Despite the fact that their debut full-length album, Fake Brave Life, is due to release this Friday, The Army, The Navy, does not have the aura of a new band. Perhaps that’s because they’ve already managed to make an impression with their song “Vienna (In Memoriam)” off their 2024 EP, Fruit for Flies, which has amassed over 44 million streams on Spotify alone. Perhaps it’s because the two artists behind the duo have known each other for virtually their entire lives, which gives their ability to work together a sense of ease. Perhaps it’s because an innate gift for songwriting is just inherently woven into the fabric of the band’s DNA. Though, as I sit down to speak with Maia Ciambriello and Sasha Goldberg, the duo behind The Army, The Navy, I learn that maybe, it’s all of the above. 

Ciambriello and Goldberg both grew up in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, right off the San Francisco Bay area. And, anyone’s who’s spent even a brief amount of time in that area knows that the Pacific coast carries a very specific type of spirituality in its natural life. Almost as if in between some of the most bustling, tech-heavy cities, lies a reminder of what life is supposed to look like. While neither Ciambriello nor Goldberg live near Mount Tamalpais anymore, instead residing in Los Angeles, as I sit down with the duo to talk about the new album, I surmise that if their songwriting wasn’t enough to prove that they maintain spiritual ties to their hometown, their aura certainly does. 

Fake Brave Life is a bit of a departure from the duo’s previous work, although not in an unnatural way. While their previous EPs may have captured listeners with airy and ethereal indie-folk tracks, Fake Brave Life feels almost like their more rambunctious younger sister: still from the same family, just maybe having gained a bit more bravery and confidence after watching her older sisters experience the world first. 

“Going into this album, we just promised ourselves most of all that we were going to love every song and really see out our creation to its fullest extent,” says Goldberg. “In previous projects, since we’re pretty new to making music and producing stuff out in general, we succeeded to the song because we felt like we didn’t really know what else needed to go on there, even if we weren’t fully happy with it. But I think with this album, we just decided that we wanted to love every single component of it, and that was really freeing. We got to make whatever we wanted.” 

“We did it with just our preferences in mind, and produced out the music the way that we wanted the music to be heard,” adds Ciambriello. “We just silenced all the other voices, and just stuck to each other’s opinions and vision.” 

The result is not only their strongest work to date, but one of the strongest albums of the year. Fake Brave sits in a space of indie-folk, cinematic spectacle, and orchestral bliss, anchored by two people who inherently understand the beauty in creating art together. Ciambriello and Goldberg sourced inspiration from just about everywhere, from the energy of their hometown, to The Hunger Games, which inspired standout track “Stars Stay Awake.” But when it came to deciding who was best served on each song vocally, the two let the songs themselves guide those decisions. 

“When we write the songs, I don’t usually feel like, ‘Oh, this is one where Sasha’s definitely going to sing lead, or this is one where I’m definitely going to sing lead,’” explains Ciambriello. “I think a lot of it depends on just range. Sasha has a higher range than me, so if the song is set up in a way, where you have to sing higher, usually she’ll take the lead. If it’s lower, usually I’ll take the lead. There was one song, like ‘Fake Brave,’ that really resonated with me, so I took lead on that one. And then ‘Down Debbie,’ that story really resonated with Sasha, so she took the lead. I think it’s just happens naturally. We find ourselves in whatever position makes most sense.” 

Naturally, with an album title that uses the phrase, “Fake Brave,” one can expect that in creating this album, both artists had to tap into their own sense of “fake” bravery. But, as the saying goes, sometimes, you really do end up “faking it” til you make it. 

“The whole putting your music out in the world, or putting your art, anyone putting their art in the world, is an act of bravery,” says Goldberg. “Because it’s like once you kind of move it out of your private sphere of your consciousness into the public sphere, it’s you’re pretty much opening up the door for critique and for judgment. I think that that takes so much bravery to be like, ‘This is my art, and it is now your art to think about, and to discuss, and to dissect.’ I think that that is it takes a lot of courage and bravery, and I think, especially for Maia and I, in the beginning of writing songs, we kind of didn’t go into the songwriting, the love of songwriting, with the intention of sharing. So I think when it became that way fairly recently, it was scary, and we had to be brave about it.” 

While there’s a lot to be said for “fake bravery,” The Army, The Navy exudes realtalent, which is showcased well on this album. Songs like “Moody,” a standout track, offer vulnerable lyrics over dreamy sounds, while songs like “Down Debbie/Reservoir” are a bit more angsty. The entire album plays like a coming-of-age soundtrack for an indie film, though it arguably could be the real life coming-of-age album for the creators behind it. Its through line sits with Ciambriello and Goldberg’s ability to know when a song needs to be loud and forthcoming, and when it needs to stay “small” and breathe. 

“For this album, we worked with people that we really trust their vision and their idea of everything, and how what things should sound like,” says Goldberg. “You want to give songs their time to shine and do minimal production, and because it’s so emotional, but then some things need more support. We always try to think of production kind of like a little push up bra, just assisting the song upwards or assisting the song into completion, versus something that’s taking over for us. That’s how we like to produce that stuff out, you know. Songwriting is always at our center, so we always just do whatever the songwriting needs.” 

“As we get later into the project, I feel like we kind of get angrier, and in my opinion, the more angry a song is, the more it caters to having a bigger production,” adds Ciambriello. “Like ‘Fake Brave’ and ‘Big One’ and ‘Star Stay Awake’ are all a little bitter, so it feels like they require just a little bit more like oomph behind them.” 

But, be it a song with more “omph,” or one of the more quiet songs, there is not a bad track on Fake Brave Life, and it’s destined to become a major milestone in what is sure to be a long discography from a duo on the rise. 

But as for what they’re hoping for right now, the duo’s answers are simple. 

“I really hope that [when people listen to this album], they think, ‘Wow, that’s is great songwriting.’ I really hope they think that this is some quality music,” says Goldberg. “Selfishly, I really hope they love it and think that it’s special, but feeling, but I want people to feel brave and courageous and amped. There’s a lot of really dramatic moments, a lot big ‘hurrah’ dramatics. I think that I want people to feel how we felt when we wrote that, which is so freeing, and brave.” 

“I think when I listen to music that I really love, I always have such a clear visual of it,” adds Ciambriello. “I create a music video in my head, and I love to listen to the song over and over again. I get so lost in my mind of these this storyline that I’m creating to the song, and I want people to feel that way about some of the songs on this album. I’ve never felt this way about music that we’ve recorded so far, but I think it’s just because it hasn’t been this dramatic and bold. ‘Fake Brave,’ in particular, I remember listening to it maybe five times in a row, just letting my imagination create this story, and feeling so inspired by my own music. I want people to be able to picture a world inside of the record, and be able to be inspired to be brave, or tell someone that they are mad at them, or tell someone they love them. I don’t know. I just want people to be amped and inspired, and want to create, create, create.” 

Fake Brave Life is out June 12 via Independent Co.