BRSR | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I love it. That is portals. The band is BRSR

0:04 Speaker 1: and we have members of the band on with us

0:06 Speaker 1: via Microsoft teams. We're gonna speak with them in just

0:09 Speaker 1: a moment. But if you are listening live, welcome. We

0:12 Speaker 1: have entered our number two New Maarrow dose of Matt

0:15 Speaker 1: Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of

0:18 Speaker 1: WMNH ninety five point three FM and glorious but very

0:21 Speaker 1: very bitterly cold, Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can

0:24 Speaker 1: stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot

0:27 Speaker 1: com slash live for all your live streaming options, social

0:29 Speaker 1: media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera.

0:33 Speaker 1: Today is January thirty one, twenty twenty six, and let's

0:37 Speaker 1: go ahead. We'll get this up here. And I think

0:40 Speaker 1: we've got a few members of the band with us.

0:43 Speaker 1: Hello everybody, Hello, Hey, hey, good. So let's see. So

0:48 Speaker 1: it looks like we have Matt Hison, Drew Young and

0:53 Speaker 1: Chloe Johnston with us. Is that correct? Yeah, that's right, wonderful.

0:58 Speaker 1: Welcome everybody, And uh yeah, I love that track. I

1:01 Speaker 1: mean it's it's just and I did listen to the

1:03 Speaker 1: whole album by the way you've got a just a

1:06 Speaker 1: big sound. I just uh, you know, that's the easiest

1:08 Speaker 1: way to describe it. It's just big. It's expansive, and

1:11 Speaker 1: I really really like that. I love I love the mix.

1:13 Speaker 1: I love everything about it. So welcome. It is wonderful

1:16 Speaker 1: to speak to the three of you now, and you're

1:19 Speaker 1: a five piece correct, Yeah, yeah, I bet when you

1:24 Speaker 1: play live, I'm sure it also sounds you know, you

1:27 Speaker 1: know big. I'd love to I'd love to see all live. Obviously,

1:30 Speaker 1: geographically that would not be uh not be easy to

1:33 Speaker 1: pull on. But but let's see. So, so Matt you're

1:38 Speaker 1: you're the guitar player, and Drew you're the drummer, and

1:41 Speaker 1: Chloe you do vocals and synth. Correct, yep, that's right,

1:47 Speaker 1: very good, very good. So well, let's start with the

1:49 Speaker 1: most obvious question first, and then we'll kind of we'll

1:52 Speaker 1: we'll talk more about the music. But I want to

1:54 Speaker 1: know about the name. Uh what does b R s

1:56 Speaker 1: R me?

1:58 Speaker 2: So it's actually just short.

1:59 Speaker 3: In the version of Bruiser it was Dove who's not

2:03 Speaker 3: here to their front man who wanted here, originally wanted

2:05 Speaker 3: to be called Burst, and I thought that was the

2:07 Speaker 3: worst name we postally go for, because the quotations for

2:10 Speaker 3: that in Scotland are probably completely different from anywhere else

2:12 Speaker 3: in the world. But yeah, so we we went with Bruiser,

2:17 Speaker 3: but I found out there was a DJ also called Bruiser,

2:20 Speaker 3: so I thought the easiest thing to do was to

2:22 Speaker 3: shorten it. Also, just it looks, it looks better in

2:24 Speaker 3: terms of the logo and things like that. Just it

2:26 Speaker 3: looks looks a little bitter on the T shirt.

2:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, it does, it does. So am I

2:30 Speaker 1: Am I saying it wrong?

2:30 Speaker 4: Then?

2:31 Speaker 1: Am I?

2:31 Speaker 5: Am?

2:31 Speaker 1: I not supposed to say b R s R.

2:33 Speaker 2: No, it would be bruiser.

2:35 Speaker 3: But we get a lot of people all the time

2:37 Speaker 3: being like, oh hey, what what does it stand for?

2:38 Speaker 3: I'm like, well, nothing, so.

2:43 Speaker 1: I should be saying bruiser Yeah brs Okay, wonderful, Okay, excellent, excellent.

2:48 Speaker 1: So tell me about that that track portals because it just,

2:53 Speaker 1: like I said, it just sounds so big. It's atmospheric,

2:56 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it kind of reminds me a

2:59 Speaker 1: little little bit of of some of the at least

3:03 Speaker 1: what was happening here in America. Some of that Well,

3:07 Speaker 1: I shouldn't say happening here in America because a lot

3:09 Speaker 1: of it was happening over there, but it was becoming

3:11 Speaker 1: very popular here in America. You know that that kind

3:14 Speaker 1: of a big, expansive sound, But I'm curious, I mean,

3:19 Speaker 1: is that kind of I listened to the whole album.

3:22 Speaker 1: It kind of sounds that's like what you're going for broadly,

3:24 Speaker 1: but you you capture it so well. I think Portals

3:27 Speaker 1: is an excellent choice for a single, But how do

3:31 Speaker 1: you how do you describe your sound? What what is

3:33 Speaker 1: it that you're trying to project with with Bruiser now

3:36 Speaker 1: that I know how to say the name.

3:40 Speaker 3: I think for us, from the start, we've always spoke

3:42 Speaker 3: about the fact that we feel that the best personal

3:45 Speaker 3: selves is live and when we recorded this album, we

3:48 Speaker 3: recorded initially live in a converted church building over.

