The fresh-faced players in Brothers at Sea better start thinking about quitting their day jobs, that is, if any of them have even started them yet. All five of the Orange County, CA musicians are under 20, but have more-than perfected their blend of uplifting, buoyant, guitar-driven melodies at a time most of us would be stressing neck deep in how to understand college life, all-nighters and the wealth of newly-afforded freedom that comes with it all.

Having just formed the BAS moniker back in April of 2009, effectively turning the page on a previously-named band and adjusting their musical focus, this quintet has already surpassed 25,000 song downloads on their debut This Is A Redemption Melody EP, that’s been heartily compared to The Fray, Switchfoot and Jimmy Eat World. It might be worth a mention here that BAS have never played a show outside of their native CA. The band’s guitarist, Landon Maslyn gushes when he talks of sharing a stage with Switchfoot, as it would be “really [be] shooting for the stars.”

Truth be told, Redemption Melody’s production (thanks to ZenSeven’s Kyle Black) harks at something greater than simply just shooting-for-the-stars territory. Brothers At Sea are by no means your local basement band peddling hand-screened tee-shirts and CD-R demos; the music on focus tracks “For Being Brave” and “The Atlantic” are huge, elevating numbers that remind us of a musical force well beyond these young player’s years. “It felt like the record was the one we had been waiting to release since we started" comments drummer Hayden Coplen.

On “The Atlantic,” leader Carson Leith tells a tale of loyalty amidst the musical (and the song’s thematic) growth of brother Jason Leith’s chapel churning keyboard work and Coplen’s punch-you-to-attention drumming. It might be oozing with radio-friendly appeal, but for once, this might not be a bad thing. At the EP’s gooey core sits standout “On My Shoulder” where singer Leith blaringly inflects “broken hearts and broken homes, turning dust back into gold, we found ourselves!”

Though the members of Brothers at Sea might not have to climb that tall of a mountain to turn said dust into gold (their songs aren’t too far away), the beauty of this young OC band is that they seem to have honestly overcome the young-band pipedream, that generally reads: who needs an education when you can be a rockstar? All the members seem to collectively want to learn by exploring the surrounding cultural atmosphere of what a band like theirs has created and explore ‘the art of the pop song.’

“We are trying to make something more than just music, believing it’s a celebration, an inspiration, an art. We believe in pursuing something bigger than ourselves [and though] we can’t promise success, we can promise sincerity,” says Coplen.