We had a quick chat with Brawlers at 2000 Trees a couple of weeks ago about their new EP and the importance of being genuine in music, as well as the fact that they’re working on a new album that should hopefully be out at the beginning of next year. Keep your eyes peeled.
You’ve just been on tour with Blackhole. How did it go?
Pert: Oh yeah, that whole tour and those guys, it was just really fun.
So, are you excited to play the main stage at 2000 Trees later on?
Harry: Oh yeah, really excited.
Have you played here before?
Harry: Two years ago. It was our first year of being a band and we played the Axiom stage. It was really cool. We fucking love this festival. It’s beautiful. Actually, last year I slept just next to that water over there. I’d drunk so much that I just slept on a crate. It was beautiful.
So tell me about your new EP, ‘The Black EP’.
Harry: Best EP of the year. Ok, so basically we’re quite a new band and quite recently we’ve discovered within ourselves what we’re actually about, and that EP is a representation of that. We’ve got an EP and an album from before and people liked them which is good but it was just us being in our mid-20s singing about girls and stuff, and now as an older gentleman I realise that’s bullshit. I’d rather write songs about getting drunk. The best thing to do is write songs about what’s around you, isn’t it? It’s true though. The best songs, it doesn’t matter what kind of music you like, you listen to them and you go “Fucking hell, I know what you mean.” Like our song ‘Day Job’, every person in the world knows what it’s like to work a shitty day job. We fucking do, so we might as well write a song about that rather than what it’s like to pop champagne. We drive around in a van, play shows, get drunk and try and forget about all the boring stuff we have to do when we’re not on tour.
So what your’s main stage debut going to be like? Are you going to play a lot of the new EP?
Pert: Yeah. All of it! We don’t really change it up depending on where we’re playing or what stage we’re doing. If you like us, then you like us, and if you don’t, you’re wrong.
Harry: We’re not the kind of band – I mean, you’ve heard the songs, so if we come out on the main stage, people know what to expect from us. Holograms and dragons coming out of your hair and fire going everywhere, that’s not what we’re about. And you know that’s not what we’re about, and 2000 Trees are gonna know that’s not what we’re about, and that’s gonna seem fake and bullshit, and my radar for fake and bullshit behaviour is up to high sensitivity in this band. That’s why things can sometimes take a little longer for Brawlers, and I think also that’s why certain people really are impassioned by what we’re doing which is really nice, but it’s just because I’d rather cut the bullshit and take the long way around. That’s exactly how we all feel. And it’s great because we see all these bands that are spoonfed, and I couldn’t go to sleep at night if that was what we were doing. As I said, I’d rather take the long way round and be honest and cut the bullshit.
But that’s the way it should be. The bands that get big too quickly never last because they haven’t put in the graft.
Pert: We’ve done some graft, and we’re happy to do a thousand more years of graft.
Harry: We can go to our graves and think, “Yeah, we did that the right way”. I think something that’s inescapable about alternative music at the moment is that a lot of bands come out of the gates and they strategise their sound or image towards people of a certain youth culture, which is fine, and that’s not our concern. All our songs are about getting drunk and doing bad shit and that’s just as important as the bands with the backwards caps talking about eating pizza and pretending to be American. I’m not interested in that. And that’s fine and it’s got its place but it’s a place I don’t give a flying fuck about.
So what are your plans after 2000 Trees?
Harry: We’ve got Kendal Calling. And then we’re gonna finish off the record. I can’t say too much about it because we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves, but if all goes to plan, it’ll be out in January 2017. And there’s a few little hidden things happening between here and then.
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