Jamie, Jordan, Brume

0:05HostOne, two, three, four. Welcome to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. My name is Arthur and today our guests are Jamie and Jordan of the Doom band Broom. My name is Jordan Perkins-Lewis. I'm the

0:17Jamiedrummer for Broom. My name is Jamie McCarthy and I'm the guitar player in Broom. I just want to

0:26Hostremind everybody who's listening to this episode right now to follow the show on Spotify or any other podcast platform that you prefer. I discovered Broom a couple years ago. I was diving into the Doom scene and I noticed a white bunny on the cover of an album and I thought, okay, if a Doom band has a bunny, a rabbit on the cover, it must be something special. And I checked it out and it was pretty cool. I really like it. Really heavy, awesome album. The whole band should be listened on a big, fat speakers or live. What was the decision to put the bunny on the album?

1:03BrumeWhere did the bunny come from?

1:07JamieJordan, you want to take this? I'll weigh in.

1:10BrumeWe've done a few albums that are titled after Animals. And so I don't recall exactly how Rabbits came about, but once we landed on it, we had a few different ideas for album artwork. And I think initially it was kind of going in a grotesque direction and it was going to be pretty gruesome. We kind of had a funny idea to just do the complete opposite and go like super fluffy and gentle. And it fit. And people seem to respond to it.

1:37HostYeah, I guess the response is good. I mean, that's how I discovered it because you stand out immediately from all the Doom bands, from all the album covers.

1:45JamieI mean, it sounds really stupid, but I hadn't really thought of it that like we did it because we thought it was kind of like funny. And I guess it worked like to your point, you discovered it for that reason, which is great. I'm a kind of a graphic designer by day. And so I worked with when I was living in London, I worked with a photographer and did a photo shoot with him. He specializes in shooting animals. And so it was him that I called up and was like, Hey, do you have like, what's the most beautiful photograph of a rabbit you've got? We've got this album. I'd love to borrow it. And he was like, totally. He sent a selection, but there was just this beautiful white bunny in a kind of a box that he shot. And it was perfect.

2:27HostFor a second. I mean, before reading all your interviews and the story behind the photo, I, for a second, I thought maybe it's not a live bunny. Maybe it's just like a, like a puppet or something. Then I had to zoom in, then I had to do a Google search of the image. And then after a while, after I read all the interviews, I discovered the artist, the photographer. Oh, cool. By the way, Jordan, what's up with the chickens?

2:51BrumeWhat chickens? I own chickens. I raise chickens.

2:54HostYeah. I read that you like to mention chickens a lot.

2:57BrumeThey get mentioned a lot. Yes.

3:01HostI ask this question because reading all the interviews, you, any interview of any musician, you get a lot behind the scenes and the artist, the mystery of artists kind of disappears when the audience knows quite a lot about the artist. Do you, do you think it's now gone? Is it good or bad? The artist mystery, so to speak.

3:23JamieIn general, or do you think you mean with us? I mean, I think that...

3:27HostIn general and with you, like your experience and in general for everybody. I don't, I don't know. Like I don't, for me, I don't feel like the mystery is gone too much. I guess

3:38?it's, it's primarily though on the artists to ensure that like, if they want to leave something to the imagination or don't want that to be some big kind of deep thing, then they should just not

3:48Jamieexpress it. I think that for us, we like playing with the idea of what like metal or do metal is and a pretty vocal about it for anyone that cares to listen. You know, I think that, you know, the fact that you discovered us because we have a big fluffy white bunny rabbit on the front of our do metal album is pretty funny.

4:08HostLet's go back to the beginning a little bit. Like, I know you've been asked a lot, but still, how did it all start in your case? How do you, three of you came about?

4:17JamieI'll start only because we kind of, me and Susie met at a house party. It was a Halloween party a good time ago. I was still living and working in London and I came out to San Francisco, went to a house party and, and her husband was dressed as a turkey and she was dressed as a zombie. And immediately I was like, okay, these are people I probably want to hang out with. And so we kind of became friends. And then a couple of years later, I actually moved like kind of full time. Me and my wife moved to the Bay area from England. And when we did, I was like, at that point I'd been in bands in London and England and I was kind of tired because it's, it's hard having a life and a, you know, working and then having a partner and then also trying to kind of be in a band. So I was like, okay, I'm not going to make any music. I'm just going to chill out. And a month in I was like scratching and itching. I was like, there's no way. So Susie just kind of immediately came to mind. And so I reached out and we talked about at the time, you know, what kind of music we wanted to play, what kind of thing we wanted to do. And at that point, I guess, kind of bands like Wind Hand were becoming popular. And so we were like, obviously into heavy music. Susie's voice was particularly kind of not heavy, but in a really good way. So it was like, okay, we're going to make a heavy band and it's going to have really delicate, pretty vocals. That's kind of where we're headed. So we started writing some stuff and then we actually put a Craigslist ad and Jordan was the person. We kind of demoed one other drummer first and that didn't work out. But Jordan came in the room and it was like, immediately like, wow, how do we make sure he joins our band? So that was kind of how we met.

5:58BrumeI spend a lot of time on Craigslist.

6:00HostYeah. Is it normal to do like a Craigslist advertising?

6:05BrumeYeah. I think it's pretty standard for musicians these days and has been for about a decade or so.

6:10JamieYeah. When I was in, when I was in London, there was a, it wasn't Craigslist, but like same kind of thing, right? Like an online forum where people would kind of like troll it to figure out who they might be trying to make music with. Like the last drummer, the last band I was in, same thing in England. It was an ad that he replied and he was our drummer and kind of lifelong friend afterwards.

