Interview: Bromheads Jacket, November 25th 2006
After seeing Bromheads Jacket play at the 2006 spring edition of London Calling festival in Amsterdam – a showcase for British bands – we said to ourselves that we’d try to get an interview with these guys the next time they were in the country. And so we did. Bromheads management definitely wins the award for getting back to us the fastest. We had a confirmation just 12 minutes after sending the request!
Bromheads made a lasting impression on March 31st 2006, when singer Tim took a dive into the audience and came back out with a broken guitar and blood gushing from his forehead. This didn’t stop him from finishing his set though. Naturally we were curious about the damage. ”I’m pretty gutted that it didn’t even leave a scar.” He says, while lifting his hair to show us his smooth skin. Aha, no Harry Potter-effect then? “Nope.” Too bad.
Imre: London Calling is a festival where bands from the UK that are starting to get a decent following come over to play in a country where most people have never heard of them. What’s that like?
Tim: It’s great. People have no expectations here. The British music industry is so stuck up! Out here we’re playing above bands we’d never be above in England, because they liked us so much last time. Not because we get the most press attention or airplay. English journalists are cowards that don’t give their true opinion because they’re worried about what other people might say if they do. As a result our album [Dits from the Commuter Belt, released on November 13th 2006, ed.] was rated in the middle. No-one said it was good or bad.
Annika: Speaking of the album, Bromheads fans were asked on MySpace to send in which songs they thought should be on the record. Did you actually do anything with those requests?
Tim: Not really. They mostly asked for older songs that have been released on demo’s and as b-sides. We wanted new stuff to be on there, to release an album with only old material would be pretty boring.
Annika: You can legally download a large part of the album, what is the idea behind that?
Tim: When we started touring, we always handed out free cd’s after the show. We wanted to build a fan base and this is the easiest way to ensure people would listen to our stuff and hopefully tell their friends about us. So because those songs are available for free we figured they would be on the internet soon too, and we might as well offer people to download the songs from our own website for free rather than through dodgy websites.
It’s time for a new revolution in the music industry. Nowadays it’s all about getting big fast, scoring number ones and sell-out arena tours. How much airplay or attention you get from the press depends on how much money you’re willing to pay. The problem with bands that achieve all of that die down equally quick as well.
Jono: It’s like when you throw gasoline on a fire; the flames get very high, but that only lasts for a while and then they’re gone. If you want to do this until you’re sixty, you need a stable fan base.
Tim: Exactly. With the internet being such a huge influence on the industry, bands are slowly starting to realise they don’t need big labels to get noticed. There is so much you can do on your own! The power can be back in the hands of the bands, instead of the big shots at the record companies who throw money around to help their latest project to instant fame. When the music is good enough it will sell itself. There is no need to force it into people’s faces until they’re sick of hearing it. We need more truly independent record labels and more bands need to have the courage to sign there rather than with the big labels.
Bromheads Jacket are Tim Hampton (vocals), Jono West (bass) and Dan Potter (drums). Hailing from Sheffield, it’s hard to find an article about them where fellow citizens Arctic Monkeys aren’t mentioned. Not that there is any comparison, just so you know.
Tim told us they didn’t have any stunts planned for that night’s show, but smiled sheepishly when we warned him that the stage is at least a meter higher than the upstairs one he jumped off last time. And jump he did. This time he put his guitar away, but still managed to come out injured, blaming yours truly for wanting blood. Fact is, he still hasn’t quite mastered the stage-diving technique. Jono’s reply to our asking if Tim would be ok was “He’ll live.” Practise, Tim. Practise.
Bromheads on MySpace: www.myspace.com/bromheadsjacket
Official website: www.bromheadsjacket.com