I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview two lads from Brother; lead singer Lee Newell (second left) and drummer Frank Colucci (far right) ahead of their gig at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms last week. As one of the most-hyped bands of the moment, it was a great chin-wag and amongst the brief interruptions from generous locals offering the prized pair more gin and tonics, here's what they said:
Q: Hello, lads. How are you?
L: Alright mate, thanks. Bit hungover but all okay.
F: Good mate, cheers.
Q: Portsmouth is the latest stop on your tour, you’ve been across America and Europe, how’s it been so far?
L: Yeah, really good, really good. Insane, yeah, I mean, everything’s just a blur, you know? Just happens so quickly but it is good. We try and sort of savour as much as we can, but because we’re always so busy we tend to just … the days fly past, but it’s been incredible.
Q: Any gig that’s really stuck out so far as the best?
L: Umm… let’s think… well there’s a few that pop up. L.A. was really good, that was a really good one.
F: The first date of this run of dates in the U.K. in Oxford was really, really good.
L: Yeah, Oxford was good, Norwich was good, I think tonight’s going to be amazing.
Q: So in America have you noticed that you’re known a bit better, a bit less, sort of thing or is it…? And how was the Late Show with David Letterman?
L: Yeah, that was amazing. And, to go back to your first question, we are getting better known over there, you know, quite quickly so it’s catching up with the UK. We get played a lot more on the radio over there all over, for instance, so it’s definitely getting there.
F: They definitely get it, you know, get what we’re doing and appreciate it, just as well and maybe even better than the U.K.
Q: Yeah, definitely, it’s always written that British bands never make it over in America, but…
L: That’s not true.
F: Na, I mean Mumford and Sons are the biggest band over there. And people say Oasis never made it over there, and I’m not trying to draw comparisons, but they did. I mean, they sold out shows wherever they went, so…
L: Yeah, they were pretty big in America so…
Q: But I suppose it’s good to be back on home soil now.
F: It is.
L: Absolutely it really is. I mean I loved it, I love travelling, I love viewing Holland the States and everything, but there’s nothing like your home soil and hearing English voices and everything.
Q: And then looking ahead to the tour; you’re all over Europe again, back to U.S, Isle of Wight Festival just over the water, Glastonbury. It’s pretty good.
L: Yeah, it’s looking pretty amazing for a new band, we’re buzzing.
Q: With that in mind, what were you doing a year ago this month?
L: Good question, I was working for Microsoft, the headquarters in Reading, I was a games tester. And I was really down, really depressed. And being in a band was always in my head, it’s been in my head for years, always been at the back of my head, and it was just a matter of when for me, so …
F: A year ago, I was on a University course that I didn’t enjoy, and I was working part-time. I was doing music at University, and it was like, really forced, and I was working part-time for an events company, and we’d do bouncy castles and stuff like that!
Q: So, a lot happier a year on then?
L: Absolutely, headlining tours, it’s unreal mate, living the dream.
Q: Right now, bringing it to the album, Famous First Words, how would you personally sum up the record?
L: Umm (pauses). A result of years of desperation. It’s sort of everything, like for the six years we’ve known each other as people has been building up to really, we’ve all been in various different bands and various different places, and done different things, but it was all leading up to this album, it feels like that anyways. And it’s a big moment in our lives, the album. It feels like a release.
F: You know, we’ve talked about doing this, doing what we’re doing now, way before we started this. Even if this hadn’t all happened as quickly as it has, we’d still be enjoying it as much as we are know.
Q: Because you guys got signed up in October right?
L: Yeah, and that wasn’t too long after, either, we’d only put our music on the internet in August and by October we were signed. So it was very quick, mental. It’s weird how it works, because some bands go the other way, I mean I’ve been in bands that have toured and toured and toured, don’t get anywhere, and nothing that anyone would have heard of, nothing worth mentioning.
Q; Okay, I’m sure you’ve had loads of interviews, and I’m sure you’ve had the word Britpop thrown at you a million times. You’ve been described as Britpop, indie rock, ‘gritpop’… how would you describe your music?