6:30HostThe first EP was Donkey. Yes. And what's interesting with the Donkey, I think it was released on tapes

6:37Jamieonly first. Yeah. There's a James, a good guy here in the Bay Area, puts out a lot of really amazing music, runs a label called Transylvanian. It's incredible. So we were fortunate. We, you know, we wanted to kind of do something with that record we recorded. It was an EP. It wasn't that long, but we wanted to do something and reached out and he was amazing. Yeah. Why I ask is because in each

7:00Hostepisode of my podcast, I ask about cassette tapes, audio cassettes, because I'm kind of fixated on them because I grew up with tapes. Vinyl is not really my like format. And now I'm asking all the bands from all parts of the world, what do they think about tapes and how tapes are popular in their countries? How is it in, in your area in San Francisco? There's definitely like a collector

7:26Brumeelement to people wanting tapes these days. I don't know of too many people that actively listen to tapes because the technology to listen to them is getting scarce. I personally have a car with a cassette player, so I am still able to listen to tapes and I still buy tapes. And I think people want them, but I think it's more of a novelty than like an actual something you listen to.

7:46JamieYeah. And it might sound rude and we don't mean to be, but I think like first off when, you know, and James like put out and puts out amazing, incredible bands. When he said to us,

7:56Brumehe was doing tapes. I was a little bit like, why, what are we going to do with tapes? And he was like, well, you know, you know, it's amazing, you know, giving us a label, giving the band a bunch of

8:06Jamietapes to be able to go ahead and sell as well. I was like, man, we're not going to sell these things.

8:10BrumeWe're just going to carry them. And they sold, they sold really quickly. And I think people want them. We were shocked. And the nice thing about tapes is you can do smaller runs and they're not that expensive to get off the ground. So for a small band, that's trying to put something out there,

8:25Hostit's an easy way to get started. How many copies did they make?

8:28BrumeYeah. It's been a while now. 250, 500, maybe less than a hundred.

8:32HostYeah. That's what I mean. Like not, not a thousand. No, no, no. Correct.

8:38JamieYou hear that? Yeah. That's, uh, that's, that's the washer dryer telling me that it's finished.

8:44HostIt plays me a jingle. That's perfect. Make an album cover for that.

8:53HostActually, I have a question regarding that. We're going to jump around the topics all the time. You did the cover for a Black Sabbath song, Solitude. Yeah. What was the decision? Like, did you choose that song?

9:05JamieWe did choose that song.

9:07BrumeWe did. We had a list of three that we wanted to do. And that's the one we ended up going with. I think you can probably imagine based on like our sense of humor and choosing a bunny rabbit,

9:16Jamiethe reasons why to pick Solitude.

9:19HostWell, you know, I'm only getting your sense of humor only now.

9:25HostWhen I read your interviews, it's like, I can't, I can't see the humor. I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'm just like too concentrated on different stuff. I have no idea.

9:34BrumeWe're too mysterious. Yeah.

9:37HostHave you ever planned to do a cover album, like full album made of covers only for a specific artist?

9:45BrumeNo, I don't like doing covers personally. I'm not a fan of doing covers. I try to limit how many covers we do. Yeah. When we, I think that for us, and again, I kind of alluded to it, but for us covers,

9:58Jamiethe most important thing, if you're going to do a cover, like I think me and Susie love them, but Jordan's kind of always a bit apprehensive and I totally get it and respect it. So I think that we're probably never going to do a whole album of covers, but if you're going to do one, it's got to be good and it's got to be interesting. You can't just do a straight cover of the song. So that sounds exactly the same. That's the number one rule. So actually on donkey, there's a cover on that, um, by a musician that I love called

10:26BrumeBonnie Prince Billy. Um, nothing to do with doom, nothing to do with metal, just an incredible

10:32Jamiesongwriter. Um, I think we did a cover on a split, um, that's a cover of a lead belly song that Nirvana covered that also kind of, you know, again, like two songs in both of those that were kind of like the cover or the version of it is quite abstract. It's an, it's a reinterpretation versus a straight cover. And then lastly, I guess the last cover we've done is solitude. And, you know, the song is generally very gentle and kind of trippy. And we took some of that, but we made it more sad, which is kind of another thing we seem to do.

11:02HostYeah. You, you, like I, I read a description of the band. It's like, uh, Porch's head was a doom band.

11:11?That's nice. Yeah.

11:12BrumeI like that description. I like that a lot. I'll take that.

11:16HostWhat was the decision to make that cover song?

11:19?Solitude. Yeah.

11:20JamieIt was primarily knowing that every band on that, on that record was going to do all of the big Black Sabbath greatest hits. We knew that like every band that were kind of choosing songs and, you know, the label was great and said, you know, you guys pick a song. It's like whatever you want to do. And they listed who the other bands were. They were amazing,

11:40Brumebut we just knew that everyone was going to do like, you know, all of the hits. So we were

11:44Jamielike, okay, let's just not do that. That was the end.

11:47HostSo the idea to actually do a cover in general was from the label.

11:51JamieYeah, correct. Yeah. They put out a lot of, um, I think they call them reduxes, but kind of cover, they do like a cover album, which is a, you know, an album that already exists and they do it front to back with bands covering the songs on the album. And then to accompany that they'll generally do a kind of a release of other bands covering songs generally by the

12:11Brumeartists. I think there was a recent one by ACDC.

12:13HostAnd it's, uh, the magnetic eye records, right? Correct. And how did you get, uh, signed to my, are you still there?

12:20BrumeStill there. Still there. Yeah.

12:22HostHow did you get signed by that label?

12:24JamieWe actually reached out to them. Um, I did personally, friends of ours, um, elephant tree from, from England again, were kind of on that label. They seem to be kind of a label that like deals with heavy music, but equally it's not just obvious heavy music. And I think that, you know, again, like you can tell that like, we love heavy music, but it can be a

12:47Brumebit boring and a bit stagnant. And so for us, it was about finding someone that kind of their, their interests were a little more, um, varied versus just kind of your standard heavy rock metal label.

