Jammerzine Exclusive: An Interview with Bromide

Bromide, to me, is one of those bands that knows how to construct a song. Being a power trio, there is more space to fill with fewer people. Bromide fills that gap with innovation and creativity. These are two marks of a great band. And this is where Bromide shines.

Today I get to talk with Simon Berridge, singer/guitarist of Bromide about how the music comes to be and why it’s just so damn good. We also get to talk about the latest and greatest that is Bromide, such as the new music and video for ‘Magic Coins’ (see review HERE) and how they get their spectacular sound.

About Bromide
British noise-pop outfit Bromide has announced their new single ‘Magic Coins’, an infectious track accompanied by ‘Always Now’ as its b-side. ‘Magic Coins’ is an unexpected rhythm track that is seemingly drum and bass-inspired, written collectively by all three band members.

Bromide is Simon Berridge on vocals and guitar, Ed Lush on drums, and Hugo Wilkinson on bass. These songbirds worship at the altars of Husker Du, Teenage Fanclub, The Replacements, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr., The Only Ones, Buffalo Tom and other melodic rockers equally obsessed by songs, songwriting and the euphoria associated with playing music through amplified electronic equipment.

Hailing from London, their sound has been described as “Grant Hart fronting Sebadoh” and “Elvis Costello fronting Dinosaur Jr.” Vive Le Rock noted that they mix “the best bits of The Lemonheads and Dinosaur Jr. replete with melancholic melodies and J Mascis-ish guitar lines”.

“Magic Coins is a good example of how being in a band can take things off in directions you’d never expect. I’d been trawling youtube one night and on my travels come across Susan Boyle’s gobsmacking debut performance on ‘X Factor’ and a thumping AC/DC gig from Oakland Coliseum, California in ’79. Both had made me think about the nature of performance and invisible energy release and so I put this into a new song I was writing “I wanna stand in their shoes. Tell me what it is I have to do,” says Simon Berridge.

“When we next got to practice, we hadn’t played together for a while and I remember starting playing the riff and Ed literally running to get behind the drum kit. He started playing this frenetic almost drum and bass beat and the song exploded. It ended up totally not where I was expecting.”

This single follows the album ‘I Woke Up’, released in the summer of 2018, and the ‘I Remember’ album previous to that. In that time, they have won over news fans including Gideon Coe at BBC 6 Music, who has called their music ‘Fantastic’ and says their latest single ‘Two Song Slot’ is ‘a mighty fine tune’, playing these tracks numerous times over several months.

Legendary producer, Brian O’Shaughnessy (Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine) recorded, mixed and produced these tracks at Bark Studios in Walthamstow, London. Seamlessly welding their pop onto their rock, together they achieved Bromide’s sublime college-rock sound. The band also wrote some of the music in the studio while recording, including the confessional album opener ‘Tale To Tell’ while album closer ‘I Woke Up’ sees them begin to stretch their wings a bit as a Glenn Branca / Krautrock groove builds to an epic conclusion complete with thunder, rain, autoharp and anything else lying around the studio.

“We’ve recorded the most recent two Bromide albums with Brian because he knows how to make you focus on what you’re trying to achieve, plus he knows how to make it sound great,” says Simon Berridge.

LINKS:
http://www.theinternetatemysoul.co.uk/bromide.htm
https://www.facebook.com/bromidebanduk
https://twitter.com/bromide_band
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7l4GWNPAIsXLRFSaCvC6pb
https://itunes.apple.com/cy/artist/bromide/285841264