Con Brio Shares Cover Of Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’

Bay Area soul-rockers Con Brio has announced Explorer, their sophomore studio album, will be released on July 6. Today, Billboard premiered the band’s cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” that was recorded before Con Brio got to work on the 10-track Explorer.

Con Brio put their own deep and groovy spin on “Heart-Shaped Box” at an Atlanta recording studio last spring when the group was in town for the Shaky Knees Music Festival. Ziek McCarter & Co. were thinking about putting out an EP filled with grunge covers, but instead were inspired by the session to lay down their own material for the forthcoming Explorer. “We had a day off and I thought of a way I wanted to remake it and we came up with that (version) within two or three hours,” McCarter told Billboard. “Right after that we wrote a few more songs to propel our writing process in a positive way. We were touring a whole lot at that time and it’s hard to find time to really get seven people in a room to pump out the hits. But after (‘Heart-Shaped Box’) we were able to really dial in the writing process a little bit more. It served us well.”

After Con Brio made the decision to record the follow-up to 2016’s Paradise, they entered the studio with producer Derek Fuhrmann. McCarter explained to Billboard the vibe of the forthcoming LP, “The idea is ‘What can we create to inspire us to face life head-on?’ (Paradise) was raw; We owned that it was our first album. For this one it was more intentional to add more of a contemporary, modern aesthetic, more of a refined vocal production and more layerings of sonics and synthesizers.”

Listen to Con Brio’s soulful rendition of “Heart-Shaped Box”:

Con Brio plays Lost On Main in Chico on Friday night ahead of headlining the famed Fillmore in their hometown of San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned for more news on Explorer.