13:00HostSo it was your personal connection. You, or it was completely cold. You didn't know anybody there.

13:05JamieIt was actually cold. Yeah.

13:06BrumeYou shot them an email. Yeah. We just shot them an email. And fortunately for us, they kind of had heard us through something.

13:13JamieActually, I can't even remember now. It's been a while.

13:15BrumeI think we were on the road when they got back to us and said, they'll pick us up. I think we're in Texas, driving through Texas. We got the email.

13:20JamieThat's right. Yeah. I think we were, we did like a South by South West show and, and we're like South and reached, send them an email completely cold. And we had friends on the label, like previously on the label. And so we kind of name dropped out to say like, Hey, they put us in touch or, you know, sent us like a name. And so we're just saying, Hey,

13:41Brumewhat's up? And it worked out. I think going, going to your push earlier, you were asking about like, you know, um, whether or not it influences people that maybe don't know how to do this

13:50Jamiestuff. It's like, give it a go. Cause I mean, I think that, you know, putting an ad in for a drummer and then finding one is like, that's just a bit of a chance thing and sending off an email to see if you can, you know, chat to a label and then be signed and then release records view is all just from some emails.

14:06?Yeah.

14:07HostYeah. You never know. You need to try. And you mentioned that you were touring back then. You, you actually did a lot of touring all over, uh, North America and in Europe, right?

14:16?I've done a fair amount. Yeah.

14:18BrumeI think, uh, comparatively to other bands, we might be a little more fair weather. Like we don't do a lot. Um, we're a bit prima donna. We, we like, we like home and feeling comfortable as much as we like going on tour. You probably won't catch us on the road for 30 or 40 days at a time. Definitely not.

14:37HostBut you still, you have experience. You've been overseas, you've been to Europe and what's the difference between, uh, touring in North America and Europe?

14:46BrumeUh, everything about touring in Europe is better.

14:52BrumeIn what way? Uh, the, the, the fans are better. You get treated better. They pay you better. Um, people buy your merch. Uh, there's a lot more like buzz and excitement. I love playing, you know, local shows, but after a while, it just kind of feels like you're playing another local show. There's no like urgency to see the band and you're seeing kind of more or less the same crowds over and over. So when you get to go overseas, there's like a real, you know, people really get whipped into a fervor to go come out to the shows and turn up and have a good time. And, uh, the energy I think is a lot higher.

15:22?Yeah. Uh, when you said like everything is better, I had an interview with Psychic Hit. They were on the first, uh, episodes of this podcast and I asked them, how's the music scene

15:33Hostin San Francisco? And they said, it's cool. But if you go South to LA, you're treated not that well. And, uh, it doesn't depend on your level. It's, it's, it's in general, the atmosphere is like that. And they were like, Oh, we wish we would go to Europe. Everything is better there.

15:50BrumeI agree. I spent a lot of time, uh, playing with bands in Los Angeles and it's, it's grueling and brutal and thankless. And it wasn't until I moved up to the Bay area that I actually started to be a little more successful.

16:03HostAre there actually any tips for, uh, bands from, uh, North America going to Europe? What, what they should be on lookout mainly?

16:13BrumeTapes that are being like sold overseas?

16:15HostNo, no, not tapes. I mean, um, no, no, no, no. Tips. Oh, tips. I misspoke.

16:23JamieTips for bands going to Europe.

16:25HostYeah. And maybe why it's worse.

16:27JamieI think that we're probably not the most, uh, I said not the most organized. We're very self-motivated and organized, but, um, like, I think that get ready to just kind of like put some work in and figure stuff out. I mean, obviously if you have like booking agents and that kind of thing, that's fantastic. But if you don't, you know, it's kind of like any tour you can DIY and make it work. Um, and financially it may seem scary at first, but knowing that you will sell much and people will come to shows because it's the vibe over there that it's kind of worth the effort.

17:00BrumeI'd say probably want to network with other bands as much as possible too, because that's, that's how you're going to be able to put together, you know, legs of your tour. You can attach yourself to some local group that's going to take you to four shows and then find another local band that'll take you the next four shows and so on and so on. You can just piecemeal the tour out that way. And it becomes a lot less, um, daunting of a task when you break it up with, you know, other bands that are kind of at your level trying to do the same thing. And you can share resources.

17:25HostDo you book the shows yourself or you have a booking agent?

17:28?We do everything ourselves. Badass.

17:30JamiePart of, part of the, uh, not fortune, but like part of like, obviously me being from England originally and having been in bands when I was growing up, like the band that I left in London kept going and actually got way better once I left. So, um, the good news is that because they kept going, we had like this almost like instant resource of like another band to do to split resourcing and costs and, and, uh, booking with. And so they're based out of London

18:00Brumeand we're based here in San Francisco, but you know, last time we were in Europe, we did the first part of our leg on ourselves. And then we eventually met up with them in Holland and

18:10Jamiekind of did a few shows there and back to London. So it's again, to Jordan's point, it's kind of great. Cause you can find another band, buddy with them, make it happen.

18:18HostAnd, uh, that's how the Desert Fest London came about, right?

18:23JamieYeah. The, the, um, Desert Fest London. So again, I'm from, like I lived in London for

18:28Brumealmost kind of nine years. Um, and all of the bands and that whole, I mean, that whole show is actually, um, run by a guy in a band called Steak. That's a band that I used to play with when I was in London. So it all just feels very family to me and Desert Fest coming from kind of London originally just, um, came about from knowing people and playing with all the bands. Um, you know, Matt, who's in Gravelines and Gareth, who's in Gert and, you know, Reese, who's in Steak, were all

18:58Jamiepeople that we kind of just knew. So just reached out.

19:01HostYeah. And you also played in Vienna, Austria. That's where I'm recording from.

