 – Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
04/06 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
04/08 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
04/09 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue Theatre
04/10 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
04/11 – St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall
04/13 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
04/14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Jones Assembly
04/16 – Houston, TX @ The Heights Theater
04/17 – Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory
04/18 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
04/21 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
04/23 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
04/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
04/25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
04/27 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
04/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
04/29 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
05/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
05/03 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
