The history of Brave has its roots in our previous band called arise from thorns. AFT formed in 1996 and was Michelle Loose on keyboards and vocals, Trevor Schrotz on drums and percussion, and I played guitars and attempted some vocals. We recorded our first album in 1997 at Neptune Studios with JP Maheu in Occoquan Virginia. The album was entitled "arise from thorns" and was independently released in 1997. Musically, the album incorporates mostly acoustic guitars, string-laden keyboards, and acoustic and electric drums. We only pressed 500 copies of our first album and it has since sold out.

In 1998, the three of us moved into a house in rural Stafford Virginia. This house was isolated and became a good place to rehearse and write new music. In November of 1998, we were joined by bassist Chris Welborn and began playing extensively in the Washington DC area. I say "extensively" because we would play as often as possible and we took every show we could get. In April of 1999, we again entered Neptune Studios with JP Maheu and began recording our second release entitled "before an audience of stars." During the recording of this album, we were joined by guitarist Tom Phillips (known for the epic doom band While Heaven Wept… check www.whileheavenwept.net for info). BAAOS was independently released in 1999 (later it was re-released by Dark Symphonies in 2001 with bonus tracks). AFT now consisted of Michelle Loose on keys and vocals, Trevor Schrotz on drums, Chris Welborn on bass, Tom Phillips on electric guitar, and myself on acoustic and electric guitars. We continued to play shows in the Washington DC area and began to venture out into other Eastern U.S. cities. (It was also in 1999 that Michelle and I joined Tom's band While Heaven Wept. We played several shows in Maryland and New York and the Stafford house became the rehearsal and hangout place for both bands.)

Official Website: http://www.bravemusic.com