19:04BrumeOh. In 2018. Yeah. Nice. It's one of our favorite places we've ever been to.

19:11HostYeah. We had a blast. Unfortunately, I was not there because I didn't know about you back then. I missed the show. How did that happen? It was one of the, of these European

19:23Brumetours. Yeah. I don't remember how we got, we got that festival in Austria and then the

19:28Jamierest was kind of built out around that. The Vienna show, actually, we didn't have a show in Vienna. And what we did is we had a day off and we went to Vienna because we had friends that were from America, like just hanging out in Europe. And so we were like, oh, we'll come to Vienna with you. We've got a night or two off. And so when we were there, we found out about the Polarian show.

19:48BrumeThey played with us at the festival in Budapest like two or three days before. And then we saw that they were playing in Vienna the next night and there was only one or two bands on the slot. So we sent them a Facebook message. Hey, can we jump on the bill? And they said, yeah, of course. That's how we had to play that show. So we ended up just being the opener, like, and literally the night before, just like drunk, eating schnitzel in the streets. And then like emailing someone and getting on this show. And it was a great show. It was so much fun. It's in that venue. There's almost like a cave downstairs. You probably know it.

20:18HostIt's a metal bar. The name of that place is Escape, which is at Neustivgasse in Vienna, Austria.

20:24?It was cool.

20:25HostSo, yeah. And I wanted to ask you like what your memory is from the European tour. But of course, now you mentioned that it's one of the best memories playing there.

20:33BrumeThe festival there was crazy. It's so beautiful. And the people were amazing. And that was probably, you know, we just... It's so easy to drive around.

20:45JamieIt was our first show. I don't think we knew what to expect from the tour because it's, I mean, this is part of like the stupidness and the excitement of self-booking is that you're like, this could be terrible or it could be great. Who knows?

20:57BrumeYeah. You don't know until you get there.

20:58JamieAnd so, you know, we kind of land in Germany, drive however many hours to get down to this festival. I can't pronounce it. Sausip? Sausip?

21:08BrumeYeah. Something like that. That was the name of the festival. The name of the festival. Yeah.

21:12HostThe name of the festival is Sausip Rocks Festival.

21:15BrumeBut yeah, we like drive however many hours, you know, and it's like this region of like, there's lakes and there's mountains and it's gorgeous. Played in a cornfield. And he's in a cornfield and there's a festival there and just like... Slept in a big farmhouse. Yeah.

21:29?It was awesome.

21:30BrumeIt was so fun.

21:31JamieBy the way, there's a guy there that had really, really big arms and a Slayer tattoo that I don't know his name, but he might be our band's mascot. He's our favorite person.

21:41BrumeWe'll never forget him. We forgot your name, but we'll never forget you. It was Slayer Arm. We love you, whoever you are.

21:49HostI will post it on social media. Maybe we will find him.

21:52BrumeIf you could connect us with him, he would make our years.

21:56HostOh, that would be cool. That would be cool. All right. So, and you did, okay, Donkey and then came about The Rooster in 2017. And this is already more... So, can I say that Donkey was more like an experimental EP when you were trying to find the sound?

22:15?Yeah. Yeah.

22:16JamieI think it was exactly that. I think, like I said, you know, at that time, we'd figured that we wanted to make heavy music and we were kind of figuring out, obviously, Susie's voice. So, Donkey felt more like just establishing the band as being a band, but not, you know, the first things you're getting out of your head and playing. And it felt like if I look back at it, there's things I love about it, but it feels like it sounds like a genre versus us.

22:42BrumeThere was a bit of a rush to put it out, too, because Susie was very pregnant when we recorded it. And so, we weren't sure if the band was going to continue or not. So, I think we were just trying to get some songs down in the studio as quickly as possible, you know, before everything kind of blew up.

22:56JamieYeah. She was like eight months pregnant recording vocals on that.

22:59HostWow. And The Rooster was already released on, not on tapes, on vinyl, I think, or on everything.

23:06BrumeWe did everything for The Rooster. That one came out and everything, yeah.

23:09HostSo, and what changed between the EP and The Rooster? Like, okay, we mentioned the sound. How did you record? Do you do the recording at home or in the studio? The difference was Billy. We went on our first tour ever, right after Donkey came out, and

23:23Brumewe went up to the Pacific Northwest. And right in the middle of touring, we had a genius idea to go record a single with Billy Anderson at Cloud City Studios. And the experience was just so good that when we decided to do another record, we wanted to do it with Billy. And so, we brought him down to Sharkbite. That's where we did it.

23:44?Yeah.

23:45BrumeWhich is a studio down here in Oakland. And it was like five days or six days, and we just banged it out. And then that kind of became the pattern for all the other albums.

23:54HostYeah. I read somewhere that your songs are getting longer and longer.

23:58BrumeThey were. We've been busy in the pandemic. We're squeezing them now. We're now going the opposite, because again, we've got bad sets of humor.

24:09HostAll right. So, tell us, what have you been doing in the last two years, I guess, already now, since the pandemic?

24:17BrumeLike, a lot and not very much. Yeah. A lot of practice. We added a member.

24:22?Yeah. No way. Yeah.

24:24HostWait. No way.

24:26BrumeWait. Yeah. I want you to guess what instrument you think it would be. Yeah. What instrument did we add?

24:31?Organ.

24:32BrumeIt's not a bad set.

24:34?No.

24:35HostAh. Okay. I don't know.

24:36JamieSo, we got... Do you know the band Gracion?

24:39HostSounds familiar.

24:41JamieJackie is the cellist and singer in Gracion.

24:44BrumeAh. Okay.

24:47?Yeah.

