Interview: Brother and Bones

Brother & Bones are a band that prove continually difficult to pin down. They are un-pigeon-hole-able – critics’ comparisons of them with the likes of Mumford & Sons and The Dead Weather fall continually short, and even the band’s own press release seems determinedly ambivalent towards genre. Mixing folk, rock, blues, indie and even jazz influences, Brother & Bones members Richard Thomas, Yiannis Sachinis, Si Robinson, Robin Howell and James Willard create a sound that is at once folk-rock-reminiscent with serious gravity and grit. A notorious force to be reckoned with live, the band are on tour near-relentlessly, so when I get a chance to steal 20 minutes of guitarist James Willard’s time, I leap at the opportunity.

Willard’s ferocious guitar work is an integral part of Brother & Bones’s sound, but fortunately for me no such ferocity is apparent in his tone when he picks up the phone. Chatty and very friendly, Willard instantly engages with me when I ask how, in a world obsessed with definable genre, the unique sound the band have created came to be.

“We’re quite lucky,” Willard responds casually, “because obviously, there’s five of us, and we’ve come from slightly different musical backgrounds but all had quite influential parents. I suppose like anyone, really – you grow up listening to whatever your mum and dad are listening to. For instance, Si,” – the band’s bass guitarist – “he went down a much more classical/church route when he first started playing music, so he listened to a lot more jazz and blues.”

This diversity in the band’s influences certainly comes through in their music – but how, I wonder, did the band initially come together, hailing, as Willard says, from such different origins?

“Well, two of the members are from St. Ives in Cornwall, so they’d known each other for a long time,” Willard tells me, referring to frontman Rich and percussionist Robin, “so they’d always been playing bars and stuff like that together… But those boys, they ventured up to London and got into the London music scene, and that’s basically how the rest of us met. Because it’s a really small scene today, once you actually get gigging a lot, you start bumping into the same faces all the time.”

This serendipitous coming-together of such different and talented live musicians must make for a fascinating creative process when it comes to writing music. When I broach this topic, Willard jumps in with enthusiasm –

“Rich will get the song together,” he states, “[He’ll] let you know “Yeah, this is where I wanna take it,”… and then we start jamming out over the top of what Rich has already got, trying to find our parts.”

This kind of off-the-cuff improvisation has laid the foundations of many great tracks, but I am particularly interested in the band’s new EP, ‘To Be Alive’. Set for worldwide release on 4^th November, it is, in my opinion at least, one of their best achievements to date. I ask how the EP’s title track came to fruition in the studio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXOQNT7vNqI

“Actually, with ‘To Be Alive’ we were kind of a bit blasé with it,” Willard admits. “We put it together and we were like “Ah, I don’t know if it’s quite “us”,” because it’s quite different to some of our stuff previously. So we kind of overlooked it, really – we put it together, got it all finished up, we did a rough recording of it and were just like “Ah, we should just put that in the safe, then one day we’ll re-look at it.” Then we showed our management, the producers, and they said we should take a hard look at it… So we dug it back up, changed it up a little bit, and it is what it is now.”

And what is the song now? More stripped-back than many of the band’s previous tracks, ‘To Be Alive’ still stands out for its gritty sound and soaring chorus. I ask Willard how he thinks the writing process for this EP differed from their earlier releases.

“I don’t know really,” Willard remarks thoughtfully. “I think the process is still very much the same. I mean, with ‘Hold Me Like the Sun’ – I remember hearing that for the first time. It was at a gig, in London, and we were just sound-checking and he [Rich] started jamming the verses. I was like “That’s cool, we could work with that,” and then a week later we gave it a couple of tries and it was a really natural process for that one.

“The difference I suppose to a couple of years ago is that we’re much more relaxed now. We’ve learnt from mistakes and stuff from being in the studios before, and doing a lot of tours, so we can take our time a bit and say “Maybe we don’t need to put anything in that section.” ‘To Be Alive’ is quite a good example because it’s actually quite stripped-back: the first half of the song is just Rich playing the acoustic guitar, singing, and the action on the snare-drum. Obviously the difference is, two years ago, we’d have been like “Oh, let’s put something else on top of that to make it more interesting,” whereas now we’ve matured and actually think it’s kind of cool that it’s stripped-back and gets gradually to our parts afterwards.”

Striking this balance between over-production and being too stripped-back is something Brother & Bones seem to have mastered over their last few years of producing music. This has translated into a repertoire that has huge versatility onstage, resulting in a reputation for epic live performances. They have supported such huge acts as Ben Howard and Feeder, and are even looking forward to their own headlining tour in February. I have to ask – is their great live persona merely down to talent, or is it something the band goes out of their way to deliver?

“Yeah it is,” Willard confirms. “I mean – live has always been more of our thing anyway, so we always wanted to make sure that when people came to see us at a gig that it was something memorable for them. We have those conversations backstage, you know; looking out the front and seeing what kind of people are there and if it’s busy and stuff.”