3:52 Speaker 2: The course of two days.

3:53 Speaker 1: Oh really.

3:54 Speaker 3: So for example, one of the longest song on the

3:57 Speaker 3: album is the second last track, Buried at Home, which

3:59 Speaker 3: is just under about eleven minutes, and the take that

4:03 Speaker 3: is on the album was the was the only take

4:05 Speaker 3: we did, and it was done live and full. And

4:08 Speaker 3: I think that that is the way that we want

4:09 Speaker 3: to capture the band because for me, I feel like

4:13 Speaker 3: any band should be at the peak of the powers

4:14 Speaker 3: when they're live and are able to express themselves and

4:17 Speaker 3: change things as time goes on.

4:19 Speaker 2: Because you know the quarterly version of anything.

4:21 Speaker 3: I think if you're going to stick to that version

4:22 Speaker 3: for this, your career is going to get boring pretty quickly.

4:25 Speaker 2: Mm hm.

4:26 Speaker 3: So this, this is the kind of way the songs

4:28 Speaker 3: sound now, but it's open to the idea of we

4:32 Speaker 3: can adapt these as as as the sound progresses, as

4:35 Speaker 3: we progressive musicians and as we change as people as well.

4:38 Speaker 3: But I get what you mean about this about the

4:40 Speaker 3: sound as well. Like we I would say was probably

4:44 Speaker 3: my attempt to write a hum song. So yeah, as

4:49 Speaker 3: long as long as we've captured the kind of essence

4:52 Speaker 3: of that, then I'll be happy with that.

4:54 Speaker 1: And what are the lyrics about here? And who writes

4:57 Speaker 1: the lyrics? I don't know if your singer writes some

4:59 Speaker 1: or if you read them or who who who?

5:03 Speaker 3: It's it's myself for the time being, so that this

5:05 Speaker 3: this album is written by myself out there in necessity

5:09 Speaker 3: because we've been we've been a band of six months

5:11 Speaker 3: and we had about three songs that we we we

5:15 Speaker 3: sort of rushed together for a gig. The band is

5:18 Speaker 3: pretty much that the gig goes booked before before a

5:20 Speaker 3: band essentially, and the band was sort of made for

5:23 Speaker 3: a gig I still six months later, so one song

5:28 Speaker 3: became two, two became four, and then ended up just

5:31 Speaker 3: with the full albums.

5:32 Speaker 2: So that's pretty much what we've been working with the

5:33 Speaker 2: past year or so.

5:35 Speaker 3: Lyrically, it's it's part of the album as a whole,

5:39 Speaker 3: is as as a concept piece, but it also doubles

5:42 Speaker 3: up as as individual songs as well, so that they

5:46 Speaker 3: have their own separate means to me personally as well

5:48 Speaker 3: to the actual story itself. But it's it's sort of

5:51 Speaker 3: about being either trap within yourself and looking for a

5:56 Speaker 3: way out, but it's also about being trapped with another

6:01 Speaker 3: but feeling like you're together, but you're not feeling together.

6:04 Speaker 3: So you know, the kind of wor would have been

6:07 Speaker 3: that you can be living with someone, but you can

6:09 Speaker 3: feel like you're not actually living with someone, if you

6:13 Speaker 3: know what I mean. It's almost like so as a

6:16 Speaker 3: feeling like you're living with someone that you have a

6:18 Speaker 3: deep connection with, but the connections feeling.

6:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's something that's relatable. You know,

6:25 Speaker 1: certainly a lot of people go through that. I mean

6:27 Speaker 1: probably everyone goes through that at some point in their lives,

6:29 Speaker 1: you know. Feeling that way, yeah, I feel like and

6:32 Speaker 1: again not just with portals, but with the rest of

6:34 Speaker 1: the album too. You know, there's there's a lot of

6:37 Speaker 1: emotion there. It's it's as you know, obviously, you know,

6:42 Speaker 1: songs can be you know, they're up to the interpretation

6:45 Speaker 1: of the of the listener, but I I could feel

6:48 Speaker 1: a lot of I just found it. I found it

6:50 Speaker 1: highly relatable the whole thing, like I said, in addition

6:53 Speaker 1: to the big sound, it also you know, just hearing

6:55 Speaker 1: these lyrics and again, you know, I everyone puts their

6:58 Speaker 1: own interpretation onto what they're hearing, but to me, I

7:01 Speaker 1: really I really connected with a lot of this. Can

7:05 Speaker 1: you can Can you tell me more again about how

7:08 Speaker 1: this band started, because that was interesting. You said something

7:12 Speaker 1: about a gig and then you had to put a

7:13 Speaker 1: band together to fit the gig, and tell me about that.

7:16 Speaker 3: So essentially, David, our singer, had decided that he we

7:20 Speaker 3: were in the band previously, and he'd been out to

7:22 Speaker 3: music for quite a while and he'd said to me,

7:24 Speaker 3: I'm looking at getting back at the music again.

7:25 Speaker 2: But he'd previously been a drummer.

7:28 Speaker 3: But we we'd known for I was in a band

7:30 Speaker 3: with him when when I was fifteen, so we'd always

7:33 Speaker 3: known that he had a great voice and he wanted

7:36 Speaker 3: to be He wanted this to be his first solo adventure,

7:38 Speaker 3: and I was like, okay, that's that's that's kind of cool.

