Broken Records
Broken Records are based in Edinburgh and have been going since the beginning of 2007. They debut LP 'Until The Earth Begins to Part' comes out in summer 09. With seven members they play with guitars, violin, cello, accordian, trumpet and drums and their sound has something of an Eastern European folk feeling to it. Ian from the band gave the answers:

How did you all hook up?

Jamie and I met at university and played in a band together there. When we finished we moved back to Edinburgh and continued to play acoustic shows in pubs around town with Jamie's brother Rory on violin. At one of these shows we met Arne our 'cellist and he joined us from there. The band expanded into a six piece with a couple of uni and school friends on drums and bass, but after a while they went off to pursue other careers so we went back to just the four of us again. The band as it is now finally took shape in December 2006 when we were offered a support slot with a local punk band Degrassi, and we realised we'd need a rhythm section to compete! I knew Andy (Drums) and Dave (piano/trumpet) from university and I was in the same music class as Gill (bass/guitar) at school (although it was Jamie who invited him along after being introduced to him randomly by another friend). I think we all knew by the end of the first practice together that it felt right and it's been this way ever since.

What are your plans and ambitions for the band...do you all have a mutual goal?

Our main goal and ambition as a band is to make a career of it and build up a strong body of work. None of us want to do anything other than music and we want to keep writing interesting songs. Our music doesn't really seem to fit into any particular scene or style, so hopefully being outside of trends will work in our favour.

How do you go about the song-writing process?

It varies but generally it's Jamie who comes up with a chord structure, melody and lyrics and the rest of us take that and arrange the other instruments around it, adding new parts, trying new things and knocking it all into shape. Other times someone will come up with a hook on a specific instrument like violin, piano or mandolin and we'll just jam it through building a song around it. What we've learned with having so many different instruments in the band is that parts have to be arranged carefully. Everyone can come up with their own great part for a song but it can easily become a cluttered mess if we're all playing them at once. We found this problem on some of our older recordings and its forced us take them apart and rearrange them. Now when we're writing a new song we're always careful to break things down and make sure each instrument fits with everything else that's going on.

What music were you brought up on and what are you listening to now?

I was brought up on the usual 60's stuff in my parents' record collection - Beatles, Beach Boys & Dylan, as well as classical music. With seven of us in the band between us we have very wide ranging musical tastes and different musical backgrounds. I think everyone has a love for Nick Cave and Tom Waits, and we've all been listening to The National recently. Some of us are into post-rock bands like Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, others into jazz and classical, and minimalist composers like Arvo Part, Philip Glass and Yann Tiersen. Some of us have a certain fondness for The Boss. Currently I'm listening to lots of Americana including the new Calexico and Bonnie "Prince" Billy albums.

What do you do together when you're not together as a band?

We spend so much time together doing band things that it's quite unusual for us not to be doing something band-related when we're together! If pushed I suppose we go and see other gigs or go to the pub. But even these nights tend to end up descending into lots of band-related chat!

How's Edinburgh treating you...a good place to get by?

Edinburgh is a great city to live in because it's so compact and easy to get around. The architecture and history are amazing and it's close to the sea and hills. I think living here, and Scotland in general, affects the mood of our songwriting, with the climate, rugged landscape and violent seas reflected in the music and lyrics. It's been really cold but crisp and bright for the last few days, and the whole city just looks beautiful and dramatic in the low winter sun - very inspiring. I don't think any of us want to do something crazy like relocate to London, we all like this as our base. It's often said that Edinburgh's music scene is the poor relation to Glasgow's, but I think there are definitely good things happening here. Until recently there were only a few decent places for live music in Edinburgh - Cabaret Voltaire, The Bongo Club and The Liquid Room, with The Queen's Hall and Corn Exchange for larger concerts. But two new venues, The Picture House and The Bowery have just opened in the last month so hopefully things will improve. There doesn't seem to be a specific 'scene' in Edinburgh and you'll often see bands on the same bill with widely differing styles. But everyone seems to know each other's band and will turn out to support them, whether it's the quiet, lo-fi ambience of Eagleowl, the analogue electronica of 7VWWVW, or angular indie like Chutes.

How have your lives changed since getting together for the first time?

We've definitely seen a lot more of the country and places we'd never been to before, and it's always exciting to play new places. Some of the more memorable shows have been in places you never expected to play like the legendary Paradiso in Amsterdam, and surreal experiences like turning up to play a festival in Hyde Park and finding our portakabin dressing room sandwiched between the portakabins for The Police, The Stranglers and Mick Jones! We've just been surprised about how many things we've done that you always wanted to do when you start a band, but if someone had told us back in 2006 that we'd be doing them we wouldn't have believed them. It's made all the better because it's doing something we all love.

[Nov 2008] Back to Top