24:48HostAnd what's funny, because I saw it today in the encyclopedia of Metal Encyclopedia, and there was, like, already, like, cello there. But they kind of... Oh, my head. I'm too nervous, you know? Like, you are, like, super cool band, you know? I'm, like... Haven't done so many interviews, you know? Give me some slack.

25:06BrumeWe're just some idiots. Yeah, no. You're killing it. Yeah, you're nailing it. We're some assholes in the bedroom in Oakland, you'll find.

25:14HostI mean, this is some dramatic stuff, you know? Songs getting shorter, and then you're adding a new band number.

25:20JamieCellist, shorter. We're completely changing the way we write songs. Like, up until now, I feel like we'd started generally with, like, a riff, or, like, something... And generally, that's, like, a heavy, or something that I've brought to the table. And that was pretty, you know, pretty consistent throughout all of the records we put out. And then this one...

25:41BrumeActually, when we put out Rabbits, there's a song on it that was the first one that came

25:47Jamiefrom... I say the first one that came from Susie. Susie writes all of the lyrics and, like,

25:51Brumeparticipates a lot to the musical kind of, like, organization. But she actually brought,

25:57Jamielike, a song song to Rabbits that was in Blue Jay. So the piano song, that's a song, like, a noodle on a piano that she's been playing forever. Whenever we get in a studio, we just

26:08Brumehear that damn thing. But we made it into a song and added Jackie, actually. Jackie plays

26:13Jamieon that song as well. So if you remember, there's cello in it. That's kind of how we

26:16Brumeended up, you know, working more with Jackie. But what was interesting for me was that, like, for me, that was probably the best song on that record, or one of them. And it came from the person writing the lyrics and came from a different place than a guitar riff. And I think

26:30Jamiethat got me excited. And so me and Susie, when, you know, we all went into lockdown pretty hardcore. And then after we started kind of, like, hanging out again, I said to Susie, I

26:39Brumewas like, I think we should write all of the songs that are in your head versus me coming

26:44Jamiewith guitar riffs. And I was like, I'll come with them afterwards, but I want to start in

26:47Brumea different place. It's kind of how and where and why I think there's some differences in the length of the song, the type of song, all that stuff. Still heavy parts, but less heavy in different ways and kind of meaning or, or kind of feeling versus just heavy guitars.

27:04HostNow you're working on the new material. What's, what's the plan for the, for this year, for

27:09Brumeexample? I think we're trying to get a record out by the end of the year. I think that's the goal. So I would, I would say maybe you'll be in the studio in the next four or five months,

27:18Hostsomewhere around there, I guess. Yeah. On the same label or you have a different label now. Yeah. This one will come out on Magnetica as well. Uh, in your Facebook post, you, you wrote once respect first, fun, second, business, third.

27:37BrumeAssholes in Oakland.

27:40HostSo has anything changed since then? Wait, what was the order? Respect first, fun, second,

27:47Brumebusiness, third. I would just remove business entirely.

27:52BrumeYeah. Just, just one and two. They feel perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Heavy on the two.

28:01HostFuck the business. And it's, it's funny because in this podcast, I'm trying to, to put people more in the business state of mind, but you say fuck business. Okay. But it's also important to, to do it like mentally to be free from all that shit.

28:16JamieI think so. I think so. The second you worry about it, the second you're probably going to be making some poor decisions and you're going to end up making bad art.

28:24BrumeI can't imagine having to write a song to pay my bills. Yeah. That sounds, um, stressful.

28:30HostYeah. Uh, have you ever done any, uh, promotion by yourself? Like paid promotion or, or you just made an album, somebody picked it up, you got signed and they do all the work or how was it for you?

28:44BrumeUh, we've done a mix. We've definitely paid for promotions before. There's a PR firm in Brazil that I've worked with a few times. Um, they're called against PR, um, and they do pretty good work. There's, um, someone working out of the Midwest that their name escapes me right now, but they also do, do good promo work. Um, there's a lot of good DIY promoters out there. If you are willing to spend a little bit of money and my opinion, it's a lot more successful than doing like, uh, a paid social media ad or something like that. I try as much as possible to not give those people my money. And I would rather support people that are, you know, kind of in, in the community trying

29:21Jamieto make things happen. I think as much as you might hear us like make fun of, or kind of poke holes at the kind of heavy music genre and community, I think the community is pretty amazing. I think that like, you know, music aside, the people are like lovely and caring and, and, you know, that there's a lot of good people to reach out to and make really good connections with. And I think that that's part of what draws us into heavy and, and the kind of the heavy, um, I guess large community that, that happens globally, which is really exciting. And I think the thing that we're trying to do now is just like persuade everyone. It doesn't mean you have to make Black Sabbath

30:01Brumecovers. Just, you can, you can be really heavy. Just don't have to like, you know, have all that

30:07Hostfuzz and a big amp and stuff. You mentioned the community. What do you think about the music

30:12Brumeindustry at the moment? It's awful. Same as it ever was. Yeah. I don't see it getting a whole lot

30:19Hostbetter anytime soon. Are you, is there something specific that you're fired up about? In the music

30:24Brumeindustry or just in general? Let's start with the music industry. I think all the DIY stuff is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So I'm curious to see where that leads. I think, um, you know, like band camp has been a pretty great thing over the last, however many years. So I'm curious to see what's the next band camp that's going to pop up or something similar. Cause I have a feeling there's going to be more, you know, things like that, that kind of support the music makers that are just starting out or, you know, the guys that are never going to get a chance to be a huge touring acts. So I think the DIY scene is kind of where music is going to live for the foreseeable future, in my opinion. But at least all the good, all the good music or still, you know, the non, non mainstream. Yeah. How was Spotify for you? I switched to Apple music. Yeah. Jordan, we had this conversation on Friday at band practice. Jordan's just switched. Excuse me. I'm soaking that bit. Jordan just switched. Not because of Joe Rogan though. Yeah, that is important. Um, but I think that Spotify is fine. It's fine. It's just another, you know, I think it's important to remember that Spotify is one of many platforms that do the same thing. So you have choices and if you're publishing music, like we do, it goes out to all the platforms anyways. So it doesn't, you know, you put it on Spotify, it's also going to be up on Amazon. It's also going to be up on Apple. It's also going to be up on Deezer and all the other