7:42 Speaker 3: But he went ahead and basically said to someone that

7:45 Speaker 3: we know that he had, he had music to put

7:48 Speaker 3: out and he was willing to you want to play?

7:50 Speaker 2: What to play the first gig?

7:51 Speaker 3: So he put him on a bill and he said

7:54 Speaker 3: to me, was like, oh, this gig coming up in

7:56 Speaker 3: about a month's time.

7:57 Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, cool, who's playing with you?

8:00 Speaker 2: And he was like, no one.

8:05 Speaker 3: So I said to him, I was like, I wasn't.

8:08 Speaker 3: I was kind of out of music at this point

8:09 Speaker 3: as well. And I said to him, right, okay, i'll

8:11 Speaker 3: cover guitarphy just now, and if you can get a

8:13 Speaker 3: band together, then I'm quite happy to do.

8:15 Speaker 2: The show with you and we'll just take it from there. Yeah.

8:17 Speaker 3: But I said to him that I wasn't interested in

8:20 Speaker 3: writing any material or anything like that, so I said

8:22 Speaker 3: I'll leave that to you and once you've got songs,

8:25 Speaker 3: let me know and we'll get we'll get this together.

8:26 Speaker 3: And then about two weeks before the gig, I said

8:28 Speaker 3: to him, I was like, so, what's happening with us?

8:30 Speaker 3: How many songs we have? And he was like, I

8:32 Speaker 3: still have the one. I was like, I kind of

8:37 Speaker 3: said to him. I was like, right, okay, we'll go

8:39 Speaker 3: out of the room and we will. We will spend

8:43 Speaker 3: as long as we need to to get enough songs

8:46 Speaker 3: together for a settl list. So the first three singles

8:49 Speaker 3: we put were written within this base of about half

8:52 Speaker 3: an hour an hour or so, and we wrote we

8:56 Speaker 3: wrote those together, and I remember we actually finished the

8:59 Speaker 3: lyrics for the last song on the setlist just as

9:01 Speaker 3: the bass player and Dromore thumb that for for our

9:03 Speaker 3: first and only rehearsal before that gig. So that's that's

9:08 Speaker 3: kind of how it all started. But it's it's obviously

9:11 Speaker 3: it's involved in Drew and Chloe further on downline as well.

9:17 Speaker 3: It's just myself and the for a while and Kieran,

9:21 Speaker 3: who's the best player as well. He's been in there

9:23 Speaker 3: since since day one. So it's it's essentially a new

9:26 Speaker 3: a new outfit. Now the chaotic beginnings of the band

9:30 Speaker 3: have made this. So I'm very grateful for the deciding

9:34 Speaker 3: that he was going to be a gig with no

9:36 Speaker 3: songs or no band.

9:38 Speaker 1: That's amazing. I mean, you know, it almost kind of

9:41 Speaker 1: makes you believe in fate, right that that this came

9:43 Speaker 1: together like that under such chaotic circumstances that sound like

9:48 Speaker 1: it sounds like it couldn't possibly work out, and then

9:52 Speaker 1: and then it does and you just you just make

9:54 Speaker 1: it work out. That's fantastic. So obviously the show went well.

9:59 Speaker 3: There's the show went well enough that we decided, you know,

10:02 Speaker 3: maybe we can continue with this. But as I said,

10:05 Speaker 3: we waited and I said to him, I was like, okay,

10:06 Speaker 3: I helped you with the songs. There, it's your baby.

10:09 Speaker 3: You run with it and you do the songs and

10:11 Speaker 3: we'll just get a practice together whenever. And then about

10:15 Speaker 3: five six months past and I was like, how's it

10:17 Speaker 3: coming with the writing, and then he was like, yes,

10:19 Speaker 3: I'm not got anything. And I was like, okay, I'm

10:22 Speaker 3: kind of bored of playing the same like four or

10:23 Speaker 3: five songs. Let's try something. And it's been the first

10:26 Speaker 3: time since I've written a song myself and probably about

10:30 Speaker 3: nine to twelve months, I would say the first song

10:34 Speaker 3: that I wrote was on My Reasons, which is the

10:36 Speaker 3: second track on the album, and then Portals pretty much

10:39 Speaker 3: quickly followed after that, and it was sort of just

10:42 Speaker 3: a snow wall effect of just I think I had

10:45 Speaker 3: a headspace of just I was back writing again and

10:47 Speaker 3: I had a purpose to write and we needed material,

10:50 Speaker 3: so it all just came out one after another, and

10:51 Speaker 3: it wasn't an intention to write an album, but when

10:55 Speaker 3: we ended up with mante material we did, I was like,

10:57 Speaker 3: this feels like a cohesive units as a as eight songs,

11:03 Speaker 3: so we may as well. And then the more I

11:05 Speaker 3: was looking at the lyrics myself, I was like, this

11:07 Speaker 3: is telling more of a full story rather than individual

11:12 Speaker 3: stories themselves. So yeah, it's it's been.

11:18 Speaker 2: It's been a blessing.

11:18 Speaker 3: Disguss because I didn't think I would have I would

11:20 Speaker 3: ever be in a band again.

11:21 Speaker 2: They've been writing songs again, but yeah, it's been.

11:25 Speaker 3: It's been great for myself and it's been really really

11:27 Speaker 3: good having these guys with me as well on this.

11:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. Well, when it comes together too like that,

11:32 Speaker 1: when it just feels like I said, there's almost a

11:36 Speaker 1: sense of fate or destiny to it, uh, you know

11:39 Speaker 1: the way you tell it. And when when it comes

11:41 Speaker 1: together like that, you know you've got something. You know,

11:44 Speaker 1: you're like, like if it's one thing, if you're if

11:46 Speaker 1: you decide to start a band with somebody, and then

11:48 Speaker 1: you're you know, you're spending a year or whatever, you know,

11:51 Speaker 1: trying to come up with some songs, and you're working

11:53 Speaker 1: hard at it. And there's nothing wrong with working hard

11:55 Speaker 1: at it. But but when it when it almost sounds

11:57 Speaker 1: like you know, it just sort of uh, there's almos

12:00 Speaker 1: in alchemy to it, and it all just sort of

12:02 Speaker 1: comes together like that, that's when you know you've really

12:04 Speaker 1: got something and it's interesting to you. So you said

12:08 Speaker 1: you didn't think you'd ever be in a band again.

12:09 Speaker 1: Why is that?

12:11 Speaker 3: Well, personally, I'd been through quite a bad stint with

12:15 Speaker 3: my own mental and physical health over the past two

12:18 Speaker 3: years before this, and it kind of continued in the

12:21 Speaker 3: start of this. Is why it was taking us quite

12:23 Speaker 3: a while to actually get to this point, because I

12:26 Speaker 3: was essentially bed bound for most of like twenty twenty two,

12:29 Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. So to be able to get to

12:32 Speaker 3: this point and be be here just now as a

12:36 Speaker 3: medical inner of itself. But as I say as well,

12:39 Speaker 3: like this is a this is a project that couldn't

12:42 Speaker 3: have been done without everyone involved, because it can. You

12:45 Speaker 3: can write as many songs as you like, but if

12:47 Speaker 3: you don't have a unit around you understand everything and

12:50 Speaker 3: are invested in the project as much as yourself, then

12:54 Speaker 3: it's it's really all for nothing.

12:56 Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, So, how long has the band actually existed

12:59 Speaker 1: at this point.

13:02 Speaker 3: Well, from from our first Our first gug was twenty

13:04 Speaker 3: twenty two, so you're you're talking about three three and

13:08 Speaker 3: a bit years or so.

13:10 Speaker 2: But her most recent member just now.

13:14 Speaker 1: Oh okay, Drew's the new guy.

13:17 Speaker 2: Yes, drink.

13:18 Speaker 3: Cloe came in towards towards the probably bout mid section

13:21 Speaker 3: last year. I'd say Chloe originally was just providing backing

13:25 Speaker 3: vocals on a lot of the album, and I felt

13:27 Speaker 3: that she contributed so much to the harmonic balance of

13:31 Speaker 3: a lot of the songs. Yeah, felt wrong to just

13:35 Speaker 3: have her as essentially like a studio musician. And I

13:38 Speaker 3: said there, I was like, what would you feel about

13:40 Speaker 3: joining the band? And she was like, but I can't

13:42 Speaker 3: play anything, And I was like, you can play synth.

13:44 Speaker 3: She was like, I can't play it, and I was like,

13:46 Speaker 3: you can learn. Yeah, So that's that's so she now

13:50 Speaker 3: plays synth and she learned and she goes and she's

13:52 Speaker 3: doing very very well.

13:54 Speaker 1: Oh that's actually yeah, yeah, yeah, I go ahead, Chloe.

14:00 Speaker 5: I was just gonna say, and keeping with the band

14:02 Speaker 5: being forced in kales, I've only been playing some since July.

14:05 Speaker 1: Last year, no kidding. So is this your first So

14:09 Speaker 1: is this actually your first musical instrument that you've played.

14:13 Speaker 5: So I've played like a little bit of guitar and

14:15 Speaker 5: stuff in the past, spot I've never been in any

14:18 Speaker 5: bands or anything, just sort of doing it for fun.

14:20 Speaker 5: And then obviously this is the first project where I've

14:23 Speaker 5: really had to get my head down and learn an

14:25 Speaker 5: instrument from scratch. So it's been a challenge, but a

14:27 Speaker 5: good one.

14:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's good. And you know, I've heard a

14:30 Speaker 1: lot of this comes up a lot on the show.

14:33 Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of you know, music teachers and

14:36 Speaker 1: music professors say that everybody, and by the way, I

14:42 Speaker 1: did not take this advice. I can't play anything on

14:44 Speaker 1: a keyboard, but that every musician should at least know

14:47 Speaker 1: some some synth, keyboard, piano, whatever, because it helps you.

14:52 Speaker 1: It helps you just knowing even a little bit of

14:54 Speaker 1: that helps you with everything else in terms of music.

14:57 Speaker 1: It helps you to understand chord structure better, It helps

15:00 Speaker 1: you with everything. And and a lot a lot of

15:03 Speaker 1: them will say too that that's the best place to start.

15:06 Speaker 1: Obviously you're already playing guitars, you said, but to, but

15:09 Speaker 1: to even if you start, even if it's not going

15:11 Speaker 1: to be your primary instrument, if you start on a keyboard,

15:14 Speaker 1: it's going to help you with everything. So but but yeah,

15:18 Speaker 1: but it does fit the chaotic nature of how the

15:20 Speaker 1: band started, right, So that's great. Good for you, Good

15:23 Speaker 1: for you. I mean, has it been scary or do

15:25 Speaker 1: you just take the challenge and say now I'm going

15:28 Speaker 1: to do this, or or what's been your mindset with it?

