The past 12 months have seen Melbourne three-piece BREVE evolve from the more languid realms of psychedelia to embrace an upbeat and experimental approach to their songwriting. The novel approach has manifested itself in a new 7″ release.
The 7″ release, out this month via Psychic Ric Records, is BREVE exploring their new experimental side. Think harsh guitars, hypnotic bass grooves, driving rhythms, and moving, raw vocals. BREVE are set to take this combo on the road this month.
To celebrate the release of BREVE’s new 7″ and the accompanying tour, we decided to catch up with this unique trio to hear about the history of the band, what we can expect from the new release, and what we can anticipate for the future.
Inception
The current formation of BREVE came about from a mutual passion for experimentation and making interesting, trippy tunes but the initial idea was conceived years before it became a reality. Toby (Fitzgerald, Bass/Synth) and I (Dougal Shaw, Guitar/Vocals) travelled through Canada and the States as teenagers.
At one point we lived in a hazy basement in the Rocky Mountains for 6 months. Our boss, at the local servo, gave us a keyboard and a right-handed guitar with 3 strings that I turned upside and made a lefty. We started jamming on songs that suited our state of mind.
I remember calling it ‘psychedelic pirate punk’, which says a bit about our mental state at the time. 5 years later we were finally both back in the same country and we relocated from Qld to Melbourne with a couple of demos, a full set of strings and the vision of putting a band together. We’ve since picked up Mathias (Dowle, Drums/Synth) for the ride.
Back In The Day
I was doing solo stuff but nothing serious. This was the first real band for Toby and I. We played for about a year, released an EP and after recording our second EP our drummer, Thom, moved away.
We’d played alongside Mathias early on when he was drumming for Miniatures. He got in touch with us and filled Thom’s spot in February or March this year, and everything flowed really quickly and smoothly. I think we finished 2 or 3 songs at our second jam together. So we scrapped the second EP and started putting an album together.
Inspirations
We were all punk kids, listening to hardcore and more aggressive stuff then getting into post-punk, new wave stuff. These days we have a bit of a trip hop influence creeping in as well as a lot of ambient and psychedelic stuff, Portishead, Pink Floyd, Eno.
Also listening to a lot of more abrasive guitar stuff like Rowland S Howard, The Drones. Sonically we keep it pretty broad, but I think our live show still holds onto a bit of that aggression from our youth.
Hitting The Studio
The 7” is the first 2 tracks from our album, which we recorded in July at our studio in Footscray. We have a converted office block in the industrial area fitted out as a recording studio.
The 3 of us and our mate and engineer Ryan Fallis basically spent 4 days in the studio staying up recording til sunrise and sleeping on the floor. It was pretty ridiculous looking back, really intensive, but it felt purposeful and cohesive.
We wanted to hold onto the spontaneity and intensity of our live performance and not have too much time to sweat over anything. We tracked 9 songs in 4 days and I spent another couple of days finishing off vocals. I did the mixing from home and Simon Lam (I’lls, Klo) did a great job polishing it off on mastering duties.
Meeting Psychic Ric
We’ve known Al and Chris for a little while. We’ve been playing with Al’s band The Dead Heir since we were both starting out in late 2013. In August we played the Psychic Ric launch party and when the boys heard we’d finished recording they offered to press a 7” for us.
It’s actually their first release so I think they’re as excited about it as we are. They’ve been great, both really positive guys to have around.
On The Road
Yeah, it’s our first headline run up the East Coast which is super exciting. Stoked to get back up to Brissy and Sydney for some sunshine and to show everyone our new stuff. Got lots of incredible bands helping us out along the way. Just looking forward to the whole thing really! They’ll be some wild shows I reckon.
Looking To The Future
The main focus after the tour is getting the album all mixed and ready for release. Keen to get this one out and do a more extensive tour to some places we haven’t been. We’ve started writing for number 2 so we’ll just keep doing our thing. We really want to get back overseas so if we can do it with BREVE that’d be fucking unreal.
BREVE National Tour Dates
Friday, 9th October 2015
Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
w/Shady Bliss, Full Flower Moon Band, Pawrlsol
Friday, 16th October 2015
The Evelyn, Melbourne
w/The New Pollution, Warmth Crashes In, The Dead Heir
Friday, 23rd October 2015
107 Projects, Sydney
w/Fade In Mona Lisa, Bad Valley, Salvador Dali Llama
