Ahead of their summer appearances at Live on the Wye and Nozstock Festival, we caught up with Broken Fires.
The seven-piece alternative pop band formed in early 2014 and have recently released their debut album ‘Silhouettes’.
Taking inspiration from the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Weezer and Arcade Fire, we found out more about the band’s beginnings, festival hopes and plans for 2015 with Tom Stephens.
Can you tell us more about the band’s formation?
We are all best mates and have played music together since we were about 14 I think! But Broken Fires was formed by Gareth, Justin & myself in January 2014. We had written a couple of songs that initially we were just really doing as a little demoing project. It all escalated from there pretty quickly. We wrote ‘Out of the Woods’ and recorded a demo in Justin’s house and began to think maybe there is something in this that we should take beyond the depths of his garage.
Which bands/artists are you listening to at the moment?
Right now, I am listening to a bit of The Menzingers. As a band we can’t get enough of a Welsh hardcore rockers En Garde whose album is absolutely awesome. I am also loving the new Pale Angels record ‘Imaginary People’. So I suppose quite a lot of stuff that sits outside our genre!
For those who haven’t checked out your album release yet, which track would you recommend to kick things off?
I think kick it off at the start. ‘Elephants’ is a song we are really proud of lyrically and musically. I suppose it’s a bit more straightforward than the rest of the record, but it’s still prog-pop just with the biggest chorus we could muster.
How do you go about the writing process for your tracks?
Usually me or Gareth will come together with Justin and share an initial idea. Sometimes it’s pretty much fully formed, like it was with ‘Brick.Mortar.Stone’ or ‘Flesh & Blood’, but other times there are tracks that we work on as a three and take an initial melody or guitar lick usually somewhere we don’t expect it to go – like ‘Elephants’ or ‘Out of the Woods’. I think the great thing about writing as a three is that we have a clear shared idea of what we want Broken Fires to sound like and so there is lots of direction, but we still have just enough arguments to keep it interesting.
Out of all the places you’ve recorded, where is the most random place you’ve found yourself?
There is a lot of choice! I think the oddest place for me would have to be the en suite bathroom of my Battersea flat. Three of us crammed into that room to try to lay down a demo for ‘Elephants’. I sang the vocal in the bathroom facing the mirror. It’s a really weird experience singing whilst looking at your own shower and next to the toilet…
If you could perform at any festival this summer, where would it be and why?
I think it would have to be Glastonbury. There is such an incredible atmosphere at that festival. Plus I love that feeling you get when you come back from a weekend there and feel like you deserve a full English because every limb aches with the shooting post-party pain.
What are your plans for the rest of 2015?
We have lots of exciting stuff in the pipeline, including plans for a special film project and a follow-up release later in the year. Plus as many shows as we can fit in. We are doing Clwb Ifor Bach 29th May, Hoxton Underbelly 30th May and a few small festivals including Live on the Wye and Nozstock. Come say hello!
Anything else you wish to add?
Just a big thanks to everyone who has, and is currently downloading and sharing the record! It’s pretty simple for us really. We just want to record good pop songs and get them out to as many people as we can. I’m really happy now we have made a start!
You can keep up-to-date with Broken Fires via:
Website
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