15:33 Speaker 5: It has been quite intimidating, and especially since all the

15:35 Speaker 5: guys have been in bands before and bands that have

15:38 Speaker 5: done quite well. And I sort of sometimes get a

15:43 Speaker 5: little bout that imposter syndrome where I sort of get

15:45 Speaker 5: up on stage with them and I'm like, I'm surrounded

15:48 Speaker 5: by these people who've been playing their instrument for like

15:50 Speaker 5: decades now, and here I am just plunking away at

15:53 Speaker 5: my keys. No, I do what I actually doing right

15:57 Speaker 5: in that regard, it's been a little a little bit.

16:00 Speaker 5: I have a dating, but the guys are so just

16:01 Speaker 5: so lovely and so so encouraging, and I couldn't be

16:05 Speaker 5: surrendered by better people.

16:06 Speaker 1: So yeah, oh that's fantastic. And then so Drew. So

16:09 Speaker 1: you're the newest member. So how long have you been

16:11 Speaker 1: in the band now?

16:13 Speaker 4: I am yeah, it will be coming up on a year.

16:17 Speaker 1: I reckon a year in okay maybe, okay, okay.

16:21 Speaker 4: But it's been great fun. I think myself and Matt

16:24 Speaker 4: we played in a different band maybe two or three

16:26 Speaker 4: years ago. That just open the pandemic sort of lust steam.

16:30 Speaker 4: So when Matt had got in touch that their drummer

16:33 Speaker 4: or the previous drummer Kyle had stepped aside, totally jumped

16:36 Speaker 4: at the chance to be.

16:37 Speaker 2: Able to play with Matt again.

16:38 Speaker 4: It's always been great fun, and as he said, I've

16:41 Speaker 4: always really enjoyed his songwriting. Yeah, and also all the

16:45 Speaker 4: stuff that Kyle had recorded for the album has been

16:48 Speaker 4: super super fun to just sink my teeth into and

16:50 Speaker 4: learn all these parts.

16:51 Speaker 1: And then when you do that, when you come into

16:53 Speaker 1: a project like this. This is something I'm always curious about.

16:56 Speaker 5: Do you.

16:58 Speaker 1: Do you then try to learn exactly what he did

17:02 Speaker 1: or do you try to kind of, you know, learn

17:06 Speaker 1: what he did, but then maybe kind of put your

17:08 Speaker 1: own Because I've known drummers who will They'll come into

17:11 Speaker 1: a situation and they'll say, I'm going to or someone

17:15 Speaker 1: in the band will tell them if they're you know,

17:16 Speaker 1: if they're coming in new to a situation, I'm going

17:19 Speaker 1: to try to learn everything. I'm going to learn the

17:20 Speaker 1: fills exactly. I'm going to replicate exactly what the previous

17:23 Speaker 1: drummer did, you know, And other drummers, of course want

17:25 Speaker 1: to come in and well probably everybody wants to kind

17:28 Speaker 1: of put their own stamp on it. But what's been

17:30 Speaker 1: your approach with that? Yeah?

17:32 Speaker 4: I think definitely taking the you know, the skeletons and

17:37 Speaker 4: the muscles of what Kyle had written on the drums

17:39 Speaker 4: and building on that with my own flavor, my own taste. Obviously,

17:42 Speaker 4: every drummer is unique in what they play. Yeah, I

17:45 Speaker 4: think I appreciate that Matt trusted me to be able

17:48 Speaker 4: to fit the bill for what was already built. Yeah,

17:51 Speaker 4: and I guess if you want to really top shop.

17:54 Speaker 2: And get it.

17:55 Speaker 4: I am a left handed drummer that plays on a

17:57 Speaker 4: right handed drum kitas whereas Kay Kyle is right handed.

18:02 Speaker 4: And so there's a lot of the films that I

18:04 Speaker 4: really liked the sign of wanted to play very true

18:06 Speaker 4: to what he plays physical physically. I would have to

18:09 Speaker 4: swap a lot of my like sticking in the nation

18:12 Speaker 4: around to make these work. So that's been really really

18:14 Speaker 4: fun to try and work around lots of these problems

18:16 Speaker 4: as well.

18:17 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, how has that been hard to pull off?

18:21 Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, it's been hard, but it's been well

18:23 Speaker 4: worth the challenge, you know, yeah, to play drums and

18:25 Speaker 4: like to learn fun things.

18:27 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's very cool. That's something

18:29 Speaker 1: that wouldn't have even occurred to me, but that's yeah,

18:32 Speaker 1: that's interesting. Yeah. So now you've already you guys have

18:38 Speaker 1: already gotten some some success with radio, right you're it's

18:41 Speaker 1: you've gotten some traction over there, some early radio support.

18:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're actually go on, We've we've had amazing video

18:49 Speaker 3: in the UK and the US has been pretty early

18:54 Speaker 3: champions of the music and gym and scott and Scotland

18:57 Speaker 3: has been. It has been really good for us, and

19:00 Speaker 3: this is this is but this is only like this

19:02 Speaker 3: is a third interview in one day, but this is

19:09 Speaker 3: a interview of all time.

19:12 Speaker 1: So Okay, it's been.

19:16 Speaker 2: Order to be here.

