FREEMAN TOWNSHIP – When brothers Chris and Andrew Bracy started playing music together as young boys here, they had no idea it would one day lead them to a stage in front of a dancing swarm of people in downtown Portland.
“We played all the time growing up,” Andrew Bracy said. “Our neighbor would always hear us practicing and one day asked us to play at a party he was having.”
The brothers quickly gathered a few musical friends and threw together a makeshift band for the event, playing their first ever show in the backyard of their next door neighbor. As Andrew’s two sons, Brendan and Caleb, grew they too found a musical calling, playing whenever they could. The band of brothers joined forces, begrudgingly sat down to choose a name and To Be Determined was born.
“We came up with a bunch of ideas, but my wife said they weren’t kid friendly,” Andrew Bracy said. “We just didn’t care to sit around talking about it. We wanted to be playing music.”
The pair of brothers originally chose the name as a stand in, with plans to come back to it later on. But that was three and a half years ago.
“We like it now. To change it at this point would be feel like starting over,” Brendan Bracy said.
There’s no restart for this band though, with regular gigs at The Roost in Farmington, a newly established monthly show at Bull Feeney’s in Portland and a five-track album, the group is taking off. The family quartet practices every week, but the members can be found playing music almost daily despite their day to day responsibilities.
“I try to do work at school while thinking about songs at the same time. Then I come home and play all afternoon,” Brendan said.
Though the band has primarily played locally at places like The Roost as well as events such as the homeless shelter’s Dine & Dance fundraiser tonight and Blues in the Barn in Kingfield, they are broadening their horizons, with the hopes of playing as far as Boston.
“We love playing locally. It’s comfortable and everyone is so friendly,” Andrew said. “But it’s a whole different scene at the bigger venues. People just go insane.”
For more information you can find To Be Determined on Facebook or at their webpage here.
These guys are awesome…and the two teenagers are 14 and 17.
Proud Grammie Becky? Well you should be.They are extremely talented!
Not only are they very talented but they are also very nice young men. Not to take away from his guitar, but Brendan can just kill it on the drums.
They put on a great show. Just love em.
They are great!