31:44Hostthings. So we're all connected these days. Actually, like, do you prepare for interviews? Like for example, for this one, do you like do anything? I mean, Jordan did bring a six pack. So

31:54Brumelike we prepared a little bit, you know, I'm being facetious and very rude. Jordan did a lot of

32:01Hostwork actually. I try. That's you're the first band on my podcast. That's like drinking beer, like during the interview. So it's a new standard. I'm sorry. Well, actually, no,

32:13Brumeit's a good way, man. I was like, Oh no, we're going to get told after. Don't tell him it's 10 in the morning. Yeah. Don't tell him it's breakfast time. Yeah, exactly. It's a perfect

32:24Hostbreakfast. That's how we're going to find that dude with big arms and a Sawyer tattoo.

32:29BrumeSlayer arms. You would make my dream come true. Find that guy. Please, please. Find him internet. Side note. And it's about Slayer arm.

32:37HostMaybe give us a little bit of details how to find this guy. Maybe like more a bit description. I think it's, it's really important that we find this guy. He was like a stagehand at the

32:46BrumeSouset Festival in 2018. Is that when we were there? Yeah, I think so. He had like a dirty blonde hair, kind of short, very good looking dude in incredible shape, had a Slayer tattoo on his arm, was very nice to us. He told us where the free beer was. He told us where the beer was. He was very handsome. Like, I think Susie, all of us were just like, my goodness, like, this is a very beautiful man. He is like, so ripped, like just so big. Like

33:15Jamiehis arm was bigger than my whole being. Like he was so big. And he had, I think because of how big he was, he made the Slayer tattoo seem really small because he was so big.

33:27BrumeLike, it was amazing. And we came, we played our set. We were on at like midnight, which

33:35Jamieagain, we booked the show, like, this is going to be terrible. No one's going to show up. It's too late. Blah, blah, blah. We turn up at midnight and go on stage and it was just packed and people went bananas. It was so fun. And then we come off stage, everyone's like screaming and he forced us to go back on and do an encore.

33:53BrumeYeah. He made us go do two encores. Yeah. We didn't plan on it. He's like, go play more. It's like, oh, I don't think we have any more.

33:59JamieNo, I mean, we're trying to figure out how many other songs we had left. But like, you know, the beautiful man with the big arm that says Slayer on it tells you to do something. You just agree that you do it. All right.

34:13HostNo, I think we're going to find him now, you know?

34:15JamieI believe in you. I believe in you. And I really, like, if you tell him that like the next album, we'll, we'll use a picture of his arm with Slayer on it as the cover, if we can find it. It'll be the insert.

34:27BrumeYeah, for sure. I'm not joking. We'll call it Slayer Arms. Yeah, we'll call it Slayer Arms if we can find it. You've heard this is breaking news. Susie doesn't even know that this is the new name of the album, but it will be. It's a decision for her. Oh yeah. She'll be into it.

34:43HostAll right. I'm definitely doing this. I want to be like part of this process. I'm going to find this guy. I hope so, man.

34:49JamieCan you imagine the next podcast that we do that they're interviewing saying like, how did you land on this amazing photograph of this arm with the word Slayer on it? We're like, wow, funny story.

35:00BrumeThey actually shaved the rabbit.

35:04HostIt's all about the story. I really like such stories, you know, like, did you have any spinal tap moments during your tour in North America and Europe?

35:12BrumeWe've been pretty lucky with shows. We kind of just keep pulling them off and like, we keep getting away with it under some more or less dire circumstance. We've had some pretty close calls with members flying in last minute. We kind of make some silly decisions when we go out on the road, but we've always been able to pull it off. Yeah. Like when we go to Europe, we kind of, me personally, I book my flight in and I book my flight out and we kind of have the shows kind of figured out, but we just wing the rest. We'll pick up the car and then we'll figure out where to stay depending on wherever we are. Like we don't really have a plan. We just kind of wing it. And it's always worked. It makes it fun. It makes it fun.

35:49HostI don't know what you're doing, but it's working, you know.

35:52BrumeWe don't know either.

35:54HostI mean, definitely the dude with the Swayer tattoo is definitely going to be on the cover now because I'm fixated on this idea now.

36:01JamieYeah, that's going to be a really cool album cover. I'm really excited. I'm so into it. Spinal tap moments though. No, like, I don't think anything we're pretty, I think what's the thing again, you'll probably like tell quite quickly about is that like we play really serious sounding music and we're just not. And so, um, which is very important. Very, very important. Again, number two, super important, but touring is like us having fun. It's like, we like hanging out and we like playing shows. We like people that like going to shows. So it's just go have fun. Nothing extravagant or crazy.

36:39HostThis is weird. I mean, not weird, but when you read interviews, it's only in text. There are only a couple of audio interviews, a couple of podcasts or something like that. And you're all like super serious. You're from, especially from the album Rabbits, you all look like this, like super doomy. Like, and then I'm talking to you. I didn't expect this. That's why I'm like a little bit shocked, you know, and then you're drinking beer, you know, next time, you know, we should like, all right. I don't know. I don't have a beer, but next time I should have bought some beers,

37:11Brumeyou know, also after the, after the Slayer album, like let's all just drink some beers and just talk about how it was amazing that we found Steve or whoever it is that we're talking about. If his name is Steve, that'd be amazing. Yeah. I hope his name's Steve.

37:26HostIt's highly possible.

