10.06.08
It’s not for the cock, it’s for chatting Brontide style
Brontide Interview
Brontide are a new band who, although all originating from various different places, reside in Brighton and create a stomping, mathy web of complex guitar lines, intricate bass stabs and monstrous drums. They may have only been going “seriously” as a band for a few months, but have already carved out their own particular sound and all the members have experience from various other projects. Drummer William Bowerman, formerly of (sadly fairly short lived) Nottingham band, I Was A Cub Scout, was kind enough to answer some of my questions via email after a failed meet up. Consume the words…
How did you actually start as a band? Did the three of you know each other already? Also, how did you get the sound that you have today, was it quite a natural progression or did you sit down and decide exactly how you wanted to sound?
Timmy and I (William) have been friends since I was 3 and he was 4, as we live in the same village and our parents are pretty good friends. On my 7th birthday and Tim’s 8th, we decided to start playing instruments. I started playing the drums and Tim picked up the guitar, 14 years later, we’re still going. We have played in bands together in some form or another since then and I can speak for both of us when I say this is the best! It was around Christmas 2007 that Timmy and I decided we wanted to start another band together. This started off as a real tech 2 piece called “King F*cking Kong” but it didn’t get past 2 ridiculous songs. We started making post rock with loops in his room but then added in the math influences that we have, and the tech aspects of the to KFK songs we wrote. We realised we needed a bassist, and we both decided that getting Nathan in would be a great idea. I met Nathan when I moved to Brighton for college. He was my flatmate, and we just so happened to like exactly the same stuff. When I moved from Brighton, we stayed real close. Timmy and Nath met when we were all down there at an IWACS show, and got on really well! When Nath was added the equation, Brontide’s sound got alot more melodic as he prefers paying melodies on his bass as apposed to just root notes etc, and this is why we chose him. He can literally play anything!!
What would you say are your main influences? To me, there’s a bit of almost everything in there, from mathy instrumental to almost metal parts which I find really interesting. What bands would you say have helped shape your sound and how do you pull the influences together?
When you start a new band, you always sound like other bands because you haven’t had the time yet to develop your own sound completely. We get compared to Battles because of all the loops and Russian Circles as there’s 3 of us doing instrumental music. We’re not ashamed of this as they are definitely 2 bands that have influenced us with this, but we draw influences in from a lot more different sources. For example Tim takes influence from bands like Glassjaw which you may not hear too much of in the music, but has had an effect on him. In a few of the songs I play drum n bass and hip hop beats as it just adds an extra colour that you wouldn’t hear under some heavy chords. Bands we have toured with like Youthmovies, Ths Town Needs Guns, Rolo Tomassi, Minus The Bear influence us the most though.
How do you think Brontide compares to other bands you’ve been part of in the past? Is it a progression from previous things or something completely new that you felt you couldn’t have done before?
It’s hard to say as we have only been doing this seriously for a few months. Nathan was in an amazing post hardcore band called Pictures, who are pretty hard to top, Tim plays solo on a project called The Petty Thief which is very mellow ambient guitar music and my last band (I Was A Cub Scout) was an electro pop band, so it’s pretty new for all of us really. I think that has made this all the more interesting though, as Tim can bring in a lot of atmospheric parts, Nath has a good idea of what techier heavier parts work and I know what would work on making it a bit catchy with some hooks in. So yes, in a strange way I guess it is a progression, some hybrid of all we have done in the past. We have all toured separately in our various bands, and so it has left us with a lot more confidence in ourselves as musicians, and I think to play instrumental music, you have to really believe in yourself musically, both individually and collectively, and I know I can rely on the other 2 to play amazingly and write amazing parts.
What other new bands are you enjoying at the moment?
There is a band called Adebisii Shank from Ireland who are unbelievable! I got sent their CD and we were blown away. To be honest, we always end up listening to the Lil’ Wayne album “Carter III” all the time!
What are your aspirations as a band and where do you hope to be in, say, three years time?
Who knows!! I mean when we started this it was side projects for all of us and something we thought sounded cool, but people’s reactions have been a lot better than we expected. We realise that instrumental music is no where near as accessible as say indie or pop rock, but in a perfect world I think we would like to be touring most months and start filling venues off our own back. But to be honest, we are having so much fun at the moment, we aren’t thinking about the future at all.
What other projects are you guys a part of? I know you (William) are a session drummer- how’s that and how does that work around Brontide? Is there anything else any of you have going on that we should look out for?
Yeah, my main job is session drumming and it does sometimes get in the way, but we can normally book shows around those dates, for example, I am on tour in October, and we have no Brontide shows, but first thing in November, we have a lot more show and I have no session work. Nath works 9-5 which can get in the way a bit, though they’re pretty good with letting him have time off, and Tim is Collingham’s finest gardener and works in a bar where he chooses when he wants to work. It’s good like this though as all our eggs aren’t in 1 basket. The session stuff is the main other “project” for me at the moment, though I am working with Pete Devereux (ex Artful Dodger) on some dance/rock cross over tracks, and starting up something with Davo of Pull Tiger Tail pretty soon. Tim has his solo stuff going on. He has loads of new songs, most of which he is drumming over too, it’s incredible to see. And Nath has a new band on the go with 2 othes members of his old band pictures, which is “Fear Before” esque Hardcore I think, can’t wait to hear it.
What do you think of the music industry and scene right now? There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions about this, some say it’s healthier than ever while others seem to think it’s getting harder for bands to break through and when they do, they can be just as quickly forgotten, what do you think?
Personally I have been affected by the state of the music industry at the moment, and the fact that bands have one shot at getting big once signed. My old band was dropped from our label after our first album as we weren’t selling as many records as the bigger artists on there. It seems now that if you don’t get “big” off your first album, the public will not really pay much attention to anything else you do. Obviously there are exceptions, but the majority of time, it seems like the first album is your only shot. With illegal downloading on the up, the bigger indies and major labels are being a lot tighter with their roster, and churning out the same formula over and over again because they know it works. This is hard for bands trying to do something a bit different, and is resulting in a hell of a lot of Oasis’ and Amy Winehouses.
What’s your favourite part of being in a band- writing, performing gigs/touring or recording?
I can’t speak for the others, but for me it is gigs and touring. The reason I started being in bands was to play live and perform in front of a lot of people. Long tours are the best. Setting off and knowing you are going to be gigging every night for a month really excites me, I can’t wait until Brontide have the chance to get touring properly….lets hope it is not too far away!
What’s the plan from here with the band? Do you plan to record/release/tour?
We are going to continue booking shows and play live as much as possible as we are learning more and more about ourselves as a band after every gig. We are releasing a song we recorded called “Crunk Anansie” on a compilation cassette for Holy Roar Records which we are excited about as Hoy Roar is label we respect very much. We’re hoping to record an EP later in the year, and look for someone to put it out. We’re just going to take it all one step at a time, have fun, and see what happens.
Finally, what would you say are the most important records/books/films to you?
I think Tim became inspired after reading Sting’s autobiography! Superman I & II are the most important films to me. It always makes me feel amazing inside after watching it, and the music makes me feel like I can do anything, which is how I believe one should live their life.
On that life affirmingly up lifting note, we’ll stop now. Check Brontide out on myspace and goodbye. For now.