Thursday, 12 June 2008 22:35
"You really gotta get out there and sweat a little and do all you can on your own to make a name for yourself and bring attention to your band. There was nothing we didn't try."
CDM: You're playing in Auckland this Friday and Wellington this Saturday; how do you feel about your first New Zealand tour?
THE BRAVERY - ANTHONY BURULCICH: I'm super excited! We were in Australia before and did not get the opportunity to go to New Zealand, last time we were in the area. So, I think we're really excited to have the opportunity to hang and play down there, play for you guys. We're going to make time to see New Zealand. It's too beautiful a country not to visit and spend some time looking around. We're gonna get up nice and early everyday and check it out.
CDM: What should we expect from The Bravery's live show?
THE BRAVERY: Well, how we kind of do things in The Bravery is; we put a lot of more subtleties into the recordings and they're very layered. Whereas when we approach a live show, we like to turn the amps up louder and really make it a live rock show. Kick people in the ass, live. Whereas our records are more about subtleties and layering. It's a different kind of platform. I think that's a great thing about our band. That our record and the way we approach things live are two distinct different things and I think it shows different sides to the personality of our band. So definitely expect it to be louder and more sweaty live.
CDM: Why did you decide to steer away from synths on your latest album 'The Sun and The Moon'?
THE BRAVERY: I think early on, when we were thinking about our second record and we were winding down touring the first record... We all had the conversation and we really did not want to repeat ourselves. That was the main thing. We said; before we start doing this, let's get a clear idea of what we want to do. Do we want to repeat ourselves? We know, how to make something sound like the first 'Bravery record. That's what we did. So we know how to do that. The thing was, I think we really wanted to challenge ourselves and try new sounds. Whereas we went for the analogue synths and all that stuff on the first record cuz that was really what was available to us... we recorded the record ourselves. Not in a studio, amongst John's apartment and Sam's apartment. At the time, all we really had access to were a lot of synthesizers and stuff like that. Whereas with this record we said; we'd like to try different things out as opposed to synths. We used a lot of background vocals. Everyone learnt how to sing. We were all singing together, while we were on the road. So where there (used to be) was a lot of synth pads, we tried to do vocal pads (instead) on the second record. Another difference was, we recorded where I am now actually in Atlanta. We recorded in a studio with Brendan O'Brien and he had all these amazing acoustic pump organs and stuff like that. These really vintage organs and I know the guys were super excited to have access to those instruments. It really did bring a different aesthetic to the second record which I think was great for us. We were really happy to challenge ourselves and really push the limits of what The Bravery had previously done.
CDM: Explain the difference between 'The Sun' and 'The Moon' parts of your new record?
THE BRAVERY: Well early on too, it was an idea to release it originally as a double disc. Cuz we wanted to show; there's some acoustic slower tempo songs on 'The Sun' part and it's more lush the studio recording. 'The Moon' version, early on the label was like; it's second record it would probably be too expensive to do that. They were kind of frightened by the idea of a band wanting to release a double disc on their second album. But after touring it and after they saw a few of the singles were taking off and people were really happy with how that came out. We had these other B-side recordings. Basically how The Bravery makes songs is; they start off as rock songs and then kinda like how DJ's do things. We put them into a computer and we re-mix them. So there were all these floating around re-mixes to any given 'Bravery song. There's probably six, seven different takes on it. So I think we just went back in the vault and it was like we'd really like our fans to hear how different the songs, how many different processes they went through as far as how we write and re-mix our own music ourselves. So, 'The Sun' and 'The Moon' they are the same songs just totally, I guess you'd say not even re-mixes as much as re-interpretations of those songs. Whereas if they sounded more optimistic or positive on A; 'The Sun' side, we darken them on 'The Moon' side.
CDM: The Bravery were one of the very first bands to have a Myspace.com profile. What are your thoughts on how Myspace has revolutionised the current music scene?
