Good to die artist Brokaw interview is up
Brokaw interview
1. 1st off tell us how Brokaw came to be as a band?
The four of us have played together in various combinations for thirty years... Thirty years. Man that's a long time. Mike and Rich had a long term project called 'Magnaaflux' that I played with on and off- mostly off at first- and had released quite a bit of material, toured, and just couldn't seem to get a break. Nothing seemed to gel for us. On the cusp of calling it a day after about ten years of what felt to me like defeat after defeat we decided to ask Rick- who I've played with since a teenager- to join. We figured Mike could focus on vocals, we'd write a bunch of new songs reflective of our mostly divergent tastes in music, and see where it led us. It was a real breath of fresh air and we found a great deal of freedom working out our individual parts as opposed to playing something prefab. It's an evolving process of course, you get better and find a focus as time goes on but we all felt good about the sounds we were making immediately.
2. The sound is so interesting it a mix of what I would call OXBOW, The Rollins Band and Surgery(NYC). A true mix of Noise rock, 90's Indie and Post Hardcore.. Were did all these elements come into one band?
Of these bands I've only passing familiarity with Oxbow. The mixture of influences isn't as obvious as Brokaw saying 'oh lets sound like this and this and this band.' There is none of that going on. We came into the project with our various influences and backstories and try to utilize all of it. If we sound like anything out there it could only be explained as a coincidence. I've often had a difficult time with my own solo stuff and Asva as well, people commenting on what else it sounds like... Drone? Fuck that. I'm really not paying any attention to what anybody else is up to.
3. I've not heard of the label " Good to die" before how did you come to work with them?
You'll be hearing quite a lot from GTD... Nik is really working hard to get the label off the ground, has some really great bands, is supportive, friendly, honest (rarest quality I've come across when it comes to labels), and is a fan as opposed to being a musician. The guy isn't into it for himself, he's into it because he loves the music, wants to hear it, and thinks other people might like to opportunity to listen as well. Nik gives back.
He's also my neighbor.
4.Coming From Seattle you come out of the Post Grunge/ Hardcore scenes. What is Seattle like now in the days were Subpop are not Kings of all things Indie?
It still rains a lot. Sub Pop won't return my call. It's the same as it ever was except the bands... There are many more really good local bands playing these days then there was back then and much less conventional sounding crap going on. There were a handful of great Seattle bands from the 90's. No more than that. Now there are hundreds of really amazing bands and various projects in Seattle that are truly original, unafraid of who they may or may not appeal to. The departure of the major labels and the potential (although rare) for big money was a huge step towards this creative leap.
5. Every time I listen to " Interiors" I long for the 90's Noise Rock days labels like Touch and Go, Amrep and SST am I crazy or do Brokaw embody these sounds
No your not crazy but those three labels output doesn't begin to explain Brokaw. Our sound is distinctive because of a vast influx of musical influences. Rap, drum and bass, classic rock, black and death metal, grindcore, vintage dub, R and B, in my own case contemporary classical and noise, new wave... tons of ideas are spawned through so much independent listening by the four of us. We all write this music, we're inspired to accept each others takes on whatever it is we're working on. We let it flow. In the writing process we jam, we're not so serious to become annoying to one another, we drink a lot of beer, joke around. Once we fall into something that sounds good we'll start getting down to really writing something distinctive... if something we're working on sounds derivative in any way it gets dropped and we move on.
6. Will Brokaw be touring off this album at all?
Booking Europe and United Kingdom right this moment...
7. Was it a amazing to record in the Studio Albini built and to have the man behind (Pelican and Russian Circles) sounds Greg Norman. This was success waiting to happen for a Noisey , Dirgy unit like Brokaw..
Is this a question? Yes it was great. Electrical is built for work unlike any other studio I've tracked in. You eat, sleep, breath, your project. Someday I'd like to do a month lockout in Studio B, record a solo project or Asva, buried in there. Brokaw will be recording our second full length there I think.
8. If there was one band you could all collab with who would it be and why?
I can't speak for the others but collaboration is already what Brokaw is all about... adding someone? Honestly I don't think Brokaw- as a four piece consisting of widely divergent musicians and tastes- would be open to much, it might be overkill... It's already a clusterfuck of ideas. Personally speaking I'm in the midst of a recording with Joel Phelps that we're calling 'Thine' and just finished an album with Philippe Petit. Most of the Asva stuff has been to some degree collaborative (to a great degree with Toby Driver) although I've written the lions share of the material. There has been some talk of a union between myself, James Plotkin, and Steven Hess... We'll see how that goes.
9. Whats the bands thoughts on the current Indie music world. Is it a new down for independent artist or are they hey days really gone?
If I can scrape by through music these days anybody can... Brokaw will do just fine in the long term. It's all about working at what you love doing and keeping at it. Actually I think it's easier now than it used to be because your only relying on yourself, your own work ethic. If you slack there's nobody to blame but yourself. Keep creating, keep putting it out there, and if your any good at all somebody will notice and buy a record. There is no need (although it would be nice) to sell a shitload of product (I hate this term but will use it anyway) if your expenditures are few. I'd rather make music that I know is quality and hopefully sell it to the relatively small group of people that like whatever it is I do and in the process keep my reputation as not being a sell-out than write some garbage and try to hawk it to a million unthoughtful, ungrateful, forgetful, twats.
10. Do you like the Digital age of (Audio, ZInes and Promotion) of do you miss the Record store, Print zines and real college radio push for promotion?
I'm involved in both worlds and like both just fine.
11. Were do you see future Brokaw releases heading will they be dark and heavier or open and experimental ?
I don't think of Brokaw as being a 'dark' band at all (I've been in some mighty dark bands!) and far from experimental so I'd have to say 'no' on both counts. The new stuff we're writing is heavy, for the most part very fast paced, complex... We'll sound like whatever it is we sound like.
12. Do you as a band feel things like Facebook, Bandcamp, Reverbnation are all the pr tools a band needs or a proper website is more important to get the fans to one location for support?
I don't know. The networking thing is something that as of yet has escaped my grasp and I don't have a proper website. It seems like combining all of it would be the best approach to gaining a more substantial audience. Hopefully this will be something Brokaw and myself will be able to put together soon.
13, Does Brokaw get a large dose of metal fans as your music is so in your face and aggressive at time without being what I would call " Metal"? I can see you being a major crossover sound?
It seems like there is a metal contingent interested in our music so there is strong possibility of crossover though I'm not sure where that crossover originates from. Maybe the in-your-face thing reflects a sort of sadistic nature, a bent that grabs lots of people no matter the genre. I mean look at NWA, Public Enemy, James Brown... That music crossed over, metalheads accepted it because of its shear physicality. It was undeniable. Brokaw is in no way that far removed from metal- metal might be the starting point- so yeah, crossover seems a likely byproduct of what we do from both a recording standpoint and in live settings as well.
14. Thanks for the time any closing thoughts here..
Thank you!
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