19:17 Speaker 3: It's it's been good to get to talk people who

19:19 Speaker 3: are actually interested in music. Yeah, and have I've actually

19:22 Speaker 3: listened to what we've done, because in the past we

19:25 Speaker 3: found it quite difficult to talk to people who kind

19:27 Speaker 3: of you're like kind of where they kind of like

19:29 Speaker 3: they've heard about thirty seconds of it and they're like, yeah,

19:31 Speaker 3: and I know what we're talking about, what you guys

19:34 Speaker 3: are all about it.

19:35 Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'm also curious to know about the

19:41 Speaker 1: live situation there because it looks like you're you're having

19:44 Speaker 1: a lot of success. You've been playing some solid out shows. Correct.

19:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so this is something.

19:51 Speaker 3: But as Drew mentioned, the drummer on the album, Kyle,

19:54 Speaker 3: he stepped aside earlier last year just just due to

19:57 Speaker 3: the fact that we were talking about going on to

19:59 Speaker 3: alast year and we ended up pushing the album back

20:03 Speaker 3: because he said that the concept of a tour wasn't

20:06 Speaker 3: his cup.

20:07 Speaker 2: Of tea anymore.

20:08 Speaker 3: He'd been in the bar before who would toured quite extensively,

20:11 Speaker 3: and he was like, I'm not cut out for this anymore.

20:15 Speaker 3: So it's been a bit of a shame because he

20:19 Speaker 3: left at a point where we started actually building more

20:22 Speaker 3: of a fan base in our own in Glasgow and

20:25 Speaker 3: sourround the areas. So we played a place called the Cools.

20:30 Speaker 3: I think it was drew it your third gig, second.

20:32 Speaker 2: Gig, second I think yeah, second second.

20:36 Speaker 3: Show, and it was it was it was parked and

20:39 Speaker 3: it was sort of just came out of nowhere because

20:40 Speaker 3: we we've been playing, you know, we've been playing to

20:43 Speaker 3: like ten to fifteen people for so long that we

20:46 Speaker 3: just kind of think, okay, it's just going to be

20:47 Speaker 3: this or like added finium. So we just turned up

20:52 Speaker 3: and it was like about an hour before doors and

20:55 Speaker 3: they were like, oh, so out and I was like,

20:57 Speaker 3: you mean it sold out and I was.

20:58 Speaker 2: Like, that's it's just there's no tick left how and

21:03 Speaker 2: it was. It was.

21:04 Speaker 3: It was crazy for a start because there's a lot

21:06 Speaker 3: of people we've never seen before, and it just it's

21:10 Speaker 3: kind of continued from there. We had our prober bus

21:13 Speaker 3: this year for gigs last year, which building one of us.

21:16 Speaker 2: It's worth for the for the best.

21:19 Speaker 3: With the album this year, and we've got quite a

21:23 Speaker 3: lot of shows or the books for this year, so

21:25 Speaker 3: it's it's been great.

21:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh that's excellent, very very good. You do any

21:32 Speaker 1: I didn't think to look do you have any music videos,

21:35 Speaker 1: because like a song like Portals, I think would really

21:38 Speaker 1: lend itself to something and and and I feel like,

21:41 Speaker 1: you know, looking at the artwork that you have, like

21:43 Speaker 1: the visual component is important. It is important to the

21:46 Speaker 1: to the span to bruiser. But do you have you

21:48 Speaker 1: met any music videos?

21:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, we've actually got well for funny, as you mentioned,

21:53 Speaker 3: we're actually finished recording.

21:54 Speaker 2: The music with for Portals yesterday.

21:56 Speaker 1: Wow. Good.

21:57 Speaker 2: So I'll be in that over the next couple of

22:00 Speaker 2: couple of days or so.

22:01 Speaker 3: We try we've tried to do everything in house from

22:04 Speaker 3: the start here because it's it's quite hard to get

22:07 Speaker 3: any sort of funding or support in the UK for

22:11 Speaker 3: for music.

22:11 Speaker 2: So any money that we can.

22:13 Speaker 3: Save for you know, recording or going on tour like that,

22:16 Speaker 3: like that, like that the actually important things for people

22:19 Speaker 3: hearing music, we will cut that. So I've learned how

22:23 Speaker 3: to do you know, filming and editing and that kind

22:26 Speaker 3: of thing to save the cost of that.

22:27 Speaker 5: So we do.

22:27 Speaker 4: We have.

22:27 Speaker 3: We've got a video for Judas, which was our first

22:30 Speaker 3: proper single, and there is a visualizer for man Made Fires,

22:34 Speaker 3: which was a single before. There was plan to be

22:37 Speaker 3: music with you for that, but we we sort of

22:40 Speaker 3: run out of time to do it, and the weather

22:43 Speaker 3: over here is so temperamental that to try and from

22:45 Speaker 3: outside was it got to got to point where we

22:49 Speaker 3: tried to start filming it and my hands were on

22:52 Speaker 3: the camera and I actually couldn't feel I lost all

22:54 Speaker 3: sensation of feeling on my fingers. I was like, actually,

22:56 Speaker 3: don't know if I'm pressing the record button.

22:58 Speaker 5: Here's not.

23:01 Speaker 2: So the port Ports music video will be out soon,

23:05 Speaker 2: we do. We did plan on having a video for

23:07 Speaker 2: every song on the album.

