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They returned to the States in June to record their second album. Brakes’ Nashville experience was, says Marc, “really cool, slightly strange. The city’s got such a reputation and the studio we were recording in was right in the middle of what they call Music Row, the home of country pop. It was interesting for a slightly indie-punk English band recording in the middle of it” “The album sounds great. We wanted this to be more of a stand-alone album, the last one was a bit sporadic, some of the songs were really short. We wanted to do something a bit more standardised. I’m not sure how we managed it, but this album has somehow ended up even shorter than the first one!” “It’s going to be easier for people to get, it’s more pop. Some of the songs are a bit more relaxed and, lyrically, for Eamon, there is a lot of stuff about the war and terrorism, and problems in the world, and the way that religion has connected with a lot of those problems. I guess being in America influenced that in a way” Brakes’ forthcoming Cathouse show is the inaugural Glasgow gig in the new Jack Daniel’s sponsored JD Set season. The gig will be a sort of homecoming for Marc, who moved to the city earlier this year to be with his girlfriend who’s at university here. “I moved up in May, but the band’s been touring so much I’ve hardly had time to get to know the place. I’ve not even been to many venues - we’ve played King Tut’s and I’ve been to the QMU, so playing at the Cathouse will be good. I always wanted to live up here, Glasgow is a great city. Every time we came up here on tour I always liked playing Glasgow” Now you have more time, you’re bigger, more experienced and have a bit more money – does that mean the second album is going to be completely different? No, we recorded it in exactly the same way. We added some keyboards, hammond, piano, there might be some strings and a few horns. It’s kinda a bit more romantic, the songs are a bit more poppy, more friendly. More listenable I guess. So when will we be seeing the new material? Hopefully we want the album to come out in October but the powers that be might think that’s not a good idea, but we should get a single out at least and hopefully a tour this year. Brakes did an interview with Sound Of Violence back in January. Click the link to read a rough translation. There's a couple of interviews on The Great Escape Festival page. From the Brakes forum: I had the pleasure of chatting to Alex for my website stokesound.com it was prior to the gig at the Underground in Stoke, check it out - you can download it for free in mp3 form, also check out our exclusive backstage pics. Go to this page and scroll down to find it. It's Saturday 22nd of April, I'm at The Underground with Alex who's the drummer from Brakes. How are you mate, you alright? Yeah very good. You're here tonight doing an early gig, I've just seen on the wall that you're on at half past 8 and then there's a club night after. Why are you doing such an early gig? I think it's because of that club night. It was our singer's home-town show last night so we had a bit of a party or whatever. Bearing up today quite well I think. Probably better than the rest of the band. 'Cos they had a bit too much did they. Yeah I think they went over the top slightly. You've just come off a tour with The Editors and before that you were on tour with Belle & Sebastian. So you must've had some good times this year already and now you're doing your own tour. We worked out we've done about 60 this year, pretty much played constantly. Belle & Sebastian and Editors as well, the way it's set up, you just walk in there and everything's just done - this big production tour and you're just tagging on the back of it. And catering and all this kind of thing, you're not paying for any of it, you feel like you're on a big tour, but it's not actually your responsibility, you just get up and play. We never got a chance to play venues like that other than like festivals, to play to crowds that size it was pretty cool, you get used to 2 or 3,000 a night, then you start playing your own shows again and it's like 130, 140, ah shit. You're promoting your new single All Night Disco Party, can you tell us a little bit about that. Well we did put it out before but the label felt it didn't really get where they wanted it to go (sometime last year) Just felt like fleshing out the album a bit longer, as you do... Graham Sutton had worked with Sea Power on a few things and they like him as a mix engineer and they thought he could do a good job of the remix, and he did. We sent it to a few different people, FC Kahuna and Matthew Herbet appear on it... we just felt like getting a few different versions of it together and just seeing what happened... I don't think it's done too well in the charts, midweek it was about 70 or 80 something like that. If you're going to care about the charts, you've just got to spend the money, do massive advertising, just have a thing like a band like Editors have, a set up in that way, and Rough Trade for me, I don't think they're about that. Rough Trade's such a lush label... I think they do bother more with slow burners. Exactly. They definately care about you as an artist, and you as a band, and look after you, and what you wanna do, they care, they actually ask you, and they carry it out. Me and Tom with Soft Parade were on BMG for a long time and every decision was just a big fight, a big argument, it was pretty full on. But it's great to be on Rough Trade. Just talk about the album Give Blood, you do a Johnny Cash/June Carter cover, Jackson. Usually Eamon the singer just