Making Music: BROWNI

Kovey Coles ’15 and Hawa Sako ’15 are a powerhouse duo of music production and composition. When Coles and Sako met four years ago at the end of their freshman years, they began collaborating with different beats and new sounds. Eventually, the pair formed their band, BROWNI.

Before coming to Princeton, both Coles and Sako said they had expressed interest in music and songwriting.

“Since high school, I’ve always wanted to be part of something really musical,” Sako explained. In addition to writing, Sako provides the lead vocals for the group.

On the other hand, Coles, who creates the beats, did extensive work with production and songwriting in high school. However, he ceased dedicating as much time to making music after coming to Princeton.

“I’m terrible at songwriting, and I have a lot of music without words. Meeting Hawa was a perfect connection of songwriting and music production,” Coles said.

The band, which now has ten released songs on their SoundCloud, got off to a casual start, releasing only one or two tracks at the end of each school year.

“From freshman year to sophomore year we were kind of making music, but it was only once a year — at the end of the year when classes were done,” Coles explained. “So freshman year we made one song, then at the end of sophomore year we made another song. It was really informal, just for fun for a while.”

In the fall of their junior year, the two became more serious about producing and performing, even presenting one of their songs for an in-class presentation. They explained that at that point they wanted to take their music to another level. Even though both Coles and Sako studied abroad during the spring semester, they corresponded using social media to continue collaborating and producing songs.

“Even while we were abroad, I would make a music track without words or a melody and email it to her [Sako]. Or she would email me an a capella version of a song,” Coles said.

This creative process —making music separately and combining their efforts —has worked wonders for the group. Only recently have Coles and Sako begun sitting in the same room to create beats, melodies and lyrics.

Since junior year, the band has produced more than eight eclectic songs and has had its debut performance at Colonial Club in early November. Coles and Sako recently dropped a new song, “Libertine,” and continue to release new work weekly on their recently implemented “New Single Sundays.”

Looking toward the future, the group hopes to expand its number of followers through its Facebook group and SoundCloud page. After graduation, the duo hopes to continue collaborating and making music.

“We could still collaborate, even after graduation. We’ve worked long distance over the summer and when we were studying abroad,” Sako said.

“It also depends on this semester and how the rest of this year goes,” Coles added. “We are also going to try to make more music, have more performances and possibly reach out to record labels to release our songs.”