The Army, The Navy Discover Treasure On Fake Brave Life
- Josh Kitchen
- 2 hours ago
- 10 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / June 12, 2026
“When we sort of unlocked that we could do it better together, and liked doing it together, that felt like discovering treasure for the first time,” Maia Ciambriello tells me of her and Sasha Goldberg's songwriting partnership. Ciambriello and Goldberg have known each other since childhood, but they've been writing music together since college under the name The Army, The Navy. Like members of a tactical unit, they've learned to anticipate each other's next move, and on their debut full-length record, Fake Brave Life, you can hear the treasure Ciambriello is talking about. While only 35 minutes long, the album feels like the culmination of a lifetime of musical and personal friendship—a document of trust, intuition, and collaboration that's worth more than gold.
Following their 2024 EPs Fruit for Flies and Sugar for Bugs, The Army, The Navy use Fake Brave Life to explore the vulnerable and confusing parts of ourselves, diving deep in an attempt to make sense of the strange ways we're expected to present as normal. “All this empty space / No colors, no shapes / No windows, no drapes / There’s barely paint on my skull,” they sing on “Walls,” examining how our minds hold entire worlds within the universe of our own existence. Elsewhere, on “Down Debbie/Reservoir,” the band showcases the genre-defying instincts that make them so exciting, weaving together elements of jazz, folk, and R&B into something wholly their own.
As we talk, Ciambriello tells me they're flying to New York the next day to see their faces on a billboard in Times Square. “I think we've had to fake a certain amount of bravery in switching avenues from songwriting being a creative outlet to songwriting being something that's actually put out into the world where people are listening and critiquing it,” Goldberg says. The album may be called Fake Brave Life, but there's nothing fake about the connection at its center. The Army, The Navy have created something deeply human, a record built on friendship, trust, and the courage to let the world in.
First off, thank you for your service. I think we have to start there. Talk to me about how you feel about this record coming out. I know it's probably been a long time coming.
Sasha:
We're so excited. Now we're getting down to the real time crunch, the nitty gritty. It feels really crazy that it's out. We just flew to New York. We have a billboard in Times Square that we're gonna go see, which is really.... we're gonna flip out then. But yeah, it's kind of the calm before the storm right now.
What I love about this record is it feels like the ultimate kind of celebration of your guys' relationship and how you write and make music together. I feel like there's so much of yourselves on the EPs, but when I hear the record and read your bio, I feel like I hear the love you guys have for each other and how you hold each other up as you navigate the world.
Sasha:
Totally. Yeah, I think there's so much. I mean, obviously there's so much of us on every record, but I think especially Fake Brave Life, we went into it wanting to back every single song fully. We have released songs before where we kind of made compromises that we really did not make on this record. I think it's so 100% us, and I'm glad that you can see that and hear that when you listen to it.
When you guys were in college, you'd write songs in different rooms and then come together. I know you guys have evolved in your songwriting, but if you can make it work that way, it shows a lot about the potential and what you guys can have in store for each other.
Maia:
Yeah, we both went to music school and lived in a small little dorm together. Since we were music students, our homework was like, “Write a song this week.” I think that was the best part about going to music school—learning how to write music and learning through trial and error.
Then when we sort of unlocked that we could do it better together and liked doing it together, that felt like discovering treasure for the first time. It also helped us because the reason we started writing music together was laziness, literally, because we didn't want to have to write two separate songs. We just wanted to write one together. That wasn't necessarily allowed, but I think our teachers saw that we had something that worked, and they didn't get in the way of that, which I really appreciate.
I love that, because if you got in the way of it, you're getting in the way of creativity and art for the sake of rules, and that's the whole point.
Sasha:
Exactly.
Your records have always been dreamy and kind of jazzy, but I feel like you really let your freak flags fly on this record. On “Down Debbie/Reservoir,” I wrote down so many genres and instruments that were jumping out to me—the wind chimes, the saxophone, the strings. It feels like you guys have really built something epic. There's a lot of grandeur.
