Brass Against

Lore & Background

Brass Against was founded by guitarist Brad Hammonds, who was galvanized by the rise of Donald Trump. Hammonds later said he felt 'we needed Rage Against the Machine more than ever' in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election 'and wanted to do something besides simply expressing views on social media.' Hammonds and saxophonist Andy Gutauskas gathered some friends who recorded their first video, a cover of 'Bombtrack' released in September 2017.

In 2021, lead singer Sophia Urista urinated on a fan onstage during a Welcome to Rockville performance at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Brass Against apologized, tweeting that Urista had gotten 'carried away'. They added: 'That's not something the rest of us expected, and it's not something you'll see again at our shows.' The band was banned from performing at the festival and future NASCAR events.

Their cover of Rage Against the Machine's song 'Wake Up' was featured in the end credits of the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.

Reader's Guide

Brass Against emerged as a musical collective responding to the political climate surrounding the 2016 United States presidential election. Their choice to cover politically charged songs, particularly those of Rage Against the Machine, reflects a deliberate effort to raise awareness and encourage activism beyond social media. The band's significance lies in their unique brass-inflected reinterpretations of rock music, which brought a new sonic dimension to familiar protest anthems. Their legacy, however, is complicated by the 2021 onstage incident involving lead singer Sophia Urista, which led to an apology and a ban from the festival and future NASCAR events. Despite this controversy, the band's work reached a wider audience when their cover of 'Wake Up' was used in the end credits of The Matrix Resurrections. Brass Against remains a notable example of how music collectives can blend performance art with political messaging, though their impact is tempered by the notoriety of the 2021 event.

Origins & Political Spark

Brass Against traces its roots to guitarist Brad Hammonds, whose creative impulse was sharpened by the political climate of the mid-2010s. In the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election, Hammonds felt a growing urgency that the energy of Rage Against the Machine was needed more than ever. Rather than limiting his response to posting opinions on social media, he decided to channel that frustration into music. He enlisted saxophonist Andy Gutauskas and gathered a small circle of friends to record their debut video, a brass-driven rendition of "Bombtrack," which hit the internet in September 2017. That single clip crystallized the project's identity: a collective of musicians using the raw power of horns to reframe familiar rock anthems into something that felt both celebratory and confrontational. The band's very name signals its allegiance to the political-punk tradition, while its cover format lets it borrow the emotional weight of well-known songs and redirect that energy toward a message of collective action.

Artistic Mission & Song Selection

What sets Brass Against apart from a typical brass or cover act is the deliberate curation of its setlist. The collective gravitates toward politically charged tracks and socially conscious material, treating each performance as an opportunity to spotlight issues that matter and to nudge audiences toward activism and tangible social change. By reworking rock songs through the lens of trumpets, trombones, and saxophones, the band strips away the original instrumentation and lets the lyrical content breathe in a new sonic context. This brass-inflected approach gives familiar melodies a marching-band urgency, as if the songs were being played from a street corner rather than a stadium. The result is a sound that feels simultaneously defiant and communal, inviting listeners to see the politics embedded in songs they already know. Hammonds' founding vision was never merely to entertain; it was to create a vehicle through which music could function as a call to action, turning passive consumption into a shared, participatory experience.

The Daytona Incident & Its Aftermath

In 2021, Brass Against's live reputation took a sharp turn during a Welcome to Rockville performance at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Lead singer Sophia Urista urinated on a fan in the crowd, an act that quickly drew widespread attention. The band responded publicly with an apology, tweeting that Urista had gotten "carried away" and emphasizing that the behavior was unexpected by the rest of the group and would not be repeated at their shows. The incident carried serious professional consequences: the band was banned from performing at the Welcome to Rockville festival and from future NASCAR events. For a collective whose brand was built on controlled, purposeful energy directed at social issues, the episode represented a jarring departure from their carefully curated identity. It also highlighted the vulnerability of any live-performance act to a single uncontrolled moment, forcing the group to reckon publicly with how individual actions can overshadow a band's broader mission.

Mainstream Recognition & Cultural Footprint

Despite its origins as a small group of friends recording a single video, Brass Against managed to punch well above its weight in mainstream media. A notable milestone came in 2021 when their brass-driven cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Wake Up" was selected for the end credits of The Matrix Resurrections, placing their interpretation in front of a global cinematic audience and lending the track a fresh, horn-driven texture that complemented the film's themes of awakening and resistance. The band maintains an official website and has a documented discography listed on platforms such as Discogs and AllMusic, indicating a growing catalog beyond that initial "Bombtrack" clip. These touchpoints suggest a trajectory from viral novelty to a recognized niche act whose political-entertainment hybrid has found a genuine audience. The Matrix placement, in particular, validated the core premise Hammonds set out to prove: that a brass band covering a punk-rock anthem could feel both timely and essential.