Chicago, IL · indie rock · retro-pop

Brigitte Calls Me Baby

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Pompadoured Chicago romantics — Roy Orbison croon over Smiths jangle, retro-pop drama sung completely straight.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby is fronted by singer Wes Leavins, born Jacob Rowley, who moved to Chicago in 2016 to play Elvis Presley in a stage production of Million Dollar Quartet. The band's name comes from a teenage pen-pal correspondence Leavins kept with French actress Brigitte Bardot.

Leavins' performance as Elvis caught the attention of director Baz Luhrmann, who brought him in to contribute voice work for the Elvis biopic before Austin Butler was cast in the lead role. Through that project Leavins met producer Dave Cobb, who later produced songs that became the band's earliest releases.

The music sets Leavins' wide-ranging croon against jangling, reverb-heavy guitar work drawn from British new wave and post-punk, producing songs that gesture at mid-century pop balladry while keeping an indie rock rhythm section underneath. The current lineup also includes guitarist Jack Fluegel, bassist Devin Wessels and drummer Jeremy Benshish.

Early gigs in 2022 included opening slots for Inhaler and Muse, followed by the independent EP This House Is Made of Corners in 2023. Its reception led to a deal with ATO Records, which reissued the EP and released the band's debut album, The Future Is Our Way Out, in 2024.

The band has toured steadily since, presenting themselves in quiffs and suits with an unironic romantic image that matches the material rather than sending it up. They made their first national television appearance on CBS Saturday Morning in 2024 and later supported Morrissey on a run of UK and European tour dates in 2025.

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indie rockretro-pop