Interview: The Brute Chorus

London 4 piece the Brute Chorus are a band that stand out from the crowd. Their mix of early rock n' roll, folk, blues and rockabilly music puts them at odds with today's generic indie template, and indeed they released their self-titled debut on their own label last year.

With second record How The Caged Bird Sings due out on 13th September, and an accompanying UK tour, Skiddle's Abbas Ali spoke to lead singer James Steel...

How did you come together and meet each other?

That happened over a period of many years. Matt and Nick who play guitar and drums respectively were playing together since they were 13 or 14, in a school band. And after we graduated, we started playing together, and started a band, at which point Matt moved to London and joined in with us. Then we had a few different line-ups. At the end of 2007, we started The Brute Chorus, and decided we’d scrap what we’d been doing and start again. At which point various members of the band decided they didn’t want to go on with it any longer and we met Dave on the internet. He found our ad on Gumtree the same time as people were recommending us to call him. So it was one of those cases of "small world".

You obviously have elements of rockabilly and an early rock n roll, 50s sound? Where does that come from?

We all like roots music, really. And I suppose rockabilly is down there with blues and early rhythm and blues in terms of one of the starting points of rock and roll. A lot of people have said we’re a rockabilly band, which we’re not at all. There’s influences there, some rhythmic patterns, that we will use, but I think it sells us short a little bit, and also, if anyone went to see a rockabilly band and finds us, they might be a little bit disappointed! (laughs). No we’re not authentic rockabilly in that sense. We’ve very into roots music, folk music, and blues music and we take a lot of those passions and mix them into what we’re doing. We’re all voracious listeners, and so we’re always coming across new styles we like, and if it can be incorporated into what we’re doing, then we will.

How do people respond to you? I guess you must stand out.

I guess people have problems categorising, which is probably why we get lumbered with rockabilly, or blues band, or whatever. So I think that’s kind of a good thing, it makes me think that we’re doing something right. Maybe not creating something completely new, but we are different to what else is on offer. I think that’s great because I’m not into a lot of bands that are playing at the moment or the shape of indie rock n' roll or whatever. It’s not something that really interests me, and it has done for many years, but just the last couple of years, the kind of groups that have been going, the less interested I have been in what’s going on among our contemporaries. Although there are bands that I really like, I’ve been delving deeper and deeper into other kinds of music for my listening purposes, like old reggae and ska and world. I DJ quite a bit, so I play a lot of that old stuff. I suppose that’s the environment I’m listening in the most, what’s coming out in the music.

So you’re not excited by Scouting For Girls and The Hoosiers?

Not really. (laughs).

I really enjoyed the song ‘Heaven’, and obviously I picked up on the lyrics, and I know that your father is a clergyman.

Yes, he’s a Vicar. He’s retired, now.

Obviously there are some bold statements in the there ("They locked the gates of heaven on the day I was born / and I won’t be going back there anymore", etc). What is the song about?

It’s not meant to be an atheistic statement... I was finding things quite hard last year (pauses) and I felt quite fatalistic about quite a lot of things. In that, this whole issue of, what people's ideas of success is. What that is for an individual person. At one point, it felt like, especially when I was writing this song, if you’re not meant to get there, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’re not going to get in. It’s quite a negative way of thinking, but at the time, it was how I was feeling. No matter how hard I work in my life, something’s not working and I guess I’m not suppose to succeed. Theres’ a couple of songs like that on the album. I don’t necessarily think still I’m in that place right now, as a person, a few months later on.

So it capped it for you, that moment?

Yeah. Songwriting is about venting your feelings as much as anything else. It helps get stuff out there. And actually maybe, I’m not all that wrong. For a lot people they do really, really struggle, for a long, long time, without ever getting anywhere. There’s something unfair about that, I feel.

The self titled debut album was recorded live in front of an audience at Camden’s Roundhouse, whereas this follow up record has been recorded in the studio. Are you a band that is best to be caught playing live? Does this feel like the first "proper album"?

At the moment we’ve not really had much opportunity to prove ourselves as a studio band. We’ve played live everywhere now, and without sounding off too much, we are good live. But i wouldn’t say people should overlook the potential of us recording records. They are different things really. The lives shows are very full on physical show, whereas this album there’s lot of depth in terms of dynamics and stuff. So it’ll be interesting. It’ll be interesting to see how we manage to translate that on the tours, maybe shift down a couple of gears and maintain the intensity, and see how things work out, really. 

Interview by: Abbas Ali