Sasha:
I think we also just had the means this time. Since we had a little bit more budget, we got to hire string players. The more musicians you hire, it compounds and gets so expensive.
On the last two EPs, I think we had one guy who would play all the strings and make all the parts. This time we got to actually hire a quartet, and I think that just makes it all the more special. To really have people who are masters at their instrument get to play their one instrument versus having one producer who plays all of the instruments and is kind of a jack of all trades. They both work, and you can get amazing music either way, but for us this was really the right call for the album.
Maia:
It created a community around our album of such talented musicians and instrumentalists. I thought that was something really cool that we got to experience for the first time. Sasha and I are singers. We both play guitar and sing. It's really cool to get into the mind of someone whose thing is guitar, bass, or violin. It's fascinating to see how their brains work and how similar their processes are to ours.
You guys are singers, you're songwriters, and when you have this team of people who are pros at what they're doing, it gives you more time to lock in with the writing process and what you're trying to convey.
Maia:
Yes, 100%.
I noticed you guys wrote every single song together except “Crimson and Clay,” which you wrote with Libby Anderson. Talk to me about that.
Maia:
That is so funny that you bring that up. Libby is one of my best friends.
I remember we sent her “Crimson and Clay.” She does music and she's always been pretty involved in our music-making journey. I always share our stuff with her. I happened to send her that song, and she's such a brilliant writer. I think she heard that and felt so inspired, and just on her own volition, she wrote a verse. She wrote the last verse of that song.
I remember I was like, “Look at what Libby just wrote, Sasha,” and Sasha was like, “That's so good. We need to include that in the song.” We hadn't really noticed it yet exactly, and then she just wrote it. She understood the song so perfectly and said what we wanted to say. We were like, “This is so cool. We should absolutely have her be a part of this.”
That kind of collaboration is the best when it wasn't planned, and it completed something you didn't know the song needed.
Sasha:
And that's never been the case before. We've never done that before. That's the first time that's ever happened. It's a cool special nugget. I love that you saw that.
Maia:
Me too. She's very special and very talented. I feel very grateful that she gets to be a part of this.
Let's talk about the album title - Fake Brave Life. Three huge words. Obviously they all mean different things, but when you put them together, It feels like a courageous kind of treatise on where you guys are. Talk to me about that.
Sasha:
Yeah, I think the title really comes from the genesis of Maia and my songwriting.
Like we were saying, it started as something we did in the dorms. It was always something we did for creative expression. Then it became a homework assignment. But it was always really just an outlet. When we started posting our songs online, we kind of did it for fun. We never thought it was going to get to this point, especially not together.
I think we've had to fake a certain amount of bravery in switching avenues from songwriting being a creative outlet to songwriting being something that's actually put out into the world where people are listening and critiquing it. Putting your art into the world is an act of bravery. It takes courage. I think that's where that name came from—having to step into this role and this career.
It's really the “fake it till you make it” thing. That's what we do every time we get on stage. That's what we do every time we perform a song or write a song.
We also have a song called “Little Bug,” and at the end of it one of the lyrics is, “You know that bugs bite back and they play fake brave.” Then we kind of found “Fake Brave Life” from that. We loved those three words together because it sounded like something that already existed.
Maia:
Yeah, and then you get to tie in a song literally called “Little Bug,” which is our bug era. It gives you a little hint of what the album is going to be named. It's a little nod to, yes, we still have that kooky buggy side of us, but we're growing.
But you always have love for the bugs.
Maia:
Always have love for the bugs.
Do you still make wishes at 11:11?
Sasha:
Absolutely. We yell it through the house.
Maia:Yeah. I think it's a nice little thing to do. We're very superstitious. Knock on wood.
We're big into manifesting, or just speaking positively about our future and our lives and welcoming positive energy. Also welcoming the lows because you have to get low in order to go high. All of that stuff.
That's why when you guys see that billboard in Times Square, it's going to feel very surreal.
Sasha:
I can't believe it. I have no idea what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna scream. Maybe I'll feel nothing. I have no idea.