L: Umm… good. (Laughs). We actually came up with ‘gritpop’, because you know we were being called a Britpop revival, and one which we never intended. We listen to 90’s bands a lot. Actually, recently we haven’t at all.
F: We’ve been listening to weird stuff recently. Weird in the sense that you probably wouldn’t expect us to listen to it.
L: Edward Sharpe we’ve been listening to a lot.
F: I’ve just got the new Bright Eyes album, I really like it. Black Keys new stuff, we really like that.
L: We’ve been listening to some other weird stuff… our mate’s dubstep. Christ.
Q: (Laughs) So, how do you write songs then, is it a case of all four of you together?
L: Yeah, yeah, it is yeah. Most of the time we just play music together wherever that is, together in a room without any real ideas. Because we’re always together anyway, it all just sort of comes about that way. I tend to write most of the lyrics, but everybody puts in.
F: We swap around instruments sometimes, I’ll try playing this, and that.
Q: So there’s no dictator in the band then?
L: No, no, not really. Not a musical dictator anyway (sly smile).
Q: So going back to Britpop and bands like Oasis and Blur, would you like to emulate their careers? Or is there another band who’s career you’d like to emulate?
F: In the sense of their career, absolutely. I mean Oasis had a good, long solid go at it.
L: I don’t know who I’d like to emulate really. Because when I say I want to be around for twenty years, but I look at the Rolling Stones, and I’m like “You’re five hundred years old”. Playing ‘Satisfaction’ sixty years on, it doesn’t mean the same thing. But then my favourite bands like The Smiths, The Beatles or The Stone Roses, they broke up after like four-five years. So, maybe I’d rather that, I don’t know. But then again, I don’t want to stop playing after four or five years. So it’s hard.
F: I’d like to have the scope to be able to carry on and then decide whether to or not.
L: Ideally I’d die at 27, then I don’t have to worry (Laughs)….
Q: Well, death’s the best way to be famous…
L: Exactly, good old martyrdom.
Q: Well, you have a reputation of being quite opinionated (Lee’s already laughing). So, I’m gonna throw a couple of things at you and see what you think.
L: Go for it.
Q: So, the state of music at the moment…
L: Splendid and tremendous! I look at the charts and I see one band there. If we’re talking about contemporary peers, Jessie J is just absolutely dead behind the eyes. I mean, I heard Friendly Fires new song today, it was so bad. It sounded like an X Factor loser release. It was unreal, so I dunno what they’re doing, they’re obviously going for the broad appeal. So yeah, Jessie J can … erm…
F: She could take a fat one but she wouldn’t! (Laughs, all around).
Q: The coalition government? A year on…
L: Well it doesn’t really seem to be a coalition, does it? Just Nick Clegg trying to suck Cameron’s dick off a little bit, you know? Which is completely fine, you know, he’s just lost all his followers. So, no, not a fan. Just the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Q: And finally, on the subject of rich, did you watch the Royal Wedding? Enjoy it?
L: Yes!
F: Well, we watched it after a night out in San Francisco, we watched in Mexican!
L: Yeah, we really enjoyed it, I was still obliterated from the night before. Because obviously we were like eight hours behind…
F: It was on at like three in the morning, so the night’s still carrying on.
L: Yeah, so we just carried on and it was amazing, yeah. I remember it though, I do remember it.
Q: Okay, brilliant lads, that’s all from me. Thank you very much.
L: Pleasure mate, pleasure.
The talk then idles from football, back to music, to tour dates past, present and future, gig experiences, odd pre-gig rituals (“We all put our hands in a circle and chant ‘DICK’, just once”) to general musings of the outside world. It’s clear though just from forty minutes sat with the lads that they’re just that; a pair of lads, touring a band with their mates and loving every minute. And long may it continue.
NWR
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview two lads from Brother; lead singer Lee Newell (second left) and drummer Frank Colucci (far right) ahead of their gig at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms last week. As one of the most-hyped bands of the moment, it was a great chin-wag and amongst the brief interruptions from generous locals offering the prized pair more gin and tonics, here's what they said:
