Brute Chorus: Interview

by Jim Merrett

Brute force

"You can’t shave your head. Dave’s already shaved his head. I think one shaved head is enough"

Humankind has this perverse attraction to destruction. That’s probably why wars win out over diplomacy and books about serial killers sell so well at airports. On a similar note, I headed down to a pub just off London’s curry mecca Brick Lane to meet local lads Brute Chorus – and stare annihilation in the eye. I was told guitarist Nick Foots was a dead ringer for me, or vice-versa. Expecting some Back to the Future-style collapse of the space-time continuum, I left disappointed. The band, however, are ace – be sure to check them out before somebody does blow up the planet.

New Noise: James (vocals/guitar), you used to work at the Hawley Arms. Sad that it burned down [in the fire in Camden, February 2008]?
James Steel: They’re rebuilding it so it should be back by the end of the summer, hopefully. I was working the bar there but they’ve got another venue that’s just opened in Clerkenwell – I started working there just before Christmas. Still working there at the moment.

NN: Have you all given up the day jobs?
JS: Just about.
Matthew Day (drums): I’m the most difficult – David does a bit most days.
David Ferrett (bass): I work every day. I’m in a privileged position where I can pick and choose the stuff I want to do. You just need flexibility. I used to do a 9-5 job and there’s just no flexibility. I had to stop doing it.
JS: He’d be late for sound checks, couldn’t rehearse some nights. Now we’ve got a lot of freedom. We’ve got a rehearsal room where we can rehearse in the middle of the night if we need to.
DF: I quit my job at about Christmas time, so it’s since then. You don’t have enough time to do your proper job anymore. You need maximum flexibility. We decided to just go for it. I was working in an office. Hopefully never again. It was good for nicking stationary. We have to buy our own envelopes now.

NN: But your jobs can also help… Bumpman, the label you release your first singles on, is linked to the Hawley Arms, right?
JS: A lot of the staff at the Hawley Arms used to DJ under the moniker ‘Mr Bumpman’, which is the name of an old soul song. Because they knew everyone would jump on the whole Hawley thing anyway, when they started a label, rather than be that obvious they chose the old DJ name. Not because they wanted to shake off the association but just 'Hawley Records' sounded shit. It’s more a hobby label than a Hawley Arms fully endorsed thing.

NN: So how did your involvement come about?
JS: There are a lot of musicians working at the Hawley Arms, myself included. The owner wanted to get some supergroup out of the bartenders and get us to do soul covers and put them out on limited edition. I thought it was a crap idea. We’d been doing gigs there monthly, we’d got this residency. We just said, “Look, we really need somewhere to put this single out, why not knock the soul idea on the head and give this a punt because we could really do with a leg-up." Bless him. We gave him the two songs ('Chateau' and 'The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart'), told him what we wanted to put out – he really loved them – put it on the jukebox in the pub, listened to it for a week or so, came back and said, “Yeah, alright”.

NN: We heart your artwork – who did that?
JS: It’s a friend of ours called Maray Fershant who is studying at the Royal College of Art. I just came across her – she did a joint show at Camberwell Art College. I came across her picture on the wall and really liked it. Didn’t know her – just emailed her. I said, “Look, would you be interested in this.” I sent her the music – she really liked it. We went out and had a few beers together and she said went for it. She’s done a few things for us here and there. I hope to kinda keep her on board. Keep the look going. There's a handmade feel about it which fits with us quite well. She’s done it for the current single (‘Grow Fins’).

NN: What sort of deal have you got with Bumpman?
JS: It was just a handshake – there’s no money changed hands and no contract has been signed. He did it just for a limited edition single vinyl release – we signed a separate deal for online distribution. We’ve sold out the first single [‘Chateau’]. There’s a handful floating around in the pockets of collectors.
DF: There’s quite a few still available in Japan…

NN: Japan?
JS: We started getting emails from Japanese kids – really sincere messages from the other side of the world. I’ve been to Japan, Matt’s been to Japan. I absolutely loved the country. It’s great because it’s such a culture shock – everyone’s seen it on TV. But there, it’s magnified by 10 times.
DF: I don’t eat fish though, so if we go I’m going to take a suitcase full of beef with me.
JS: But we also got the single played on Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe – we got lucky – people really liked it. So now it’s available online only – it’s done its bit.

