Jackson Free Press

While recent fans know The Bright Light Social Hour for the soulful, psychedelic sound of the band's well-received 2015 album, "Space Is Still the Place," the Austin, Texas-based four-piece is fairly new to the style. Bassist and vocalist Jack O'Brien says longtime followers often point out how much that sophomore release, which he describes as more introverted, differs from the band's 2010 self-titled debut. The album may have even less in common with whatever recording project the band tackles next, he says, but The Bright Light Social Hour is always developing, both in music and in message.

"Psychedelic stuff is really speaking to us because I think that word has really kind of lost its meaning," O'Brien says. "It's been so overused and become so vague, but to us, it represents something that stimulates expansive thinking, just thinking of the way your tiny world connects to a very large world. ... That was really the message of that record: We're this little, teeny dot in the universe, traveling around in a van, and even though sometimes we feel so isolated from the world outside, we're really so connected to it, as well."

The theme is pretty fitting, considering that The Bright Light Social Hour began in a small section of the world. O'Brien and guitarist Curtis Roush, who also provides vocals for the band, met in 2004 while attending Southwestern University, a 1,500-student institution in Georgetown, Texas. The musicians separated when O'Brien left to study abroad in Madrid. The two reconnected about a year later before moving to Austin for graduate school at the University of Texas, and soon after, they met drummer Joseph Mirasole through an ad on Craigslist. The latest addition to the lineup, keyboardist Edward Braillif, joined in early 2013, replacing A.J. Vincent.

O'Brien says he and his bandmates have benefitted from coming up in the expansive and always-changing Austin music scene. Occasionally, The Bright Light Social Hour will return from a tour and not recognize the newest bands that are blowing up, but that's actually become an exciting part of coming home, he says.

"At first, it was really intimidating because there are just so many bands playing," he says. "There are like hundreds of music venues, so it's just hard to get anybody to realize that you exist, answer your emails or come to your shows or anything. But once we kind of got a little footing, then it was this really great, embracing, supportive community."

O'Brien, Roush and Mirasole recorded "Space Is Still the Place," which was the first album that they engineered and produced together in their home studio while Braillif was acclimating to the band's high-energy onstage performances. O'Brien says they have continued recording projects for other artists in the space since then and plan to apply the skills they've learned to another The Bright Light Social Hour album soon.

"We've actually done a lot of stuff with Austin bands—a band called Migrant Kids, Curt did a record for this band Megafauna, and we just started working with this rapper Bombay from Houston," he says. "So we have a lot more experience of bringing things into the studio and different sounds we want to try. I think developing more of our own voice, a sonic voice that matches the music, is something that we're always trying to evolve."

The Bright Light Social Hour performs for the Cathead Birthday Jam, which takes place Saturday, May 21, from 3 to 9 p.m. at Cathead Distillery (422 S. Farish St.). Seryn, the Honey Island Swamp Band and Dead 27s also perform. Doors open at 1 p.m. Admission is $30 at the gate or $20 in advance at ardenland.net. For more information, visit thebrightlightsocialhour.com.