brings a copy of the tune and says look, I think we should play this, and we just learn it. That tune, I listened to the original once just to listen to it, and there were some weird timing bits in it, so I was like let's hear it again and after that never listened to it again and went and did our version of it, just completely like blind almost, roughly remembering the spirit of it but basically doing our own version of it. I didn't want to do a carbon copy of it. Those duet songs, obviously the people that we did the duets with on the record can't be there, they're not part of the band, they're just guests, certain gigs, if the audience are up for it and drunk enough, some person, usually a girl... we get a girl up on stage drunk out of her mind singing along with us... there's a chance it might happen every night. Have you seen Walk The Line the film. No I haven't, I'm really scared of flying. We had it on the way back from New York on the plane and I just couldn't handle it, I was just asleep, I had to go to sleep, I took a pill and had a sleep, I couldn't handle the flight. But if I'd been awake I would've watched it. Your website is www.etc... Was brakes.com taken? Most times if you type Brakes into google you get all kinds of car things, things to do with cars... brakesbrakesbrakes is kind of like a mantra as well... we went to South By Southwest as Brakes but we were supposed to be changing the name to brakesbrakesbrakes 'cos in America there's a band called The Brakes, who were like "we'll sue you" and all this kind of stuff. What was that like, South By Southwest. It was great, amazing. Austin is just outrageous, crazy, Texas man. This is like mental. You think you've got an idea of what it's like and you go out there and it's like crazy. I knew it was going to be bands everywhere and every single bar down the street, bands playing but no-one told me you will meet some of the lushest people in the world. They really are cool, they're wicked. Just had a look at your rider... What's actually yours. This is the Brakes rider... We've got cans of coke, bagels, bananas, lots of fruit, Jack Daniels... Yeah the old Jack... You see we ask for a bunch of stuff and it's whether it turns up or not. This is kind of standard band fare, sandwiches and fruit, chocolate and crisps. To be honest I don't demand anything actually, I never expect anything, I'm not one of these "gimme stuff" kind of people. I go and buy something if I really want it. I expect some waters and beers... You're playing a show, you wanna have alcohol, you wanna have waters for the stage, you wanna have towels, you wanna get one meal, this stuff is nice, just to munch on... we'll take the fruit to the van and have it in the morning and things like that. But most of it just gets left. That's healthy for me looking out there... Sometimes you don't get any fruit, you just get chocolate bars, sweets and crisps. Are you sticking round after your gig because Captain are playing later. I've read a review of them, where was it... might've been the NME... (soundchecking in background) This is a great tune, this is their single. I think we're driving to Manchester tonight, we're playing Manchester tomorrow so we're driving there... They're stuck in Manchester, I just spoke to the tour manager, they've been broken into and had some of their stuff nicked. That's the lowest thing. My mate engineered the first Soft Parade record, he's into vintage gear, old amps and old guitars worth thousands each, proper nice gear... a few years ago he had his van broken in and took the lot, or took the van I think... Alex quotes from Pulp Fiction (I think) "You don't mess with a man's automobile". You don't mess with a band's gear... It's wrong, especially if it's another band doing it, but anyone nicking gear, don't mess with a band's equipment, it's just wrong. 'Cos most bands haven't got shit, they haven't got any money... you lose stuff, you lose it. So 2006, quarter of the way in, what are your plans for the rest of the year? Well we're going to do another record, we're going to - this is pretty much an exclusive - we're going to Nashville or Memphis, somewhere like that, sorting out the exact studio details and stuff now... we went to do a day of recording with this guy, Stuart Sykes, he's done like Cat Power and stuff, when we were at South by Southwest, and we did a day with him. It was cool, it was really great recording out in America so I think we're going to do the next record there and just see what happens. Maybe mix it out there and hopefully get it out September/October. Have you got some of the songs written now. Oh yeah there's a bunch written, we've also got a Soft Parade record coming out which we're finishing just after this tour, we're going to have a few days off then go and finish that in Oxford, bosh them out, see what happens really, see if anyone picks them up. So what are the best things about being in a band? Not having to do stupid jobs... you do have to do stupid things, not something like this, this is chilled out, but certain interviews that are mental, people you have to deal with, you have to be nice to because that's their job, things you "have" to do... but they're so minimal when you compare it to most jobs people do, it's pretty lucky being in a band. What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't playing drums in a band? Probably playing piano in some other band. Both my parents are teachers so probably trying to avoid being a teacher. My Dad teaches English to foreigners and my Mum teaches little tiny kids, 5 year olds. I'd love to be an architect but I'd be sick of it by about 4 years into the training probably, it's about 7 years. Maybe make films, I love making films, I do anyway. I've never really decided what I wanna do, like at school: "what do you wanna do". I don't think you ever know. Exactly, I don't care, I can fucking find out when I'm dead, find out later... Have a great gig tonight and good luck with everything this year. Nice one man, cheers. Alex was on the first ever "Podcast" of 6 Music highlights though it's no longer available. First there was Glen Matlock, Mike Skinner, Wayne Coyne & Paul Cook followed by Alex talking about Brakes. You can read a transcript below. 