37:28JamieYeah. There's obviously a bit of a facade. I mean, I, I will say that like, I say a facade, like we're, we're goofy as humans. Um, but, and, and, and I think in particular myself, like I like really, really sad music. That is what draws particularly me, Susie as well to a lot of music. Susie's very into kind of the art, um, whatever, whether that's visual not of music. I think that I'm into like really sad music draws into kind of like a whole bunch and a whole host of like different aspects of music that is maybe different from being

38:01Brumevery serious. And definitely as people, we are not at all.

38:05HostSo what's the stage for you? It's a chance to be some, what, what is it to be somebody else or like to open your inner or just like, or you just like it's like the music.

38:15BrumeI've been playing shows since I was 14 and now I just can't imagine not doing it. It's, I just have, I have to do it. I'm compelled to, it's like, uh, I get antsy if I don't play shows.

38:27HostBut is it something that the stage, like when you play a live show, does it bring your true self or you feel complete or it's just a chance to be somebody else? Maybe. I don't know. I'm, I guess my wife would say when she watches me play, I'm not the same person that

38:42?she sits next to on the couch all the time. But, uh, I don't think for me, shows don't register as a whole lot being a whole lot different than like a good practice. And I honestly think I have more fun doing practices because I get to, you know, not hold back and not have to worry about making it sound good for the audience. And I just kind of get to do whatever I want and

38:59BrumeI get a little more room to experiment. So shows are a little, a little, you got to be more tight, a little more strict, but I don't think there's anything in particular. I'm like looking to get out of the experience. I just like playing shows.

39:09JamieI mean, I'm going to come at this like slightly different as well and say that like, I probably like shows less. Like I actually, I like making music. I like hanging out with the guys in Broome and one and two. Right. And I, and I think that, um, I like writing music and writing

39:27Brumesongs. I recording is hard, but I really enjoy that aspect of making music and live shows

39:35Jamiekind of just feel like just something you end up needing or wanting or having to do. And there's like, I go between kind of shows feeling like not burden, but just like hard work versus fun. Sometimes they don't feel like fun. Um, but then the really, really good ones make it worthwhile. The ones like when you turn up in a cornfield with Slayer, I'm telling you to go out and play again. You're like, okay, then maybe a part of me is like, then it's worthwhile doing. Cause you never know what, what show is going to be like that.

40:01BrumeWe've been fortunate the last couple of years, cause now we get to be a little more picky about the shows that we get to do and we're getting better and better offers. So that seems to make a huge difference. I'm more enthusiastic about playing some of these bigger shows than, than I would be a few years ago playing some of the smaller shows that we're just not able to do anymore.

40:16JamieYeah. I think it's hard. I mean, it's hard as a band, like having to like, or feeling like, like the way to kind of like reach people was like go on tour, which generally means driving most of the day, drinking too much, not sleeping enough, playing music for 30 minutes and hopefully in front of a room more than three people and then driving to the next place and do it again. It's not a wonderful existence.

40:38BrumeExhausting.

40:38HostHow was it for you to play with bands like High on Fire? Great.

40:42?Pretty fun.

40:43BrumeYeah. Those guys are great. Yeah. Super nice guys.

40:45JamieWith the High on Fire show in Budapest, we ended up out with Matt all night. That was

40:52Brumepretty, yeah, pretty fun.

40:54?Yeah.

40:55JamieAgain, what's funny is I think you keep asking, I think you keep asking questions about shows and we deflect to like the moment afterwards where we did some, like we just hung out or having fun. The show was great. It was this really cool venue.

41:06HostYeah. But actually like, forget about the show. Tell us what was after the show.

41:10BrumeCool. So we played with this Swedish band. I can't remember their name. There's a lot of them. And so after the show and we were hanging out with them, we got along really well. So we're like, we're going to go to some bar afterwards. And they're like, oh, we're all tired. We don't want to go. But this guy just had a baby and he hasn't had a night off in like four months. So take him with you.

41:26?Yeah.

41:26BrumeSo we got in a cab with this dude and we went to this like weird, like Mexican sports bar. Like in Budapest, it was weird. And the guy's like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? We told him like, oh yeah, Matt Pike's going to come meet us for drinks. And the guy's like, yeah, right. Like he totally didn't believe us. And then we get a text. He's like, oh yeah, he's on his way. He's like, yeah, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. Matt Pike walks in the door. Hey guys, he buys us all around to drinks. And the guy's jaw was just on the floor. He could not believe that Matt Pike was there. And we've met him before. So we're just like, hey, how's it going? You know, let's let's drink beers. I distinctly remember me and Jordan being at the bar and Matt coming over and being like, hey guys, I'll get around. My band's doing quite well. Yes, Matt, your band sleep

42:08Jamieis doing quite well. And I will take your drink. Thank you very much. So it was fun.

42:13HostAny other stories like that with other bands on tours?

42:16JamieI've got, we've got a really good story about being in Amsterdam or on our way to Amsterdam that, bear with me, is slightly long, but ridiculous and silly and fun because that's

42:27Hostthe way. Do it. I need, I need cool stories.

42:30BrumeOkay. So imagine, imagine this. We're in Lasik. I'm trying to remember the name of the

42:37Jamietown, rudely. Susie's got an ex who lives there, who runs a record store. And we somehow

42:47?hook up a show there. It's really cool. We have fun. Gert from London, come meet us.

