“‘Mars and Me’ is about the tension we feel between Venus and Mars within ourselves,” says the Mount Pleasant resident. “When one’s self is truly illuminated, we see beauty and horror.”

The track certainly explores two vastly different musical ideas. “Mars and Me” opens on a lovely but anxious note, with minor-key arpeggios buttressing Anway’s soft vocals. The band doesn’t settle into a mood, though. Before long, drums and strings propel the song into another atmosphere.

“Mars and Me” continues Anway’s partnership with producers Tommy Sherrod and Mike Okusami. The three worked together on Brushes’ debut release, Whatever, Again. Since then, they have recorded over 20 songs together and grown into a live quintet that includes guitarist/keyboardists Matt Henderson and Nick DePrey.

“Mars and Me” appears on Grizzly Beach, a split EP with Boston band Today Junior. Unlike Brushes’ more nuanced approach, Today Junior is all about the fist-pumpers. Grizzly Beach features their song, “Lee’s Anthem,” a shout-along ode to believing in yourself.

Once again, the contrast in styles is deliberate.

“One of the things I love most about Today Junior is that they write songs to make you feel good,” says Anway. “Their music connects me to Boston, where I grew up, and to many of the surf themes that have become fundamental to how I write songs.”

Anway and Brushes met Today Junior over the summer and the two bands immediately struck up a friendship. Aside from working on Grizzly Beach together, the two bands co-wrote a song that will appear on a full-length Brushes album out next year.

In the meantime, Brushes and Today Junior plan to embark on a mini-tour of the Northeast U.S. and drop a vinyl release of Grizzly Beach in early 2017.

Brushes, Today Junior and Homeshake Monday play Nov. 28 at Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe.

Disc Image – Icheb
Wes Swing – In a Station of the Metro
Soccer Team – Mental Anguish Is Your Friend
Fat Kneel – Hoarse Siren
Tony Kill – Being Considered [EP]
brushes – Mary
Tone – Bright Angel Falls
Rex Riot – Birds and Bees Feat. Misun
Melanie’s Magic Mellotron – Parasite
Wytold – Summersaults
Jail Solidarity – Lights Out
Joshua Rich – Rain
airøspace – Ikigami, the Ultimate Limit (prod. Budamonk)
Stephen Allen Kochersperger – The Quest
ᴇʟᴅʀ. – Glitter Gloo
Pax Musicana – Sixteen Nights
Fort Knox Five – Swinging On a Rhyme (Instrumental)
Smoke n’ Mangos – Birds
STROMA – Not My Chair
Tomás Pagán Motta – Love In Her Lies

Anway says “Mary” springs from a minor revelation. “The song is sort of a resolution for me,” says the musician, 26. “I may not have things figured out, but it’s a problem that ain’t going away.”

Better known for his guitar playing in several D.C. bands — including lounge punks Baby Bry Bry and the Apologists — Anway conceived Brushes as an outlet for material that didn’t fit his main projects.

He collaborated with Maryland producers Tommy Sherrod and Mike Okusami to refine Brushes’ forthcoming debut EP, Whatever, Again. The three began work last spring and continued through the winter.

“I wanted the record to take on its own direction, so we experimented a lot during the recording and mixing process,” says Anway, who lives in Friendship Heights. “We really allowed the thing time to grow into itself over the better part of a year.”

That patience translates to a dynamic seven-song EP that explores fuzzy rockers and slow burns alike. The conclusive “Mary” is the final track.

While the tune’s lyrics seem to address an inscrutable partner, Anway offers another interpretation: it’s “a letter to your mother,” he says.

Whatever, Again arrives in April on local cassette label Odessa Madre.

Brushes plays March 12 at the Giant Peach in D.C.