Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet Interview

Thank you for your time today Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet . We are loving your music. Introduce yourself and tell us more about who you are and where you are from. 

Hello! My name is Brea, I’m the frontwoman of Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet (if that wasn’t obvious lol). I grew up first in a small town in North Idaho before moving to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I went to high school. I fell in love with and moved to New York City when I was 18.

How would you say where you grew up and where you are from has influenced your music?

Growing up between two predominantly conservative states, I learned at a young age the importance of expression and authenticity as a means of self and artistic preservation. I’m proud to say that Salt Lake City––a town with a surprisingly vibrant counterculture and therefore thriving music scene––is where I began my music career. I was surrounded by a community of artists dedicated to raging against the anti through their music, and I think that fire is what led me to my personal artistic narrative. Our newest release “Petty Stuff” is the first single from our upcoming album Manic Pixie Dream Girl!––a rock opera surrounding the titular character’s journey to finding her own voice amidst a story that was pre-assigned to her. At some point I decided that my mission was to be so thoroughly myself that it would piss people off, and that it would hopefully encourage others to do the same.
Do you play any instruments?  Tell us more about that, how did you learn and when did you start?

I began my training in classical voice at just eight years old, and from there was introduced to musical theatre before I began writing my own songs. My first non-vocal instrument was actually ukulele (it was 2014, after all) and shortly after I transitioned to guitar. Throughout my musical journey, I find this eclectic array of influences making its way back into my art time and time again. Beginning with such a broad sphere made it a bit difficult to find my “place” in music for a while, but now I am grateful for the way it has shaped my musical palette. 

What is the best career advice you have been given? Would you share it with us?

I’ve been performing for as long as I can remember, but starting my own band collective with the Dream Ballet has been a whole new experience. Performing became something new and different to me, and there was so much to learn. But I began reflecting on something performance coach Wendy Parr told me once years ago, that you will play 100 shows with the same group before everything that could possibly go wrong in a performance will go wrong, but after that first 100, you will be prepared for anything a gig has to throw at you. The only way to learn is through experience, and the only way to grow at craft such as live performance is to make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are big ones. Through these words, I’ve learned to quiet the tiny perfectionist in my head and I’m practicing being less hard on myself. Each gig is a new learning opportunity, and I have enjoyed the process of watching each of my bandmates (Noah Rosner, Sophia Bondi, Ben Shanblatt) grow with each performance.

What goals do you have as an artist for the rest of 2023?  

The Dream Ballet has a couple of more exciting things in the works this year! We plan to release another single (or two) before the release of our full concept album Manic Pixie Dream Girl!, so definitely be on the lookout for those. Also (drumroll please…), we are embarking on our very first tour this August! We will be hitting the West Coast, so please come see us when we’re in your city! We are so excited to connect with new fans and we would love to meet you.

We are loving your latest release, it feels like a very personal song. Can you share more with us about the song? What was the writing process like? 

“Petty Stuff” is definitely deeply personal, and possibly the most vulnerable I have been in my music to date. I wrote it in about an hour, which is how you know I was really stewing on something. At this point in the album’s story, it’s the first time we see our main character really break out of her shell and begin to call out everything around her that’s driving her nuts. For me personally, it was a major opportunity to vent. Unrealistic standards are nothing new to social media, but throughout the last few years and especially since the pandemic, I’ve been noticing this hyper-falsified proclamation of what I would call toxic positivity. This song is a sort of rebuttal to that, because I want people to know it’s okay to not be okay. I don’t want to see anyone fall into this trap of feeling like they have to think their life is amazing at all times. Frankly, I think it’s a privileged take. The current state of our world can look pretty bleak and you are only feeding into the Social Media Perfection Machine when you ignore that. I want to give my listeners permission to express their discontentment, as I think that is the only healthy path to some form of peace, or at the very least, catharsis. 

A more specific example of this would be my line in the song about Gwyneth Paltrow:

“Gwyneth Paltrow damaged millions when she said ‘fasting rocks!’

Well I liked Gwyneth Paltrow better when her head was in a box”

Gwyneth to me is a symbol of this toxic positivity, white feminism, and late-stage capitalism. She has made an empire off of making women (specifically, wealthy white women) feel bad about themselves by encouraging things like fasting for weight loss, then she turns around and sells them a product for an alarming amount of money, manipulating them into thinking it will make them happy. I’m a fan of horror movies, like the film in reference Se7en, so while this line might come across as morbid, I do mean it in the sense that I wish she would’ve just stuck to acting, because I believe she is causing direct harm to women. Gwyneth is my personal topic that makes me “petty,” but I hope this song encourages others to share their frustrations with society, celebrity culture, and the world at large as well. Often, if you dig a little deeper, they are not as petty as we are led to believe.

Tell everyone where they can hear more and follow along with you!

“Petty Stuff” is out NOW on all major streaming platforms! Please jam out to your heart’s content. Please follow Brea Fournier & the Dream Ballet on Spotify so you don’t miss our next release, and on Instagram @breafournier and @dreamballetband, and on TikTok @breafournier. Send us a DM! We wanna know what makes you petty.

End of Interview