Since releasing their debut EP ‘Foundation’ in 2018, husband and wife Anne DiGiovanni and Joseph Lewczak, AKA indie-pop duo Only Bricks, have earned themselves acclaim from the likes of Vents Magazine and All Access. Their music blends the sounds and styles of the rock, pop and dance songs they’ve listened to over the years, with their new single “Big Girl Shoes” being no different. PopWrapped caught up with the pair to find out more about the story and inspiration to the track and what they’ve got in store for the rest of the year.

How’d you come up with the name Only Bricks? Is there any particular meaning or representation to/behind it? 

Our name comes from the lyrics to a song by The Vamps called “Risk It All” – I’d rather crash, I’d rather crawl / than never have your love at all / with only bricks to break my fall / for you, I’d risk it all – and it’s our reminder that everything we’re truly passionate about in life, including being married and writing and releasing music, involves taking risks, but we have to be willing to take that leap, even though we’re going to fall and fail sometimes.

What might you say the other brings to the duo? What are each other’s strengths and talents?  

Anne: In addition to having a great sense of melody, Joseph engineers our recordings and produces our sound. He essentially runs our record label, including distribution and marketing – getting our music out on the DSPs, running social media ads to get new followers, pitching our songs to playlists – I’m honestly not sure how he does it all.  

Joseph: Anne is the creative force behind all of our song-writing, not to mention an amazing vocalist. She’s the one constantly forcing me to write when really all I want to do is shut my brain off and veg. She’s constantly coming up with great melodic and lyric ideas and, to be honest, we’d have no social media presence if it weren’t for her. 

As husband and wife, how do you separate your personal, married life from your professional one, or do they tend to blend together in some way? Do you see that as a good or a bad thing? 

We struggle with separating the two, to be perfectly honest. There’s no easy way to detach and treat each other differently when we’re cooking dinner as a couple versus when we’re in the studio writing a song – we are who we are! It gets tense sometimes, especially since we spend a ton of time together -even more so since 2020. But being creative and writing together was always part of our relationship and we wouldn’t trade that connection, so we are always a work in progress with our partnership, trying to listen better to the other person, be more open and less reactive, and keep things fun and interesting.

Tell me a little about your new single “Big Girl Shoes.” Where’d the idea for it come from?  

A: Several years ago, a male colleague watched me get on an elevator wearing high heels and said “Oh, are you wearing your big girl shoes today?” in a patronizing, almost sarcastic tone. I had been wearing flats the night before, which he apparently noticed. I didn’t know what to say so I kind of laughed it off. I felt humiliated, belittled, but also unsure of whether what he said to me was even offensive or problematic. It took a while to process that moment and figure out how to articulate a response to this microaggression that confidently shows what women are up against in the workplace, and our co-writer Samantha Margret really brought this invaluable understanding, empathy, and vocabulary to figure the song out. “Big girl shoes” are a metaphor for the double bind of needing to look feminine but not too sexy, an added weight women carry at work on top of their normal job responsibilities. Not to mention that we do it for 82 cents for every dollar men get paid, and that both the pay gap and microaggressions – and outright abuse – in the workplace are exponentially worse for Black women and women of color. It doesn’t occur to most straight white men that what they wear may change the course of their work day or career. So, we thought, let’s flip it on this elevator dude and put it to him to try to walk a mile in my big girl shoes, see how he would do. 

J: Coming from a straight white male, I agree with everything Anne said!

Is there a particular story or concept behind its video? 

J: The video for “Big Girl Shoes” takes that incident that happened to Anne and turns that guy into a caricature of himself – or three, in our case – to create an exaggerated – or sometimes not – portrayal of what it’s like to identify as a woman at work. I was excited to step out of the realm of my own experience and play these villainous, womanizing characters who just feel totally entitled to do whatever they want, engage in this bad or questionable behavior, and still get ahead regardless. We wanted to drive home this point about women inviting men to see things through women’s eyes, to literally “walk a mile in these high heel boots,” which I learned is no joke to do for the majority of a 12-hour video shoot. And I like to think my characters also learned something about the power dynamic being stacked against women, and the burdens they carry when trying to achieve success being heavier. 

