Artist Spotlight: Fab and Lette

Meet Fab & Lette

Fabrizio (Fab) Briceno and Colette (Lette) Briceno are a husband and wife singer-songwriter duo originally based in Auburn, AL. When they met in December 2023, Colette had been writing and producing her own music for years. Fabrizio had only recently picked up his guitar again. Six months later, they were engaged. In December 2024, they released their debut single, “Stowaway”. Blending musical influences including Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, and Phoebe Bridgers, the duo has a self-described sound of “indie-country-folk.”

Q&A

North Alabama Arts: You sound so natural together. Did you perform independently before you knew each other?

Colette: I had only ever played one gig in my life by myself. I was doing open mics, I was putting music out on Spotify, and I had been self producing for a few things but it was horrible quality, absolutely embarrassing. I first did it when I was 17 in high school on my computer. I wasn’t inspired to play live for people, I just wanted to have a platform to put my art out. And he hadn’t played that many gigs either.

Fabrizio: Yeah, I only did a talent competition before that because I wasn’t taking music that seriously. I’ve always kind of sang and played piano here and there, growing up. But I never really took it seriously until 3 months before I met [Colette], I started thinking, I’m going to learn guitar.

NAA: What changed?

F: I just didn’t want to waste potential. I thought, I don’t want to regret not taking action now, and 10 years down the road, maybe something could have happened if I had at least tried. Then my mom sent me a flier for a restaurant doing a talent show. I’d only been playing guitar for like 2 months up until that point so didn’t feel very confident. But she just signed me up…I actually made it to semifinals somehow.

NAA: That’s pretty impressive. Then you two met a few months later. How did it happen?

F: I was sound testing some equipment, an amplifier I had out in the parking lot [in Auburn] because I was going to play a gig and wanted to make sure my equipment worked. She just happened to be running by. She approached me and said, “are you busking?” And I said, “no, just sound testing some equipment.” And she said, “oh yeah, I can help you.” She started helping me. She was about to leave—it was raining the whole time, by the way—and I asked, “what are you doing tonight?”

C: I told him a coffee shop where he could go and play without rain. And we went back that night. 

F: We performed together.

C: He was just sitting on a chair in front of me, and we were facing each other. I had my guitar, he had his guitar. He had a microphone, and he would sing a song into it. Then he would turn the microphone around and let me sing a song. We just kept it going.

F: And six, seven months later we got married.

NAA: How did you propose?

F: The restaurant where I had competed in that talent competition, I knew the manager. I called him one day and said, “I want to propose to my girlfriend tonight, would you let me up on stage to do it?” Some guy was playing that night. He called Colette up and said, “I hear Colette here can sing.” And she went up. She was going to sing a song. I sneaked up behind her, and I proposed. And then she still sang the song.

NAA: What do you feel each of your strengths are in your duo?

C: He’s been the one who taught me how to be a good, or a better performer, and enjoy that. I’ve shared things about songwriting.

F:  It’s probably how much I practice. It’s more than just getting up there and singing your song really well and singing the right parts with perfect timing. You also have to be able to talk to people, tell them what the song’s about, or say something about the song title. I guess [songwriting] is my weakness. I’m okay at song-writing, but I have a hard time making stuff make sense. 

C: But what you have done is pretty good for English not even being your first language. His first language was Spanish--he didn’t learn English until he was 15.

F: Yeah, I was born and raised in Peru, I moved here when I was 15. I’m 22 now.

NAA: Does that heritage have any musical influence in your work?

F: Surprisingly, I don’t think it has any influence, even Spanish. Here’s the funny thing. When I first got here and started listening to music here, I thought the very last thing in the world, the last genre of music I’m gonna write music on would be country. But… [laughs]. It might have been the fact I was listening to a lot of English when I was growing up.

C: I also was not interested in country music, at least main-stream country music, until the summer before I met him. I started listening to Chris Stapleton. And he was starting to listen to Tyler Childers around the same time. We both didn’t have a background in it.

NAA: Colette, you mentioned sharing things about songwriting. What are each of your experiences with that?

C: My first memory of it, I was 5 or 6. I was in my room, and I had one of those tiny pianos, and I was just jamming on it, and I was free-style singing about bugs. It was weird. A song about bugs. And I said hmm, I’m pretty good at this. After that I realized that I could write down songs in a notebook. I remember doing that frequently throughout all of my childhood. As a teenager, I was really into it, writing a lot. It kept being a part of my life. It’s just a way of release for me.

F: I’ve been writing songs for like 10 months, 11 months now. It started when we met. It’s really impressive what she can do. She can write so fast, she’ll have a verse done in a minute, if that. For me, it takes me weeks to finish a song. I figure out the chords first on my guitar, the chord progression, the order and everything. And then I’ll put a melody over it, and then the last step is the words.

C: For me it’s different every time. I keep my song scraps, and I never delete anything that I start because I always end up coming back to it. It’s kind of like a puzzle. I’ll keep verses and rearrange them, maybe use them later on, recycle them for a different song down the road. 

NAA: So why Huntsville? What makes it the right place for your sound?

F: I feel like if you do music with the main goal of just getting famous or seeking attention, in a way you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Music is more about conveying something or helping people deal with certain things. As long as we are doing that for a small group of people, I feel like we accomplish what we are trying to do. Huntsville is a really good place to start. If it works and takes off then, great. I guess we’ll just see what happens.

NAA: What would make the Huntsville music scene better for you?

C: I feel like they need more leaders. To start events. Events that are not hard to play at. Giving more opportunity for up and coming artists to just get practice playing. It doesn’t have to be special, it could be in someone’s house. But it must also be advertised well, because then people will feel like they need to be personally invited. 

NAA: And finally, what are you working on right now?

F: We are constantly working on 2-3 songs at a time between the both of us. Just [recording] at home. We send the tracks to a friend I have. He produced our first single [Stowaway]. We haven’t been the best at keeping up with social media consistently, but we’re going to have to be pretty soon, because now that this song is finished, we’re going to have to promote.

C: We don’t have any deadlines. I’m working for my mom right now, he’s doing sales. We’re both just chillin, and recording as much as we can. The art just being there, that’s what I’m really invested in. It’s also fun to play.

This interview was recorded on 11/22/2024.

Listen

Instagram: @fabandletteband, @fabrizio_music_

Apple Music/Spotify: Fab and Lette

YouTube: @FabrizioBriceno7