10.23pm: Their (ESP's) other project - I nearly called it a side project - it's not - they love both equally I'm led to believe - is Brakes. So it's the guys from ESP alongside the guys from BSP and The Tenderfoot. Together they are Brakes and we've been playing an absolutely awesome track from them. It's a previous Brakes single but it's been remixed like this. All Night Disco Party... 11.48pm: Right Headline set time on 6 Music on the Dream Ticket tonight we welcome Electric Soft Parade, and when they're not doing ESP they're off being the Brakes. Hi Alex White welcome to 6 Music. A: Hi how you doing, you alright. I'm very good thankyou. I'm really very excited to talk to you on a couple of points, one is the Brakes - we've been playing All Night Disco Party, the Graham Sutton remix which is coming out in April. Massive fans of that, well the first time round as well when it was just your tune. How did it come about. A: Eamon used to play with British Sea Power. Sutton did a bunch of their records and did a few remixes and mixed a bunch of their tunes early on, they just knew him. Eamon had worked with him before and stuff so recommended him. We gave it to a few different people, Mathew Herbert and FC Kahuna to do as well, to see what they had to offer. They just did a bunch of different things, we just let them do whatever they wanted with it basically. We got 3 really different mental remixes and chose the most level, sane sounding one and gave it to radio and put the others on the bside. I can only imagine what FC Kahuna would've done with that. A: It's pretty good. It's coming out as a 3 remix single thing. Like we say big fans of the Graham Sutton and it sounds like you guys were as well. And now you're heading out on tour with Brakes, first sort of headline dates really. It's a busy old time for you, are you looking forward to that. A: Yeah totally, it's a bit scary really. We've just toured for 3 months, for most of this year, with Belle & Sebastian for a bit then with Editors for a bunch through Europe then back through the UK. It was all great but you never know how many people that translates who would come and see you at your own show. A bit of a tester and hopefully we've got a few new ones to play and whatever. It's always nice when you play your own show and it's something like Brakes, which for us, I wouldn't say funny - it's fun. Playing something like Cheney and it being one of your hits. Is it sort of like Electric Soft Parade's work and this is like playtime. A: Brakes is definately hard work, touring. In Europe we didn't have a posh bus, just in a van touring round, 11 hour drives a day. Gigs every day, one day off every 3 weeks. It's pretty full on but that's how we like it. You've got to keep doing it because if you stop, you get depressed really. And if you're going to do it, you might as well put your all into it. A: It doesn't feel like work when you're doing it but it does build up, it's tiring. It's amazing, it's lush. Eamon @ angryape.com (click link to read) Comrades Alex and Tom White (Electric Soft Parade) and Marc Beatty (Tenderfoot) have "Fleshed out the sound and done amazing things with it". What are the aims and objectives of the collective? "To take the songs I’ve written and play them as loudly as possible". (I asked) the amiable artist to divulge how they resolve creative differences? Given the fact that the band is comprised of highly creative musos with their own way of getting the job done. "With fists mainly or whisky and beer is a good cure also" Eamon @ gigwise.com (click link to read) On one of their rare days off, they headed into the studio to record B-sides, only to realize that they didn’t have any. Nevertheless, Eamon is unfazed by the constraints that touring has placed on the band’s time, saying mischievously, “There’s five days between the Editors shows and SXSW, we’ll record an album then!” At SXSW however, Brakes will have more to worry about than a few piffling B-sides, as they are due to go head to head with their almost-namesakes, The Brakes. Based in Philadelphia, The Brakes’ music ‘recreates the classic sounds of yesterday’ according to their website; according to Eamon, this American Stereophonics are trying to muscle in on our own Brakes’ success. “They tried to sue us!” he says indignantly of the bands’ tussle over the rights to their name. “They’re playing at exactly the same time as us on our biggest night at SXSW. I’d love to have a fist fight with them” A very rough transcript of Eamon's SXSW interview on KEXP (typed as I listened) Play it again when they put it up at kexp.org He also played an acoustic set: Ring A Ding Ding, If I Should Die Tonight, What's In It For Me?, NY Pie, Cheney, The Most Fun. They said Eamon's going to do a solo set and he's pretty excited. The rest of my band are out getting drunk, it's just me, one Brake, this is called Ring A Ding Ding. This is a b side... we haven't released singles in America... you can get it on Myspace, this is about love & death (If I Should Die Tonite) ...And she never did. This song's about the Queen