42:52JamieTwo bands play. It's a really great night. And then that's where they pick us up in their van and we're going to drive to Amsterdam because that night we're going to spend the night. The next night we had our last show in Europe and we were going to play this brewery in Amsterdam the next night. It was going to be epic. We jump in a van and Gareth, the singer at Gert, has only just, this is telling, he's like in his thirties, had only just passed his driving license. And it's the first time he's ever driven on the wrong side of the road. So he gets in a van and he starts driving at like 2am, but realizes that he's on the wrong side of the road, driving down a one-way street. And meanwhile, we're in Holland. So the rest of us are in the back smoking a joint. And then as he's driving down the wrong way of the road, cop pulls up, pulls down window. It's like, hey. Cloud. Yeah. Clouds out the window. And he's like, hey, like a couple of things. Firstly, you're driving on the wrong side of the road down a one-way street. Second thing, you should not be smoking marijuana in the car while you were driving. And so Gareth, the singer had to take a drug test. And so while

43:59Brumesaid drug test is kind of waiting to be processed, they're kind of shooting the shit. The police was like, so, hey, what do you, why are you at? Why are you driving? He's like, well, actually we're in a band. We're in a, we're in a, they're in a doom band from America and we're in a sludge band from England and we're on tour and la la la. And by the way, I just want to preface that Gareth hadn't smoked any drugs. So he was a very responsible driver. He just didn't know his left and his right. And I was completely passed out in the back of the car.

44:26JamieSo they're shooting the shit. They're talking about music. This policeman's like, oh, no way. I love sludge metal. And he's like, really? And he's like, yeah. And he's like,

44:33Brumewell, what band are you in from London? And he tells him I'm in the band Gert. And the policeman's like, I fucking love Gert. You guys rule. And Gareth's like, you're joking. He's like, no, no, no. I love you guys. I was hoping to make it to the Amsterdam show tomorrow. So the policeman already knew about this tour we were on. So then they're still waiting for the drug test. It comes up. Gareth is, you know, past it. He has not drank. He has not smoked any weed. So he passed the test. And in the end, the policeman's like, you guys,

45:02Jamieit's been a pleasure. I love speaking to you. I'm going to help you drive and get you on the

45:06Brumeright road to get you to Amsterdam. And hopefully I'll see you tomorrow at the show. So just the nicest guy, the nicest police pulling over you could ever imagine, the polar opposite of what would happen in North America. And so we get to Amsterdam. We continue drinking and smoking. We're just laughing at the ridiculousness of being pulled over by a policeman and him loving our bands and letting us go and driving us. So we all decide that night that we're going to get the Dutch police logo tattooed on ourselves in Amsterdam the next day. We've been talking about getting a group tour tattoo all week and we couldn't figure out what to do. So we're like, let's get the Dutch police logo. So next day we're in, we're in Amsterdam, slamming margaritas, drinking mugs. Cause that's that's the drink of choice. If you hang my broom, it's nothing red wine or blood. It's all margaritas

45:53Jamiefun time. And so we go get, we find the parlor that we're going to get these tattoos and we get really bad. This is not a shout, but really badly done tattoos. This, this is the

46:06Brumelogo on the side of a police vehicle that we Googled. We Google image search and pick the first result. Yep. So we all, I think six of us got the tattoo. Yep. Susie's got one. I think it took a week for us to find out. It's not the Dutch police. It's the Belgium police. And we've never actually been to Belgium. We got the wrong logo. We got the wrong country. And my mom thinks

46:31Hostwe're stupid. Oh man, that's a great story. That was a tangent, right? I told you, buckle up. I think it's another like level of, of bands, how you should like be as a band.

46:46BrumeWell, I think again, there's, there's, there's probably things to learn and not learn to do in that story. But I think, um, but generally there's a good amount of camaraderie, stupidity and fun. And that's a good part of what we're doing. Some of our best decisions have been

47:03Hostbad decisions. Do you have any planned gigs in the near future? Because this episode will

47:09Brumecome out in one week? We do. Which one? Uh, we're playing, we're going to open for Yob at the Great American Music Hall on March 19th. And then, uh, do I do the other one too? Yeah, why not? Since it's coming out in a week. Um, we have also been invited to play Desert Fest New York in May, May 14th, 15th, something. Somewhere in May. It's in May. Congrats. This

47:30Hostis awesome. And how you got invited? They just invited you? They did. I mean, I think our

47:34Brumelabel had a big part of it. They're based out on the East coast. So a couple of the bands from, uh, Magnetic Eye were already playing. So big shout out to Chad and the

47:43Jamiegang there. Um, but yeah, that's, we got, we got invited. The Yob show is a long time coming. It was a show that we originally booked two years ago and then the pandemic happened and that, that show got canceled and the venues moved. It was going to be in Oakland and now it's in San Francisco by far, like the most beautiful venue in the

48:00Brumecity. So that's a really exciting one as well. There's been talk for a couple of years now, but it keeps getting postponed because of the pandemic and we've been invited to Germany. Um, and we'd love to come back, but it just keeps falling through every year. So as soon as it's, uh, back in the works, we're going to try to make the effort to get back over there. And when we do, we can re-invite Slayer arm so we can hand deliver a copy of the new album that's got Slayer arm written on it. I want him up on stage with us. Oh man, I want him in the band. Acoustic 12 string. Yeah. What if he's, what if he slays? What if he's

48:31Hostreally good? I guarantee that guy slays. All right. We're almost done. Where can people

48:39Brumecheck out broom music? I think the easiest place is probably just go to broomband.com. Um, Jamie and I don't do any of the social media. By the way, really, really cool website. Oh, thanks. I really

48:50Hostlike the website and that you, that you put all the interviews there. Yes. It was so easy to read

48:55Brumeeverything. Thank you. Jordan is a professional. Jordan's professional. We do everything. Everything

49:01Hostis done by us. And which song are we going to hear at the end of the episode? I believe you're going to listen to Scurry. All right. Uh, Jordan and Jamie, thank you very much for this interview. Thank you. Thank you very much. It was very fun. A really cool song. Thanks bro. And thank you for listening to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. Don't forget to follow the show on Spotify. And if you like what you're hearing, wait for the show on Spotify or any other podcast platform that you prefer.