Talk to me about some of the lyrics on this record. “Walls”—the lyrics are so intense. I love that section where it's “all this empty space, no colors, no shapes...” Where does that come from?
Maia:
That song is so visual to me. For that song we really pictured our brains and imagined them as little houses. When you love someone and they love you—or tolerate you, whatever—they leave their mark on your skull. At first it's very clean. As you experience new things, new relationships and partnerships, it gets filled with memories.
When this particular person came into our lives, we were trying to tuck away all the mess. We were trying to tuck away our pettiness, our anger, our meanness. It was completely undecorated for them. We were trying to make a clean slate for them to ruin or make beautiful. That vulnerability of cleaning a space for someone in your mind and opening yourself up to be loved and to love somebody is very scary, especially when, like in the song, it goes poorly. I really picture the brain like an auditorium. A white, clean auditorium. An alabaster type vibe.
Sasha:
And we've written two songs about the inside of the brain.
Well, there's a lot to talk about.
Sasha:
It's a good visual, I think.
When you guys write, are there things you expect from each other? Are there things where you're like, “Oh, Maia will pull this in,” or “Sasha will finish that”? Or are you still learning from each other?
Maia:
Always still learning. I never have expectations. I'm never like, “Sasha needs to carry the weight in this way.”
Sasha:
Or, “Maia's gonna finish that.”
Maia:
It's really collaborative.
Sasha:
It's so collaborative. It's also very dependent on the song, the moment, the elements, whatever it is. There's zero rhyme or reason to anything, truthfully.
Maia:
Yeah, I agree.
Well, I think you can hear it on this record because it's so collaborative and organic. It's hard to imagine this record only coming from one of you. The fact that it comes from both of you makes it a record worth so many re-listens. I'm really excited for people to hear it.
Sasha:Thank you so much.
I know you guys are sandwich heads. Talk to me about the best sandwich in Los Angeles.
Sasha:
So this is fairly recent. When we first moved to LA, we lived in West Hollywood. We just moved to Silver Lake about two or three months ago, so we're exploring this whole new world.
We just went to Bub and Grandma's for the first time. They have a sandwich called the Pick the City. You get to pick your meat and your cheese. Turkey, add sprouts—unbelievable. Highly recommend.
Sasha:Oh, Bodega Park chopped cheese. Awesome.
Maia:Anything from Bodega Park. Oh my god.
Chopped cheese is extremely underrated, and not everybody knows what it is.
Sasha:It's unbelievable.
Maia:I had no idea how good it was.
Sasha:
I am so excited to go on tour, go to Philly, and go to Angelo's for the best Philly cheesesteak in the whole entire world. I'm so hyped.
Yeah, it's going to be insane. I think Geno's over on Riverside in Sherman Oaks has the classic Italian beef. I've never been there.
Sasha:I've heard of that.
Which steers me to my last line of questioning: the tour. You guys are going to be in New York at Rough Trade on the 18th, right?
Sasha:
Yes, Rough Trade on the 18th.
Maia:I'm so excited for that show. It's a record store show, and I'm excited to play the new music in a more intimate setting with people who really back us. I feel like it's going to be a room full of people who really support us. It's almost like a homecoming.
Sasha:A home away from home. It's also going to be the first time we're really playing the new music. It's just us, so it's going to feel like our roots.
Finally, which one of you is the Army and which one of you is the Navy?
Maia:
Okay, if we were to answer it point blank: I'm the Navy, Sasha's the Army. Why? There's no reason. It just gives that energy. But there are days where I'm the Army and she's the Navy. There's never a complete answer.
We used to always ask people what they thought. We wouldn't tell them. Then we realized there's no rhyme or reason behind it, so why are we making it a secret?
Sasha:
We used to try to find a bit behind it, but there literally isn't. There's no rhyme or reason to a lot of the stuff we do. It's purely vibe-based.
Is there room in the van for the Air Force and the Coast Guard?
Maia:
Of course. Of course. Do you want to sign up?
