Fairytale Q & A: BREVE
Melbourne psychedelic trio BREVE are currently tearing it up in the UK, performing plenty of shows and a little bit of writing. We asked the lads how they’d cope stuck in a magical land of tales and the story behind their latest single.
If you woke up in a magical land having accidentally crushed a wicked witch with a flying abode, name one anthropomorphic animal, plant and kitchen item to guide you around?
Oh my god that’s hectic, I don’t know what you guys are on but I want some! That reminds me of this bedtime story Dad used to tell me and my big brother. It was this kid with some kind of magic scooter, there was a witch in there somewhere…f*ck, I wish I could remember that story. You need to hear this story. He had a Blinky Bill style knapsack with a tomato sauce sandwich…
If you all had to give each other knight’s names what would you all be going by?
Tobes would have to be Sir Cockcheeks because we are in the UK at the moment touring and he wouldn’t wake up this morning so naturally he got a little bit of permanent marker to the face. The name isn’t too cryptic so you can probably imagine what he’s been walking around Camden looking like this morning.
Mathias can be Sir InZid ‘cos he’s from NZ and he always says “yeah I’m from InZid” and I just find it kind of funny. It’s the little things when you’re spending large amounts of time in small spaces with people. It’s not very funny really. It’s kind of lame naming yourself isn’t it? Oh here we go, the boys say I’m Sir Jared “because we’ve been eating a titload of Subway over here”. It’s the only thing that’s semi-healthy and cheap.
If Nothing Stays The Same was a fairytale and Breve were the main characters, give us a three line summary of the tale.
This is the story of the transitory nature of human existence and an outpouring of confusion and anger that is stirred up by the selfish decisions of those in power. We live in a fast-paced, ever-changing society that puts a lot of strain on the environment, the Earth, and our home.
Governments and corporations choose momentary gains over long-term sustainability, ripping up the Earth and polluting the things that give us life and allow us to survive here. I don’t have the answers but I have questions and sometimes I’d rather write a hate song than a love song. In the end nothing stays, everyone disintegrates and the Earth lives happily ever after.
For the uninitiated, how would you describe Breve’s sound and live shows?
We love variety and we embrace change. We make experimental music. It can be loud and heavy and aggressive, but it can just as easily be soft and soothing and psychedelic. We incorporate ‘rock’ instruments with electronic elements like synths and drum pads and vocal loops and all sorts of shit.
We’re a 3-piece who lug around enough gear for six so that we can try to communicate all the twisted ideas in our collective mind. Our live show is trippy and intense. It’s rarely perfect. We thrash around and break strings and try to have as much fun as everyone watching it.
We’re loving the track Nothing Stays The Same, what’s the story behind the song?
It’s one of the first tracks we wrote when Mathias joined the band last year. The last 7” we put out had more of the electronic vibes coming through as we were experimenting heavily with drum loops and synthesisers at that time. Although we’re still doing all that tasty sh*t, it doesn’t really capture the scope of what we’re into.
We wanted to put out one of our heavier tracks. It’s long and relentless and a PR person told us it wasn’t single material, which is probably spot on if you want to play the game, but I guess you make your own choices in life and the song itself is a bit of a f*ck you to the system, so here it is!
Lastly, what are three things that fans should know before they catch you live?
- Bring some earplugs.
- Maybe a raincoat if you’re up the front, or ‘the nosebleed section’ as our contemporaries Hilltop Hoods would call it.
- I’m from Rockhampton originally, the beef capital of Australia. I’ll probably tell you that, I used to think it was kind of uncool when I was younger, but you gotta be true to yourself, y’know? I could have ended up working in the abattoir so you gotta appreciate the journey life takes you on…
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