23:08 Speaker 3: Really, as I say, the the connotations of trying to

23:14 Speaker 3: get a budget together and when we all work full

23:16 Speaker 3: time as well, Yeah, it's trying to think the thing

23:18 Speaker 3: to get it all done while also keeping the set

23:21 Speaker 3: as tight as possible and working on as well.

23:24 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely no, it's always a challenge. But

23:27 Speaker 1: so Judis was the previous single.

23:29 Speaker 2: So Juis was was our first proper single.

23:32 Speaker 3: I came out about June last year, in the record

23:35 Speaker 3: of the video for that that is on that's on YouTube,

23:38 Speaker 3: and yeah, so port Portals will will.

23:40 Speaker 2: Be our second port music video. We do have music

23:42 Speaker 2: videos for our first three singles, but those are only

23:44 Speaker 2: one band campus.

23:45 Speaker 3: Now, we weren't really one hundred percent on this on

23:47 Speaker 3: the sound on those ones for those three singles as well.

23:51 Speaker 1: Okay, by the way, I think I forgot to mention,

23:53 Speaker 1: so the name of the album A Field of man

23:55 Speaker 1: Made Fires? What what I'm really curious about the title?

23:59 Speaker 4: What?

23:59 Speaker 1: What are does that mean?

24:01 Speaker 3: So I look at as I mentioned earlier on my

24:05 Speaker 3: health issues of the past couple of years, I went

24:08 Speaker 3: through a period of time where I was not feeling

24:10 Speaker 3: like I was being the person that I should.

24:12 Speaker 2: Have been, and I kind of view to kind of

24:17 Speaker 2: a bit of reflected perspective. I had.

24:20 Speaker 3: One of the worst cases in the UK of psoriasis

24:23 Speaker 3: that they've ever seen. So I got to the point

24:25 Speaker 3: where where I couldn't leave my bed, and I started

24:27 Speaker 3: to think that every mark that I had in my

24:29 Speaker 3: skin and every scale that came up was a punishment

24:33 Speaker 3: for me being.

24:36 Speaker 2: Basically false to myself.

24:38 Speaker 3: So the kind of concept of I feel the Marmory

24:41 Speaker 3: f is was me just surveying my mistakes and putting

24:45 Speaker 3: the playing on myself for a lot of things in retrospect.

24:49 Speaker 3: I mean, a lot of things have probably been a

24:50 Speaker 3: bit too harsh on myself for But I think when

24:54 Speaker 3: you are on it in such a low position, you

24:57 Speaker 3: do just kind of start to fixate on the thing

25:00 Speaker 3: that you could have done things so much better. But

25:02 Speaker 3: at the same time, it's it's hindsight's a wonderful thing,

25:05 Speaker 3: and when you look back on things regarding that, I mean,

25:10 Speaker 3: there's only so much you could have done right. And

25:12 Speaker 3: I think I've grown as a person since since then.

25:16 Speaker 3: But it's pretty much chronicles my life from a bit

25:19 Speaker 3: of ages of nineteen to about twenty four, and that's

25:24 Speaker 3: that's pretty much the whole concept of the of the

25:25 Speaker 3: album is just dealing with the mistakes that you've made

25:30 Speaker 3: and either accepting it and moving on or wallowing on it.

25:36 Speaker 1: Yeah. I totally get that. I just heard a weird sound.

25:42 Speaker 1: Are you all still there?

25:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're still here?

25:44 Speaker 1: Okay, So I heard a strange sound. It must just

25:47 Speaker 1: be in my headphones. No, I can. I can totally

25:49 Speaker 1: relate to that, you know, And I'm someone who you know,

25:52 Speaker 1: as you mentioned mental health, like I struggle with depression.

25:54 Speaker 1: My listeners know this about me, and I ruminate a

25:57 Speaker 1: lot and almost constantly, and so I can, I can.

26:01 Speaker 1: I can relate to a lot of what you're saying.

26:03 Speaker 1: And maybe that's why you know so many of these

26:05 Speaker 1: these lyrics really connect with me too. Like I said,

26:08 Speaker 1: I listened to the whole thing. How is your how

26:10 Speaker 1: are you now? Matt, Like how how are you doing?

26:13 Speaker 2: As we said here today, as I'm as close to

26:16 Speaker 2: cured as it possibly can be.

26:18 Speaker 3: I'm on I'm on medication. It's helped, but I went

26:20 Speaker 3: through a period the long time. I think if anyone

26:22 Speaker 3: who's listening who's been through or is suffering with the risis,

26:25 Speaker 3: I think I have been at the lowest point you

26:28 Speaker 3: could possibly be with with the disease and understand that

26:31 Speaker 3: it might seem like there's no escape from it. But

26:34 Speaker 3: I've been dealing with this since I was about eighteen

26:36 Speaker 3: and I'm twenty six now, so it's taken me into

26:38 Speaker 3: the past year to actually get to the point where

26:41 Speaker 3: I can do normal things. I can go to work,

26:43 Speaker 3: I can go to the gym, I can live a

26:46 Speaker 3: normal life again. So and I suppose it goes it

26:49 Speaker 3: goes hand in hand with depression as well, and I

26:52 Speaker 3: think I think that's why a lot of people spoke

26:54 Speaker 3: spoke about lyricism on the album and it connecting people.