THE BRAVERY: I think it's incredible. It totally revolutionised how a band can market itself. In our case, early on that was a huge help for us. I know John; our keyboard player, had a Myspace and was just basically using it to meet chicks. I remember, one night he came to rehearsals and was like; you know guys I think I can upload audio on this. Why don't we start a band one? At the time, we didn't know of any other band that had used Myspace in that way. We were like; sure man. Costs nothing to do. And then through that, we actually at the same time had our own website going and really started selling up our live shows. Cuz people could go listen to the music and they'd write in on The Bravery page and it really helped us get more people at the shows. And also, guys like Zane Lowe in the UK went and... I don't know if he downloaded them from the website or the Myspace... But we had these recordings before we had a record deal, we'd recorded all the stuff ourselves so then through the help of the internet we really got it out there. And then people like Zane Lowe started downloading it and playing it on Radio 1. So before we even had a record company talk to us, we were already getting international radio play which we would owe all to the internet. I mean that's who we really owe everything to. Without the internet, people overseas wouldn't have heard of us. So I think it's a really exciting time for young musicians and young bands. Gone, are the days where you have to wait for a record deal and all this money to be able to create anything. Whereas anyone has access to, I know music programmes are cheap, Garageband comes with every Macintosh laptop. So people can really record their own album now and then through Myspace and the internet you can market it worldwide, have worldwide distribution. The tools are there and I would advise all young and upcoming bands to really use and utilise that to their advantage.
CDM: I read that The Bravery manufactured song samplers and printed posters to promote the band and local shows. What advice apart from exploiting the internet, do you have for young bands?
THE BRAVERY: Yeah! When we started out, we had our recordings... We did them ourselves, so what we did was we would just spend afternoons... A couple of us would get together, branch off in teams and burn cheaply our album and with a magic marker write the song titles and the band name. I remember, for weeks we would just stand outside a record store giving out a CD with dates that we'd be playing around the city and then we postered the hell out of the Lower East Side. Whenever a 'Bravery shows was coming up, people knew it cuz we'd just be out tagging the whole city. I guess you gotta do that stuff, you know. Especially New York. There's such a high concentration of bands, it's such a musical mecca. At the time, we wanted to try and just put our best foot forward. How do we get noticed in a city that has so many, has thousands of bands playing all the time? You really gotta get out there and sweat a little and do all you can on your own to make a name for yourself and bring attention to your band. There was nothing we didn't try. We were giving out CD's, we were postering. You name it; we were doing it!
CDM: I noticed that you invited your fans to be a part of the music video for 'Believe'. Stereotypically, indie rock bands have a reputation for being too 'cool' for their fans. So is fan involvement something that the Bravery considers important?
THE BRAVERY: Oh yeah, definitely, absolutely. At the end of the day, all a band is, is owed to their fans. What's a band, if you don't have fans that support you? Even for our first idea for 'Unconditional', the idea was we just got two kegs of beer and some cheap Gordon Vodka and we made a little fruit bowl. We were like; guys we'll get you drunk just please come down to our video shoot! Cuz the 'Unconditional' video I think we shot real cheaply with a couple of friends cameras and it turned out to be a great video because it was real fans and the energy was there. So, we had success with a video done that way on 'Unconditional'. So when 'Believe' came around, Sam had some ideas for that and then slowly it morphed into the word being put up on our website; if fans are in the area come on down and we'll get you drunk and rock out with us!
CDM: Correct me if I'm wrong... But apparently you once got kicked out from the Island Def Jam afterparty for the VMA's, for stealing a microphone...?
THE BRAVERY: It's true... I actually got kicked out of two VMA's. I forget which years they were, this past one the one that was in 'Vegas and then the one before that was the one in Miami. I think there was Fat Joe onstage and Ludacris, I think it was some Def Jam artist and I got really drunk.... we were at the after hours and I thought at the time it would be a really great idea to go up and freestyle rap. No sooner than did my right foot hit the stage; the biggest security guards in the world grabbed me and threw me on the ground (and) went to punch me. My guitar tech stepped in, he got his earring pulled out. I think a couple of people from the label got sucker-punched by security and it was just a nightmare. They just picked me up and threw me out on the street. I kinda forget what we did after that but a couple of us were bloody and the label was like; yup Anthony tried to rap so they kicked him out.
CDM: Are you still expecting an invite back this year?
THE BRAVERY: Sure!! Sure! Invite me! I won't try and rap again. I promise.
THE BRAVERY's 'THE SUN & THE MOON' is in-stores now!
THE BRAVERY live @ Kings Arms (Auckland) and SFBH (Wellington) this Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14.
Tickets from Real Groovy and Ticketmaster.
THE BRAVERY live @ Kings Arms (Auckland) and SFBH (Wellington) this Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14.
Tickets from Real Groovy and Ticketmaster.