NN: Did all that exposure make a difference?
JS: Yeah. We really felt it – people started taking notice of us and we get offered better gigs.
DF: So many kids around the country listen to Lamacq and Zane Lowe and stuff. You’ll go through MySpace in the day and suddenly get kids from the north of Scotland and Northern Ireland and Wales – all over the place. Interesting.
JS: It means when you get to a gig in Leeds or something, people might know one or two of the songs.
MD: Or actually turn up.

NN: So is Brute Chorus an entirely self-funded project?
JS: Yeah.
MD: Well, we’re bankrupting ourselves. Pretty much every penny earned goes back into the pot.
JS: We’re up to our eyeballs at the moment but we don’t regret a single penny.
DF: I had a really bad Twix on the M1 the other day and I regretted that. It’s weird going to like lawyers' meetings – that’s not really what we got into it for.
JS: At this stage, we’re realising that we have to have a lawyer, we have to have an accountant. We might decide to sign a contract and we need these people on board. That’s something you don’t think about when you decide to form a band: “Oh, I just need a lawyer and a PR…”
NN: Any big labels waving contracts in your faces?
DF: We’ve had sniffs of interest.
LS: They’ve approached our management – we can’t really say who.
DF: We’ve got to see how the rest of this year goes.

NN: Where do you stand on record labels introducing these blanket deals that include live shows and merchandising?
MD: It depends on the deal. If they give you £10m like they did  to Robbie Williams, then you go: “Yeah, why not”.
Nick Foots (guitar/keyboards/Jim Merrett lookalike): I  think that’s the way to go. You make so much of your money from merchandising that it seems obvious that it’s the next step for them. It’s great – what a lovely industry. More people, more fingers, more pies.
DF: More pies, brilliant. We’re more of a cheesecake. We’re available for any finger-sticking.

NN: So other than the band, any other hare-brained money making schemes?
DF: Next to the Barclays bank on Whitechapel Road, there’s a cake shop – I suggest we take over the cake shop and drill through to the bank.
MD: We could fill the donuts with explosives.

NN: Why so many biblical references in your lyrics?
JS: I think they’re balanced out with references to old soul songs, nursery rhymes. But people get stuck on them. My dad was a vicar, I grew up in the church, I was in the choir, I was the church organist at one point – I’ve had it drummed into me from all fucking angles. But if I’d been raised any other way – left in a jungle and raised by wolves – it could’ve been different.
MD: But we are not a Christian rock band.
JS: It’s just a good way of communicating pictures. In theory, we’re a very multi-cultural, secular society, but everyone has read the Bible, or has been brought up around it. People say stuff without even realising where it has come from. The trick is coming up with new clichés.
MD: That’s a contradiction in terms.
JS: But there was a point when people first started using those clichés.
MD: When does a cliché become a cliché?

NN: Errr, where did you all meet?
JS: Nick and Matt were at school together – they know each other from childhood. Me and Nick were at uni together. Matt found us on bloody Gumtree. It was love at first sight.
DF:  He’s never used the internet since.

NN: But the internet likes you. You’ve picked up some rave reviews…
JS: We’re a little surprised by how good the reviews are. I’ve stopped reading them because I know the bubble is going to burst eventually. 
DF: There will be a backlash.
NF: But it has just been really postive and we’re rolling with that. Until someone says we’re shit we’ll keep going.
JS: And we can be better – they’ve reviewed some shit gigs and said we were good.
MD: We’ve never done a shit gig.
JS: We’re quite hard on ourselves
MD: You’re in your own little bubble,.
JS: The only way you can convey it – you’ve got to put all the last little drips and dregs of energy into it. If you end up with pneumonia…
DF: Bad back, bad chest, bad pecs…
MD: Bad breath. We’re battle hardened.

NN: Finally, I thought I’d mention that the New Noise editor thinks I look like Nick. I have to say I don’t see it…
DF: We were told some guy who looks like Nick was going to come down… Maybe if  he shaves his head.
NF: I could shave my head.
JS: You can’t shave your head. Dave’s already shaved his head. I think one shaved head is enough.

Current single 'Grow Fins' is released for download this week.

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