Introducing Brewster Durbin

Brewster Durbin is a Lafayette-based singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Durbin combines the sounds of 2000’s-era indie with a literary and conceptual approach to songwriting, fashioning a vision of his home state as only he can render it.

In 2024, Durbin released “Rookie,” a concept album that tells the story of a fictional UL Lafayette football player who disappeared in the midst of a record-breaking season. Sonically, the album combined distorted guitars, buzzing electronics, and horns & woodwinds, taking the best elements of 2000s-era alt-rock and updating them with modern flair. More recently, he has released a string of singles including “I-10 Sniper” and “Midnight’s coming early,” which double down on his combination of southern Louisiana imagery & storytelling with indie-pop and electronica music.

Durbin plans on continuing to release singles throughout the rest of 2025, before returning in early 2026 with his second album.

Who makes up your art circle?

I’d define my art circle as my friends & collaborators that I hang out and work with here in Lafayette, as well those who I’ve connected with online. As far as Lafayette goes, I’m definitely most closely integrated with other musicians, but through working at Acadiana Center For The Arts I’ve gotten to meet so many other types of artists who are doing great work in their respective fields as well. In a closer-knit community like Lafayette, I generally feel like everyone who is young and creative is part of my art circle since we pretty much all know each other. Also, just through putting myself out there on social media and other online spaces, I’ve broadened my art circle into other cities and even other countries through making some great online friends. One of my closest musical collaborators is my friend Zack, who’s from London and we’ve never even met in person.

How do you expand your art circle?

It sounds cliche, but it’s really a matter of putting yourself out there and sharing your art and your interests with the world. Some of the best artistic connections I’ve made were because over quarantine in 2020 I just posted about music and movies on TikTok with no expectation, but it connected me with people who shared my interests. Once you start putting yourself out there and getting a reputation for being a creative person, more opportunities will naturally come your way.

What value do you see in having a creative community?

There’s huge value in having a creative community. I think the most meaningful art is often born out of a community or representative of a community. I remember when I started making music in high school, I was doing everything myself and it took a big toll on me. Even though I was proud of the work I was doing, it was hard to see any kind of fruits of my labor. Now that I feel like I’m part of a creative community - not just of other musicians, but photographers, visual artists, dancers, etc - I feel so much more encouraged and excited about making music because I know I have people around me that are supporting me.

How does your artistic approach contribute to  your community?

My hope is that, given that so much of my music directly talks about and is inspired by Louisiana, that other people will be encouraged to express similar artistic ideas.