Not being a performer myself, I venture a guess that the process of building up that incredible live reputation was initially quite daunting – to most people, the thought of walking onstage in a roomful of people who don’t know who you are or what you’re about could seem terrifying. But Willard’s answer surprises me:

“It’s not actually [that scary] – it’s almost the opposite!” he assures me jovially. “Playing at those gigs, we were like, “Let’s go out and make a lot of noise, and give them something to think about.” So it probably made our shows a bit more lively, and we’d make sure that this epic song was loud and big and explosive so that people would go “Woah, who the hell are these guys?!”

“Whereas I think we feel the pressure more these days, when you’ve got 150 people in a room that all want to see you play those songs. There’s more pressure there now I think, also because we’ve built up a reputation for being a live band, and we don’t want to let the standards slip.”

And slip they haven’t –every online review I’ve come across has given the band’s energy and entertainment value glowing praise. But what must the atmosphere be like backstage before shows? Is there a sense of nervousness or excitement?

“Yeah, there’s definitely excitement,” Willard asserts. “There’ve only been a couple of gigs to date that we’ve been nervous at, I think – like when we did the support with Ben Howard at Brixton Academy. There were definitely some nerves going on there because it was a sold-out gig – that’s a lot of people, and we were supporting someone who’s really great anyway. And Brixton Academy – that’s on the Bucket List, isn’t it?” He laughs. “So, we were a bit nervous then, but, generally speaking… it’s much more about getting into the zone, I suppose, and enjoying it and looking forward to the set rather than worrying about it.”

I ask if there have been any moments on this tour, or ever in Willard’s career with the band, where the incredible experience of being on the road has seemed surreal. The reply I get is immediate –

“Well, every day, really! You know, we’re really fortunate in the sense that this is our day job now, so we get to go on the road, hang out with our best mates, muck around, get drunk, and then play music. I think, at the end of the day, the people are the most important bit – that’s why we’re here. It’s crazy that, that far away – it may only be two or three people in a crowd, but they’re singing along. That’s still really flattering… And yeah, this is our job, so that’s pretty cool.”

Willard’s passion for what he does is clear, and it is this kind of passion that’s driving the band’s career skyward. Their commitment and dedication to the road and to their constant pushing forward of their sound has earned them a lot of recognition, including nominations for Best Live Band at the Live Music Awards 2012, and Best Live Band at AIM Awards, 2013, plus endorsements with such giants as D’Addario strings and Fender. This is a steep trajectory, and for some musicians it might seem hard to stay grounded. Not for Willard, though. His feet – and, by the sounds of it, the rest of the band’s – are firmly on the ground, and their eyes set on the road ahead.

“We’ve all found that you have to be really patient and really thick-skinned,” Willard tells me seriously, “because you’re constantly getting setbacks. I mean, the amount of setbacks we’ve had doing this EP alone – things not arriving on time, stuff like that, you know – it’s never that easy and it can get really frustrating. As long as you’ve got your goal, you can get on with it and keep moving forward. I mean, you see people around you who are getting a lot of success very quickly and you’re like – “Hang on! We’re on the road all the time, working our arses off!” And you know, sometimes you do think  “Oh, what are we doing wrong then?” But you’ve just got to believe in what you’re doing and follow it a hundred percent, and keep going for it.”

Certainly, with new acts surfacing all the time, the music industry can seem like a cacophony of voices trying to make themselves heard. Are there any other acts that Brother & Bones have toured or interacted with who Willard believes should have been heard more than they have so far?

“Yeah, there’s a couple of guys,” he answers thoughtfully.  “There’s a guy we did a gig with recently called Sam Fender. He’s nineteen, and his songwriting and his voice is just incredible. It’s as if he’s been doing it for years… He hasn’t even got an EP recorded yet… But he’s writing these amazing songs, and we’re going to get him to support us on a couple of shows actually. He’s really good and I think when people start finding out about him he’s going to go really far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEgqBkj0Oc

“There’s also a guy that we did a gig with recently called Christof and he does great songs as well… an interesting voice, really great songs and a really cool guy. Those are the kind of people we meet on the road – the ones that stand out to us. It’s really cool to be around, and they’re the ones that usually end up doing really well because people just want to book them and go and see them play gigs. And they’ve got great songs as well, so that’s a bonus.”

With our narrow interview slot drawing to a close, I ask the question that has plagued Brother & Bones for a long time now: is there an album on the horizon? The band’s host of incredible EPs are clearly working for them so far, and I’m sure their growing fanbase is itching for a bulkier release.

“Yeah, we certainly get that question a lot,” replies Willard good-naturedly, “and we’ve always answered the same thing, but I think we actually genuinely mean it this time that we’re hoping to do the album in the winter this year.”

And with that, it’s time for us to finish up, and as we say a cordial goodbye I reflect on some of the things that Willard has said. His dedication to his art is unrelenting, and the band’s steady climb towards popular recognition and success has stunted neither James Willard’s enthusiasm, nor his friendliness.

With an eclectic sound at once moving and epic, Brother & Bones are a name to watch out for, and their new EP, ‘To Be Alive’, will see its general release on 4^th November 2013. If you’re curious about their live set, catch them at The Duchess in York on 7^th November.