Bryan Erwin was born and raised in St. Louis,
Missouri. He developed a love for music early on, constantly spinning
Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Weird Al Yankovic records.
An eighth grade music class was Erwin's introduction
to the guitar. In that class, he learned to play the melody of "Night
Train". Thinking he'd reached the pinnacle of success, he put the
guitar away at the end of the semester.
As a sophomore in high school, however, Erwin
returned to music. A stoner friend convinced Erwin to get an electric
guitar. Erwin did, and quickly learned the riff (but not the solo) to
"Far Behind" by Candlebox. The friend got into cocaine and Nine Inch
Nails, and Erwin moved on.
He joined his first band the next year. Arvid's
Apple was a short-lived project featuring a singer who refused to cuss
and a classically trained jazz/funk bassist whose very existence made
Erwin feel worthless and small.
After being stood up at a Goo Goo Dolls concert,
Erwin began working with his longtime collaborator, Matt Zimmer. Zimmer
and Erwin formed the Cosmic Oatmeal Buckets, an acid punk band with a
succession of drummers. Their big moment came at a school talent show
tryout in the spring of 1997. Erwin broke from the band's sound,
writing a song called "Surfin' Blues" in hopes that his peers would
find it more digestable than the group's regular hardcore sound. They
didn't; the Cosmic Oatmeal Buckets did not make the talent show cut and
broke up soon thereafter.
College brought a semblance of maturity and a
new
slant on Erwin's songwriting. He began listening to Guided by Voices, a
huge influence on his musical ideas. Erwin and Zimmer got back
together, this time eschewing a drummer altogether and calling
themselves the Jefreys. The band took on a far more poppy sound then
Erwin's followers (his parents) were accustomed to. They released a
cassette, Sold Out!, which
sold one copy. 
The Jefreys are technically still together, but
married life and a grueling business travel schedule have driven Erwin
to spend more time writing on his own. Needing something to do on
weekends while his wife studied in graduate school, Erwin recorded
"Four Tracks and the Truth" in the summer of 2004. He can occasionally
be spotted playing songs from the album (and others) at the Thursday
open mic at Frederick's Music Lounge in south St. Louis.