The Bravery

“This band is about doing something with your life,” says guitarist Michael Zakarin about his band The Bravery, which formed in the smoldering ruins of post-9/11 New York. “After the attacks, the life seemed to go out of people. It’s so easy to give in, take the easy way out and do the day-to-day shit job you hate. That’s not what we’re about.”

A year and a half after forming, The Bravery is on a much-hyped national tour in support of its self-titled debut, recorded and mixed in the band’s apartment. “We weren’t confined [by] studio time, studio money or studio pressure, so we could do what we wanted.”

Thick synth beats and thumping bass lines are The Bravery’s stock and trade. “We get compared to Joy Division and New Order all the time,” says Zakarin. “Those are really good bands, but it’ll be the end of the day before we put on ‘Bizarre Love Triangle.’ Bands like The Beatles or The Kinks are really our biggest influences.”

The Kinks with eyeliner, maybe. The Bravery is part of a resurgence of bands—from The Faint to Franz Ferdinand—who have successfully mined early-’80s sounds and styles. Headlines were made last spring when Killers singer Brandon Flowers accused The Bravery of aping The Killers’ sound. “He acts like he created all this,” Zakarin says. “Those guys are just a bunch of crooners from Las Vegas. We made our record long before we’d ever heard of them.”