Brenn! Is Here To Stay
Pleaser caught up with Alabama-born folk artist Brennan Keller, better known as Brenn!, in the wake of his wildly popular May EP release Upstate. We discussed his first solo tour, social media and what’s to come.
You never really know where you'll be in three years. You can have a plan, a dream, a reality you want to make happen, but it’s up to you to make it come true. For Brennan Keller, more popularly known as Brenn!, his journey to becoming a musician started in 2022. (I graduated college that year. It’s a little scary that someone has made an entire career in that time, but I’m happy for him.) He decided that year he was going to start consistently dedicating time to putting out music, committing to writing from the heart and seeing where the road took him.
PHOTOS BY HAYLEY MIKELL
Born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Keller was a born storyteller. He started considering music as a potential path in 2020, but it wasn’t until 2022 that he released his first single “closer,” in February. Consistency was his key to success, dedicating his time to the craft for two years before his official first release. His inspirations at the beginning were low-fi, hip hop rappers like Keshi, but slowly turned to folk artists like the Pleaser-beloved Briston Maroney, pre-“Stick Season” Noah Kahan and Gracie Abrams.
After three single releases over two years, Keller dropped his first EP County Line in February 2024. This collection of six songs holds the breakout track “4runner,” which currently tops his leaderboard of most streams on Spotify at 118 million. The lyric video posted on his YouTube channel is currently sitting at 4.8 million views, also the most out of his 12 posts. The song has a commonly explored narrative in small town folk: a counterpart has left town and with it, the person they loved. Left in the wake of their departure, our narrator is left to consider the possibilities of a life without this person. The town they once shared now feels void, and loneliness lurks in the shadows of every move they make.
Despite the distance, the closeness they shared still draws them together. Every change they’ve made they want the other to see, and the narrator continues to observe change from afar. Similarly, the narrator has changed, wishing the other was there to witness what has become of them.
You know I'm trying to get a little bolder /
So, this town is where I'd rather you be /
And your 4Runner, is it runnin' up north thеse days? /
I'll say it gets lonely whеn you're not here past my hallways /
Did you drop your crown on your way out now? /
'Cause, oh, I swear, something 'bout you has changed.
The next EP release for Brenn! was Upstate, released May of 2025. Keller told Pleaser that because he’s only been creating for two years, there’s not a lot of intentionality behind creating cohesion between releases. Moreover, each song doesn’t necessarily come back to the same themes or message.
“The only thing that ties them together is the way my brain works in terms of wanting things to sound a certain way,” he explained. “With any body of work the artist will naturally have a certain type of cohesion.”
On the six track collection of Upstate, Keller described "Franklin House,” the final track, as his “Mona Lisa.” He said he wrote the track in 20 minutes, producing a completed demo shortly after. He didn’t touch it for two months, then took the demo to Los Angeles and produced it to its final version with friends. “The fires were happening at this point and we could see the flames outside,” he said. “It was one of those songs that I felt ‘this is it.’”
The main exploration in “Franklin House” is the aftermath of a relationship and the guilt that follows. At first, the intentions of a relationship are pure, but the breakup highlights what you think you should’ve done. The chorus expands:
I thought I could change you for better /
All I did was break you forever /
You needed saving, and I couldn't save you this time /
All I did was break you forever.
To promote this release and previous ones, Brenn! has taken to social media, more specifically TikTok. The fans he has amassed over his career so far seem to appreciate his laid back and non-performative style. For many of his videos, he’s sitting in his car with his most recent song overlaid. In others, he’s playing his guitar in a field with the lyrics running across the screen. He described social media as the “backbone of my career,” bringing fans closer to him and his music. “I don’t do anything special, I don’t sit down with set times to post or anything.” He also highlighted his struggle with social media, stating that he gets sick of it sometimes. “I’m starting to hate it a little bit, but it’s a good tool for me,” he said.
In addition to social media, Brenn! also went on tour this year to showcase his new album. This was his “first real tour,” according to Keller, and it was filled with back-to-back shows, meeting new fans, and “all the things people love about touring.” While the tour traced cities from Charlotte, North Carolina to Salt Lake City, Utah, Keller recalls his Los Angeles show as one of his favorites. The venue he played was The El Rey, an art deco theatre built in 1936 as a movie theatre and converted to a music venue in 1994. The capacity of the theatre is about 700, and Brenn! sold about 600 and had 50 comps, essentially filling up the room.
“I was sitting up there and we had a barricade and I saw so many people. It was one of those moments where I thought ‘Wow, this is actually doable. I can get there.’ You don’t realize how many people that is until they’re all in one room for you,” he explained.
He also noted his performance at the Bowery Electric as memorable, another packed venue that produced all the feels. “I’m overwhelmed with appreciation for all those people,” he said.
What’s next for Brenn! Well, his latest single came out January 30, titled “brand new car.” Team Pleaser will be on the look out for his debut album, hopefully coming soon!
