The Charlotte artist hopes you can relate to her music as much as she does.

Charlotte’s very own briZB is making waves with her undeniably catchy and relatable debut EP, rough night?. “It’s about the first person I talked to romantically. I wrote the first half while we were together and the last two songs were after,” she says. “I was very nervous about releasing something I worked on for so long.”

Rough night? was written in just a few months despite taking almost three years to record and release. “I finished writing the last song in the Summer of 2022,” she says. “It takes a lot of time and money to make something sound good, and I didn’t want to put so much love and care into something that would sound terrible.”

Bri hopes that listeners can put themselves in her shoes after hearing the EP. “It’s almost like a public diary for me,” she says. “I want people to hear it and think that I am just like them. There are plenty of people who have been in the exact same situation as me. I want them to be able to relate to that and enjoy the music.”

Photos by Isaiah Pate (@isaiahpate)

The contemplative and endearing “have you thought of me today?” was released as the lead single from rough night?. “We released that first because we felt that it was a good representation of the EP in a dynamic sense,” she says. “It takes pieces of every song and introduces you to the overall story and I love that.”

The second single, “anticancer,” is the only song on the EP to have a visual. The music video was filmed by Georgia photographer Sandy Ha who has been long-time friends with Bri. “We shot the video last May over the course of two days. We woke up before sunrise so we could get these really beautiful shots,” she says. “We were so tired, but it was such a cool experience, and Sandy did an amazing job.”

Bri explains that the track list goes through the motions of a failing relationship. She refers to “running” as the ‘I would do anything to be with you,’ song whereas “bullet train” is about accepting the outcome and trying to move on. “The end is like closing a chapter,” she says. “It ends on a sad note but that’s not a bad thing.”

She jokes that the story of the EP coming together is a little bit unconventional. “The person I wrote this about was always supportive of my endeavors. He asked me what I wanted to do next, and I was like, ‘I have an idea! I’m going to release an EP and call it rough night?,‘” she says. “I had the title before I had the songs.”

The artwork is also heavily inspired by this experience. “My dear friend Will made the artwork for rough night?,” she says. “It was truly a rough night. There were a lot of tears and tissues everywhere like there are on the cover. I laid in my bed for hours and realized how much of a mess I made. The blue and purple colors are a great reflection of how I felt at the time too, which was very blue and sad.”

Photos by Isaiah Pate (@isaiahpate)

Bri is heavily involved in the North Carolina local scene as a performing artist and a familiar face in the audience at your favorite venue. We asked her to name her favorite local music venue in the state, and she did not hesitate to answer. “I love the Milestone Club in Charlotte so much,” she says. “I’ve been there countless times over the years and I’ve made so many memories and met so many people.”

She considers a lot of these friends to be key influences in the evolution of her sound. “I was strictly making indie-rock until I started taking inspiration from these emo-adjacent artists I was being put on to through the local scene,” she says. “You can hear a lot of those influences in the instrumentation on rough night?.”

She wears her inspirations on her sleeve and takes from many different artists. “You can hear pieces of every artist I listen to, and I think that’s really cool,” she says. “Beabadoobee is the most obvious but there’s a lot of others.” She included artists such as Wallows and Clairo in a list of influences others might not expect.

(Oh, and she put me on to Wednesday a few years ago. Thanks, briZB!)

Photos by Isaiah Pate (@isaiahpate)

BriZB and her fans have a lot to look forward to as she prepares to work on new music. “I love rough night?, but those songs are very old. I’m excited to finally be able to work on something new,” she says. “It’s a huge weight off my shoulders.”

“I would love to go on tour with some of my friends,” she says. “My favorite thing about being a musician, especially in the local scene, is just chilling with my friends.” While there is not an official tour on the books, she is hopeful that there will be one in the future. There are never any shortages of briZB live performances, though. You can catch her soon at Charlotte’s Indie Night on August 28th.

“I’m just so excited,” she says. “I want people to listen to the EP. It’s just very personable and I hope they see me as just an ordinary person.”

Rough night? is available to listen everywhere.