In shooting the video for “Big Girl Shoes”, it was really important to us to ensure that our entire crew was female/non-binary and we’re really proud to say that we achieved that goal. We’ve all heard the abysmal statistics around female producers, directors, and cinematographers employed in Hollywood – similar to the music industry – and given the topic of this song, so we wanted to address that inequity in our own small way. Our director Rebecca Eskreis was an amazing partner in accomplishing that goal, pulling an extremely ambitious story out of a single shoot day, and doing it all during a global pandemic. 

Lyrically and artistically, who or what are you most inspired by, both as individuals and a band, and how do those influences filter through into the music you make? 

We love other artists who have a strong sense of melody and whose beats are positive, energetic, and uplifting – lyrics don’t necessarily have to match, in fact we love a good sad bop. The quintessential example is ABBA, and we both also came up on Billy Joel and pop radio hits generally. More recently, we’ve gotten inspired by some awesome alt and indie artists:  FRANKIE, Small Pools, The Mowglis, who just broke up, we’re so sad. Anne has been inspired lately by female singer songwriters with a punk/emo trap/alt pop sound, like Carlie Hanson and Bulow. Joseph’s listening habits tend to drift toward alternative rock, but he’s a sucker for a poppy melody, no matter what the genre is.  Artists he’s currently vibing to include Charlotte Sands, Fanny Anderson, Twenty One Pilots, AJR and Blu DeTiger.   

You’ve received coverage and acclaim from the likes of Atwood Magazine, All Access and Music Connection among others, but do you care much what critics and the like think? What’s the nicest thing someone’s ever said or written about you and how do you handle any negative press or commentary that comes your way? 

We’re artists with fragile egos, of course we care! But we try to remember that music is such a subjective thing, and everyone reacts and feels differently when they hear a song. Our brand of bubble-gum pop is not for everyone. Luckily press have been really positive so far about our music, no one has overtly said we suck! But people can be mean in social comments and we get down sometimes when the haters hate. The nicest things people have said have been when a couple of fans have reached out to say “your song got me through a breakup I’ve been going through” or “this song is my life right now, amazing how the right music always finds its way in.” We know we’re on the right path if we’re able to touch people in that personal, emotional way with our lyrics.

Social media has seen a boom over the last year with friends and families using Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to keep in touch. As artists and individuals, how do you feel about the power of social media and the role it plays in the lives of so many? 

The internet has given us this wonderful gift as independent artists, in the ability to make our own music and have it distributed alongside the music of major label artists, but social media is the necessary evil that goes along with that opportunity. You have to build and grow a following, and to do that, you have to keep feeding the beast.  It can be taxing when sometimes you just want to focus on the music, which is our main talent – whereas coming up with enjoyable and entertaining social content doesn’t come as naturally to us. But we’re constantly learning the most important currency is authenticity, and we just have to be who we are and show our friends and followers what that is. We definitely question the presence of social media in our own lives, as we’re drawn to the endless scroll and sometimes get caught in the trap of viewing what gets posted as the ultimate truth of reality, because at the end of the day, everyone is posting an aspirational version of themselves. It’s good to remember that no one’s life is perfect, not your favorite famous artist or your co-workers or your friends, and to take time away from screens to be in the moment in your life.

Finally, with this single and video out in the world, have you started looking at which single you’ll release next? What’s on the to-do/bucket list for the coming months?  

Yes!  We are in production on our next single, which is going to come out in May just in time for summer.  It’s a real left turn from the aesthetic of “Big Girl Shoes”, so we’re excited to hear everyone’s reactions and hopefully reach a whole new set of listeners. Beyond that, we’re always focused on writing more songs, and we’ll be releasing more singles steadily throughout 2021 – maybe there will even be another music video coming. Hopefully we’ll get a live stream on the calendar and start thinking about performing live at a venue as the world starts to open up again.

Check out the video for “Big Girl Shoes” below and for more information on Only Bricks, visit their website, give their page a like on Facebook or follow them on Instagram.