of England (What's In It For Me) Brakes live on KEXP. Seeing you sitting up here alone onstage almost made me say BSP, got a little punk, country. E: Little country, western. I left BSP about 7 weeks ago, the scars are still a bit sore. It's all good... Change it's painful isn't it. I was going to ask if Brakes was a side thing... No it's not. Shit I got to make my rent off this now... When you started was it something fun to do on the side? Brakes started before I joined BSP so it's been continuing for 3, 4 yrs, Brakes started in August, BSP keyboards in September... Busy or the devil gets you... CD's called Give Blood... It's donate blood over here isn't it. I tried to in the E Coast they said you can't cos you're a mad cow so I'm not allowed to. It's good, you walk out and you're happy. In the UK I give blood all the time we all do. I've never given sperm though, you get £20. We've had 3 amazing days at SXSW. You were just touring with Editors. I was born in Canada but moved to Stroud and Tom (Editors) comes from Stroud and the bass player from the Rakes is from Stroud. Like coming from a small town in Idaho... 3 bands with Stroud connections... I live in Brighton now. How did you all come together. We were drunk in a bar, started off acoustic. Tom & Alex said they'd like to be guitar and drums and we got Marc involved, songs sounded good. What have you been doing here. Drinkin, lovin. We saw Dr Dog last nite at the Flamingo in 6th Street. You know when you love a record then you get to see them live (he sounds really excited) Playin doggin lovin... You summed up my life... (?!) Eamon can't remember how the song goes (I can't remember what it's called) This one's about the Vice President of the United States (Cheney) This is the last one... this is about growing up in the town of Stroud, I mentioned it earlier, this is what the town's about. Thanks for taking a break from your busy schedule. Thanks for inviting me. Let's hear it for Brakes on KEXP. Eamon talks to BBC Manchester Eamon Hamilton has spent the last year holding down a place in two of Britain’s hottest bands. As he hits Manchester twice with Brakes, we asked him about why he's giving up British Sea Power... Give Blood was recorded very quickly. Is that something you’d recommend to other bands? Eamon: "Definitely. It was brilliant. There was a certain magic to it. It was a challenge, but a lot of the time in studios, you’re just sitting round listening to a snare drum, but if you only give yourself five days, you have to work as quickly as possible" So what’s the future for you as regards the two bands? Eamon: "For the whole of the last year, it was mad. I’ve been trying to be in both bands, and I’ve had to leave British Sea Power. Brakes is just taking up too much time and Sea Power couldn’t gig when I was away. It’s pretty sad, but also a relief. Hopefully, I won’t play as many gigs as last year" So are there any plans for you to slow down? Eamon: "No. Definitely not. No brakes, just on and on until I burn out (laughs)" (click links to read the full interviews) French interview translation by Theghostchild The interview took place on 19 January when Brakes were in Paris for Les Inrocks. Here's a few quotes from it and thanks very much to Theghostchild. Brakes members darken when they’re asked about their complicated bands situation. Alex White answers: “I don’t understand why everyone is so interested in this. Everyone has the right to have more than one circle of friends, don’t they? Well it is the same with bands. Where is the problem?” The three others agree. The conversation goes on and Eamon Hamilton says in the noise that he’s just officially left BSP. “It is strange and painful but I had to do it”. As for them, the White bros give some quite saddish news about Electric Soft Parade. A rather disillusioned Tom White says: “We got fired from BMG after the release of The American Adventure. For a very simple reason: we didn’t sell enough records. We then released an EP on Truck Records which is unfortunately hard to find out of England. We’ll soon make a new record...” Brakes have some songs ready for a new record. “We worked on some of them this afternoon” whispers Eamon. On drums, Alex White does a good job with his stiff style whereas Tom swaps between heavy SG riff and some more delicate parts. Very good performance for a band that confessed earlier that day that they “never rehearse. Like the Beatles”. Interview with Eamon @ thread.co.nz Here's a few things from it: In some of your songs you refer to political issues. Do you see yourself as a political band? I just don't see anyone else doing it. I saw The Strokes the other day and he (Julian Casablancas) said "I've got nothing to say" again and again. I like The Strokes, they're a good band, but man, say something. You've got the chance to. These are fucked up times and you've got to reflect the times in lyrics and music and no one seems to be doing that. It just seems to be a reflection of the good times, Saturday night etc. "Oh no, I've got to work for a living" - yeah there's fucking loads of people dying. The reason I sing all those things is because I get pissed off that no one else is singing them, and I wish other people would. Have you got any more touring planned? We've got the day off tomorrow, and then we go to Belgium and Scandinavia with Editors. Then we go to America and then on to Italy. Then we come back and record our second album. Will that be longer than the first album? (Which lasts a grand total of 28 minutes) Yeah, hopefully. I'd really like it to be 11 songs (lasting) 37 minutes, but whether it turns out like that I don't know. MORE BRAKES INTERVIEWS |