I first interviewed the Cerny brothers six years ago, back when Scott and Robert were college students at Northern Illinois University. They were then the electronic-rock duo Planning the Rebellion, and I called their debut album "shockingly mature and assured."
Both of those things still apply, and you can add "ballsy" to mix.
Fronting their four-piece Cerny Brothers band, they'll be performing at the Redstone Room on December 22 as part of a holiday trip to the family home in Sherrard, Illinois.
Based in Los Angeles and playing an aggressive brand of acoustic Americana, Scott (now 24 years old) and Robert (25) brim with both confidence and an understanding of how the music industry works. They have big dreams they went to L.A. to fulfill, but talking to them last week, they weren't deluded about their chances, and they don't expect success to come knocking on their door.
"We've always made music and movies," Scott said of their move to California after college. "We just thought, 'What's the best place we could do both those things?'"
This is not one of those get-a-job-and-try-to-squeeze-in-our-passions-on-the-side things; they're all-in with music. "We don't have a backup plan," Scott said. "Fail or succeed, we have literally one objective": write songs, improve their live show, and "get good enough to a point where people can no longer ignore you. ... We're getting very good at going into a room and turning people who don't care about us into people that care about us."
