Brian Ember shares the bill with Mara & the Dead Batteries at Best Video Film & Cultural Center on Sat., Feb. 17. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10.

Classically-trained composer and singer, Brian Ember, has been making music since singing “You Are So Beautiful” as a toddler in the bathtub. A musical chimera, his love of rock and glam sat side-by-side with doo-wop, Mozart, Bach and contemporary composers like Györy Ligeti and John Corigliano. Mara and the Dead Batteries (former Western Estates) use electric cello and looping pedal to tell an emotional story that hits the viewer in the sweet spot of their preverbal senses.

With a host of works for string quartet, symphony orchestra and choirs under his belt, Brian Ember started the string quartet-powered rock band, The Tet Offensive, in New York City; fusing his love for counterpoint and horsehair strings with theatrics and thrashing.

Ember left the strings in the background for his first solo endeavor, “The New Chastity,” a full-on loungy, soulful baroque pop album that takes inspiration from late ‘70s musicians like Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, Eric Carmen and Electric Light Orchestra to deliver a deeply personal record about divorce and lost love.

His follow-up EP, “Thank You,” and second LP, “Get Ready to Hate Me” are coming soon.

Whether it be tongue-in-cheek covers or distinctive originals, Mara & the Dead Batteries draw on influences ranging from classical to shape-note to nu-metal to express a unique point of view.