About
Brise du Sud formed when guitarist David Heer and vocalist Deborah Steinberg met in San Francisco in 2023 and discovered a shared love of French music and culture. They decided to team up to share this iconic music with audiences. Accordionist Brad Friedman joined the group in 2025, after he and David met while playing on a mutual friend's album.
Deborah Steinberg studied classical piano growing up and began to focus on singing as a young adult. From 2002-2007, while living in Bordeaux, France, she released two albums of original folk songs under the name Deborah on Bordeaux label Odette Production in collaboration with French singer-songwriter Jon Smith. They toured in France, Spain, and England and played many concerts in Bordeaux. On returning to her native San Francisco, Deborah sang and wrote lyrics for the rock trio Backlit. She has sung alto in Conspiracy of Venus, a San Francisco a cappella vocal ensemble for treble voices, since 2008. By day, she is a freelance book editor.
David Heer was inspired to play guitar when he was 14 and heard the Beatles' Abbey Road for the first time. A couple of years later, he co-founded a rock band with some high school friends called W.C. TOAN (“We Couldn’t Think Of A Name”). The friends did eventually think of a better name and became Equinox. In grad school, David played lead guitar for the UC Berkeley MBA rock band Dow Jones and the Industrials. While working as an intern in a Belgian bank, David jammed at night with local musicians in the bars of the Brussels nightlife neighborhood of Ixelles. After business school, David took a 35-year hiatus from music to pursue a venture capital career. When he retired, he returned to music, playing guitar for the rock/blues/country music band Heat Transfer Theorists and bass guitar for House. However, he soon zeroed in on traditional French music, which was inevitable once he met Deborah.
Brad Friedman got his first accordion at 17 while studying piano performance with Professor William Heiles at the University of Illinois. He has continued playing both instruments whenever he can since moving to San Francisco to work in the biotech industry. In addition to playing with Brise du Sud, he is an accompanist and youth band leader at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. Brad believes that resonant and rhythmic sound waves conduct spiritual energy between performers and listeners.