A Free Man

“Tequila and red wine,
Beer and vodka that tasted like gin
But slipped down like tears
I was not on my knees by accident…”

-The Broken Family Band - “Cocktail Lounge”

When I first heard The Broken Family Band a couple of years ago they were a refreshing change from the standard Radio 1 Kaiser Monkey fare. They brought a little bit of twang to which helped assuage the occasional creeping homesickness that is part of the expatriate experience. A few critics had picked up on the Cambridge based quartet using terms like “alt-country”, “country-fried” and the “Americana Album Of The Month”. The latter being a particularly good selling point in Britain.

Well, nobody likes to be stereotyped - pigeon-holed in Pigeon Forge if you will. So, when Steve Adams agreed to sit down for the Great Interview of the Week, it’s only natural that things got a touch adversarial as your underwhelming correspondent tried to keep them in a box they are trying to escape….

AFM: Cambridge is a damn long way from Nashville and is even pretty distant from the heart of the American alt-country movement that came out of Texas and the Midwest in the 1990’s. Yet I can hear those places in your music. What or who inspired four guys from Cambridgeshire to make music that wouldn’t be out of place on Austin City Limits?

SA: We don’t do it anymore, that’s all I can say really. Country music. Well, it’s not our main thing. We got bored of it, and we needed to escape our rootin’ tootin’ peers. We were never dressing up as Americans or any of that. I even dropped the American accent. It was fun for ages, but we’re onto something else now. There’s a lot of music still to get through and we can’t keep getting lumped in with those Americana bands.

AFM: If you could play as the backing band for any singer (living or dead) who would it be?

SA: Roy Orbison. I’d like to have played guitar with The Ink Spots though.

AFM: I’ve got to admit to being a horn lover and that’s one of the things that initially drew me to you guys, the occasional track that broke out in horny glory - “Give And Take” from “Hello Love” is a great example. Who’s that getting down on the brass?

That’s my friend Torsten Larsen from the excellent Larsen & Furious Jane. They’re a Danish band, based in the fine town of Aarhus. We first met when I rode a borrowed bicycle into him and he tried to fight me, but we later realized that I’d been admiring his album cover in a local café. He emailed his trumpet parts, isn’t that futuristic? I’d recommend that band to anyone.

AFM: I got into you guys after hearing “Welcome Home, Loser”. I thought I would check out your newest record “Hello, Love” before writing the questions for this interview. When I went down to the Oxford city center today I despaired to discover two things. First, the last independent record shop in the city center had shut down. Second, none of the big chains had any of your records for sale. Assuming that these are not uncommon events, what’s the future for independent music in Britain?

SA: I don’t know. It’s a shame, but the good stuff always finds its way out there. Hello Love is a grower I think.

AFM: What other bands are in your musical posse? Who are your peeps?

SA: Who do we roll with? We’re good friends with Absentee, they’re good people. Most of our friends probably aren’t musicians. I was out with Larry Love from the Alabama 3 the other night. He just kept telling me off for not behaving like a rock star. He’s very good at behaving like a rock star, and he’s a good gentleman. Also David Byrne. Well I met him once. Years ago.

AFM: The American alt-country scene seems a better fit for you guys? Have you toured over there?

We played in Texas once, but we don’t have enough time to worry about conquering America or anything.

AFM: What kind of reception did you get?

SA: We played our worst ever show in Texas.

AFM: You guys can flat out write a song. And at the risk of overusing the “country” label, a lot of your songs circle that great Country music quartet - love, lost love, booze soaked remorse and revenge…

Thanks. I’m being difficult aren’t I? It’s our fault entirely – we’ve made a bunch of records with acoustic guitars and American accents and even pedal steel and stuff a few years back, but we’ve always been evolving. We’ve evolved, erm, out of that country music now. I have had a reasonably limited palette in terms of what I write about, but that’s because I couldn’t see beyond the remorse and the revenge. Now that I’ve seen the body float away I can move on.

AFM: How about, and I love this lyric -

“You’re a devil woman, your heart is black, but your body drives me crazy
You’re a sick satanic lady, you’re full of hate and I just love that
I just love that…”

Has your love life sucked that bad?

SA: You’re not the first to ask. That’s a made up story and it was always supposed to be funny, like a parody of moaning love songs. It never occurred to me that people would think I wanted them to think I went out with a Satanist.

I just read that verse again and it doesn’t sound so bleak to me. There’s love in there AFM, what are we without love?

AFM: You guys are currently the “hottest unsigned band in Britain” having cut ties with Track & Field. What are you looking for from a new label?

SA: We’re looking for smiling men with bad reputations.

AFM: Speaking of record labels, back in the heyday of Sun Records Sam Phillips used to send all of his acts out on tour together. So you would have a showcase with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, etc. come roaring in to some dead-end town in Oklahoma. If you had to take a showcase troupe to Nowhere, OK what bands or artists (living or dead) would you bring with you?

The Walkmen, Akron/Family, Rachel Unthank, The Crack Pipes and Dan Michaelson and The Coastguards.

AFM: What’s next for The Broken Family Band? When can we expect a new record and what can we expect from it?

We’re starting a new record in May, and we have our groove on. There are a couple of new tunes on our myspace page that give a clue, but we’re just going to make a very good rock ‘n roll record. We’ll see.

AFM: Bonus - Johnny Cash, Johnny Ramone or Johnny Borrell?

SA: Johnny Cash. The other two aren’t my cup of tea at all.

—————–

Johnny Cash is, of course, the right answer. Well done and thanks to Steve Adams for taking a seat on the virtual couch. Country or otherwise, The Broken Family Band is carving out their own niche in the British music pantheon. Check out three tracks from their three most recent records pasted below. If you like what you hear then buy “Hello Love” and other records from The Broken Family Band at , Amazon and eMusic.

 

 The Broken Family Band - "You Get Me" [4:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Broken Family Band - "I'm Thirsty" [3:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Broken Family Band - "Honest Man's Blues" [2:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 6% [?]