Returning After a Half-Decade Break, Stagbriar Mulls What to Change and What to Keep

At their peak in the early 2010s, the Columbia group was pulling good crowds with its combination of quiet acoustic tunes and a full-bore rock band, but events conspired to create an unintentional hiatus.

“I had just started playing with ET Anderson, Emily was finishing college, we had just played a ton of shows and were planning on taking a break to write the next record,” Alex says of the half-decade pause. “When we did start to write it was depressingly sad and personal to the point we were not comfortable fleshing that out with the band.”

Some glimpses of that material have surfaced in the intervening years. Back in 2015, “Parker O” was included on local blog SceneSC’s annual sampler album of local talent, and “Humble or Hungry” appeared on a benefit album for Columbia flood victims. Both those tunes offer a bleak but tantalizing peek at what might have been, or what might still be. 

“We never wanted to go away, and we definitely were not done writing,” Emily says of what they’ve been up to the last four off-stage years. “I do think we got too far away from what we know.”

Alex agrees, noting that although it might not sound all that different on stage this week, the process and mindset they are approaching the music with has shifted.

“What has shown us the most progress from where we were before is those nights Emily and I just spend two or three hours together and take something from that which is almost a full-fledged song to the band, who can shape what they do around that,” he says. “We are in a position to finish a second record, though it might not yet be the one we want to release because we’re still writing new songs. One that we played last night was only a couple weeks old.” 

Kevin Oliver, Free Times

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