26:57 Speaker 3: And I think it's because when when you talk with

27:00 Speaker 3: things like the pandemic and things like that, I think

27:02 Speaker 3: that made people realize just how bad the mental who

27:05 Speaker 3: possibly could be. And David as well is the front man,

27:11 Speaker 3: he's you said, battles with depressions as I think we

27:14 Speaker 3: all we all have at different points. I think it's

27:17 Speaker 3: trying to be I think we're now in a in

27:20 Speaker 3: a time where we can be more open ourselves and

27:24 Speaker 3: everyone around those that you know, we we can we

27:27 Speaker 3: can say, you know, I'm not actually doing great today,

27:31 Speaker 3: and there's things where where you're we're doing great for

27:34 Speaker 3: one periods of time. But I think knowing that you've

27:37 Speaker 3: got a group around you who have been through the

27:39 Speaker 3: same thing, it makes things so much easier now.

27:43 Speaker 1: It does it does? I know for me because it's

27:45 Speaker 1: been a it's been a struggle for me since I

27:47 Speaker 1: was probably a teenager. And you know, in my case,

27:51 Speaker 1: I mean as far as depression, I got to a

27:52 Speaker 1: point in my life where it's like it's too exhausting

27:54 Speaker 1: to try to hide it. I'm just not gonna hide

27:56 Speaker 1: it anymore, you know. And then you you know, and

27:59 Speaker 1: then you're up about it and you talk to people

28:01 Speaker 1: and you realize it's so so common, like there's no

28:05 Speaker 1: reason for there to be any stigma because it's something

28:06 Speaker 1: so many of us deal with. So yeah, So, like

28:10 Speaker 1: I said, I really love the album A series of

28:12 Speaker 1: man made fires, and we will we'll begin to wrap

28:15 Speaker 1: up all three of you. I appreciate you. You've been

28:17 Speaker 1: very generous with your time. Mattrew and Chloe, thank you

28:20 Speaker 1: so much for joining us. I'm thinking at the end

28:23 Speaker 1: of our conversation, I will play Judas another great track

28:26 Speaker 1: from the album, because we did talk about it. I

28:29 Speaker 1: love I Love Portals, great great song, love the whole album.

28:33 Speaker 1: And where is the best place where should people go?

28:35 Speaker 1: Especially because again because of the way that you spell it,

28:38 Speaker 1: we want to make sure people know where's the best

28:40 Speaker 1: place for people to go online to keep up with

28:42 Speaker 1: everything that Bruiser is doing as a band, so we

28:46 Speaker 1: are most active.

28:46 Speaker 3: On Instagram and tech talk for music related things. I

28:50 Speaker 3: would say that currently I mean Spotify as were. Most

28:53 Speaker 3: people see people for things, but we are trying to

28:55 Speaker 3: push this on buoncomp as much as possible. Yeah, I

28:58 Speaker 3: think when we're living in this world New Were Combat

29:00 Speaker 3: and AI and everything else, is the best thing you

29:02 Speaker 3: can postally do is be as close to your grusher

29:05 Speaker 3: supporters as possible. So the album will be up towards

29:08 Speaker 3: end of February on band Camp and it will be

29:10 Speaker 3: pay what you want. So if you if you can't

29:12 Speaker 3: afford that, take it for free, come to a show.

29:14 Speaker 3: We'd much rather that than people giving us, like, you know,

29:17 Speaker 3: five quid, ten quid.

29:18 Speaker 2: Here here they are.

29:20 Speaker 3: It's more important that people hear the songs and hear

29:22 Speaker 3: the stories we want to tell than giving us any

29:25 Speaker 3: extra money.

29:25 Speaker 1: So yeah, absolutely band camp does offer that option. And

29:29 Speaker 1: I'm a big advocator. You know, a lot of industry

29:31 Speaker 1: people to listen to the show, and so they've heard

29:33 Speaker 1: me say this, but I'm a big advocator for band

29:35 Speaker 1: camp because what a lot of people don't realize too

29:37 Speaker 1: is you get a higher quality file from band Camp

29:39 Speaker 1: then you do you know, say just streaming it on

29:41 Speaker 1: YouTube or wherever, you know, wherever people get their music.

29:44 Speaker 1: So so I'm a I'm a big fan of band camp.

29:48 Speaker 1: Their whole their whole model of how they do things

29:50 Speaker 1: and everything. I think it's it's it's so artist friendly

29:53 Speaker 1: in an industry where there are not enough artist friendly

29:57 Speaker 1: tools that you can use. But I'm a huge fan

29:59 Speaker 1: of band camp. So so that's good to hear. But well, listen,

30:03 Speaker 1: so we'll wrap up, We'll let the three of you go.

30:05 Speaker 1: I'm going to hit that track Judas, another great song

30:07 Speaker 1: from the album, A series of man made fires. But again,

30:10 Speaker 1: Matt Trew Chloe from Bruiser, thank you so much for

30:13 Speaker 1: joining us, and we will definitely do this again, obviously.

30:15 Speaker 1: I'm sure you're gonna be you know, whenever the next

30:17 Speaker 1: single is ready, or if you got another album down

30:20 Speaker 1: the line, or you know, whatever you got coming up.

30:22 Speaker 1: We would love to have you back in the future.

30:23 Speaker 1: I'm a big fan, so.

30:26 Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

30:28 Speaker 1: Absolutely, you got it all right. We'll talk to you soon,

30:30 Speaker 1: I'm sure. Take care,