Broods are a brother-sister duo hailing from New Zealand. The band deliver heart-stopping ethereal electronic beats that have frequently drawn comparison to London Grammar and The XX.
We have a chat to the pair on their collaborative process, signing their record deal and working with Lorde producer Joel Little
TD: Thanks for your time, pals! Is Georgia still sick? And how’s Caleb recovering from his encounter with the Haim sisters?
Georgia Nott: “I’m a lot better thanks to Difflam! Haha! Caleb is still talking about Haim and telling everyone he meets about it.”
It’s safe to say the last couple of months have been incredibly massive for the two of you. Let’s start with your much-hyped debut EP, which officially just got released. Congratulations – how are you feeling right about now?
“We honestly couldn’t be more excited (on such good vibes right now). We’ve been waiting to get it all out there for a while so to see that people are receiving it so well is sooo cool! The buzz surrounding Broods has come purely off two incredible tracks on SoundCloud, ‘Bridges’ and ‘Never Gonna Change’, which are now sitting at around 750,000 plays.”
When did you first notice these songs were taking off?
We released Bridges on SoundCloud one night, and then when we woke, blogs were writing about it and people were getting more and more interested. We didn’t sleep a lot in the first week. We were much too distracted.
What were your childhoods like, growing up in Auckland?
We actually grew in Nelson (a city at the top of the South Island) which was really chilled. Its a very laid back city with awesome weather and great people. We had incredible childhoods to be honest with the beaches and rivers all a 15 min drive away. Summer there is a blast!
When did you first start making music together?
We’ve grown up always performing together but we started writing stuff together a couple of years ago. We make a good team because we have sibling telepathy haha.
How does the collaboration process between you two usually unfold?
It changes. Sometimes I’ll write some lyrics and a melody and then Caleb will have a vision of the arrangement. Other times Caleb will think of some lyrics and bring it to me to write a melody for it. We like to mix it up and try new things all the time.
Congratulations on signing with Capitol and Polydor. What was it like flying to LA to ink the Capitol deal – can you remember much from the meeting?
Thank you!!! Its was pretty overwhelming being in the massive board room with the big cats. When I was signing my name on the contract I was terrified I was gonna mess up my signature so I did it really slow and it looked so ugly hahaha.
What have been some of the most immediate changes you’ve felt in your lives so far? Not long ago you were working in cafes and offices – how do you digest this whole phenomenon?
We had a lot of lounge dance parties and squealed a lot but now that we’re getting into everything its a little more familiar. It definitely still sinks in again from time to time and we’ll start getting overwhelmed and excited about it all over again.
There’s talks about a full studio album dropping some time this year. How’s that coming along so far, and how will it be different or similar to the EP?
We’ve been working on demos and ideas at home for a while, but we get into the studio again in a few days to start putting down some tracks. We’d love the album to be a kind of step up from the EP. We’ll keep challenging ourselves and experimenting.
You’re in Australia in February to support Youth Lagoon. Are you excited to play your debut shows on Aussie soil?
We just played Sydney last night which was so fun. The crowds here seem to be more attentive than dancey but it’s nice to have people look you in the eye while you sing and take in the music.
Most people will have only seen you on the interwebs, so what’s a Broods gig like live in the flesh?
Playing live is like home to us. We’ve been doing it all our lives so its where we love to be and we try to let that come across on stage. For us, nothing compares to singing/playing to live audience.
Where do you go from here? Are we talking international tours, festival spots, and TV appearances?
We’ve got a few shows confirmed in The States and The U.K so far for late Feb/early March. We’ll be keeping busy though, that’s for sure.
The self-titled Broods EP is out now. Read our review here.
