Meet Priory, the Alt-Pop Duo You 'Need to Know' This Year
It's time to get to know Priory.
The alt-pop duo, comprised of Portland, OR-based Brandon Rush and Kyle Sears, are poised for a big year. Priory's major label debut Need to Know was released via Warner Bros. Records on Tuesday, less than a month after the pair made their buzzed-about South By Southwest debut. Earlier this year, Priory (rhymes with "diary") was named as an MTV Artist to Watch and you may have even heard their cover of "Take the Money and Run" on the small screen, courtesy of Taco Bell.
For football fans, the band's debut single "Weekend" became an anthem for ESPN Sportscenter Gameday last season.
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But the road to releasing their music wasn't an easy one.
"We went broke making this record," Sears told ETonline. "Brandon was giving bass lessons and I was giving plasma to pay to eat." Sears marked the experience, literally, with a dollar sign tattoo covering the scar on his arm. "I think I've given [blood] 200 times," he estimates.
Sears and Rush sold everything they had to build their own studio, where they would produce and engineer their debut album almost entirely on their own. They did name drop one collaborator: UK-based producer Spike Stent, who's worked with Madonna, U2 and Coldplay, to name a few.
"We're proud of it," Rush said of the album. "Hopefully you can expect to find good music."
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Among the Need to Know highlights is the socially conscious track "Put 'Em Up," a call to action for tolerance and equality.
"Boys will be boys who like boys who dress like girls, and that's alright," they sing on the track. "I don't care if you're a Christian or a Hare Krishna, who gave you the right to judge another's lover?"
"That song is about absolute love and acceptance, and right now its marriage equality, but tomorrow it's gonna be something else," said Rush. "The bottom line is, we've all got to wrap our minds around it and until we do, until love is the absolute most important thing, until we put that first, we're never gonna get it right."
Sears added: "We're all in this life together and we need to take care of each other -- accept everyone for who they are."
And that, truly, is what Priory is all about. Watch the video above for more from the duo, and to see a snippet of their live set.