TLOBF Introducing // Brontide

There are few bands out there whose name so perfectly suits the music they’re making. Brontide – which means a sound like a distant rumble of thunder – craft instrumental pieces that are going to make you yearn for the bygone days of Don Caballero, or Mirrored-era Battles. They’ve been hard at work in the two years since their first EP, managing to hold down full-time jobs whilst travelling across the country to meet each other for practice sessions and live shows. Their new album, Sans Souci, is out on independent label Holy Roar, and absolutely hammers home the enduring vitality of Brontide’s sound.

Despite starting as a side project, Brontide has become the trio’s main musical focus. Throughout our conversation with guitarist Tim Hancock, Brontide’s complete conviction in the music they’re making, and their commitment to the independent music scene, were clear. And if that wasn’t enough, they even explained the story behind Bob Munden, the world’s fastest draw.

To start out with, how did the three of you get to know each other, and come to be in a band together?

Myself and William grew up together, he started drumming around the time I started playing guitar. Shortly after, aged around 9 we did our first gig in Will’s house for his nephew’s christening. I wore a Nike jumper and Will wore a tie. Not a lot has changed since. However we now have Nathan and are called Brontide, instead of ‘Man to Man’ (this was a name picked out of a hat with some other killer options such as ‘Everything but the Bass’). Will knew Nathan from studying in Brighton. I use the term studying loosely but either way when me and Will were thinking of a bass player, Nath came to mind and the rest is history.

Brontide was originally more of a side project for you. At what point did it start to become your main focus?

Brontide started after I graduated and I Was a Cub Scout had split up. Me and William were piecing some ideas together when we went and got Nathan involved. He was playing in one or two things and I was doing some solo stuff as The Petty Thief. I’m not sure when it became our main focus as we only really set out to write some material we enjoyed playing and start doing some shows. I think due to the lack of constraint we were able to put into the songs only what we wanted to play and hear. With no vocal it allowed us to push our individual playing and for a musician that is pretty fun. In short we all fell in love with Brontide.

Matador by Brontide.

It’s taken a while for Sans Souci to come out. Do you feel like your sound has moved on from the Brontide EP back in 2009?

It has been a very natural progression from our early releases. They were all the first songs we wrote together, so like any new band they sound less formed and experimental. Over the last couple of years we have honed what we do and written the songs that best reflect us. Just from playing together more and trying to better ourselves we have a sound we are all very proud of.

Have you found that you’ve been getting a lot of extra attention now that you’ve put an album out? Any unexpected attention?

I think as far as unexpected attention , it always humbles us to receive any at all. The response to Sans Souci has been fantastic and finally having an album to our name has generated a lot more interest in us. It has always been our intention to record an album but various factors get it in the way and when we finally got time to go in the studio we weren’t really prepared. Songs still were not 100% finished and I think we underestimated what we were about to do. It quickly became apparent that we had a much bigger project on our hands and would require a lot more time. We have always been credited as having a great live show so to have an album that we feel stands by that too has got more people talking.

Did you have any misgivings about releasing an album of instrumental music?

None. It is hard to ignore critics sometimes but we do Brontide because we love it and if nobody else liked Sans Souci then we could still feel happy in having an album we were proud of.

Any plans to work with vocals in the future, or are you committed to the instrumental cause?

We will never have a vocalist join the band. I wouldn’t say because we are determined not to, but because our songs are not made to fit around a singer. We want to try and make everything we do individually sound interesting so that the overall sound is enough to fascinate whoever is listening. However, we have had friends approach us saying they would love to try singing over certain songs. With the album now recorded we might try a few out for fun. For us we have never written a song and thought, ‘maybe a vocal could work through this section’ so we are curious to see what people come up with.

You’ve been playing ‘Bob Munden’ for quite a while now, and it appeared on an earlier EP. Can you tell me a bit more about how you reworked the song for the album, and who Bob Munden is?

We always intended for ‘Bob Munden’ to be on our record. The record was just a long time coming. We originally recorded it with Jason Sanderson who also recorded Sans Souci so we planned to remix once the album was in the mixing phase and see how it gelled with the other songs. Luckily the version wasn’t noticeably different as otherwise we would have re-recorded certain parts to bring it up to speed. The name is after a chap we were introduced to online by a friend. Song titles can be pretty tricky with no lyrics as a reference so many of our names come from stories or events around the time of writing that song. After we finished Munden, a friend showed us a video of Bob Munden who holds the world record for fast draw. Basically he can shoot a pistol lightning fast and with perfect aim but isn’t too modest about it. It seemed fairly appropriate so just stuck from there on in.

Your musical influences seem to be generally acknowledged as being along the lines of Battles and Don Caballero. Any less obvious influences, musical or otherwise?

We try to squeeze everything we like about music into Brontide so it covers a lot of different influences. We have always aimed to make emotive music that can be heavy and melodic but always developing. It’s hard to pin down any specific bands because I could easily write a page of names that I feel have influenced some aspect of our music. When it came to writing the album we were quite specific on certain tracks. For example w,e had a sort of criteria for the opening and closing songs. We knew how they wanted us to make us feel and we would talk about the songs that held aspects of the overall sound we wanted to achieve. Songs like Arioso were ambitious because I was thinking how the biggest form of instrumental music is obviously orchestral so I was listening to see what made it work compared to the structures of an average rock song. I think having a large melting pot of ideas has been integral to what makes us interesting to listen to. The challenge is piecing it together.

You’ve been working with Holy Roar for a while now. Are you committed to remaining with an independent label?

Holy Roar has supported us since a very early stage and they share our goals. Through them we have had the opportunity to play and work with a lot of bands we love and most importantly they take pride in the label. When it came to the album, pressing on vinyl was a must as they cater to people who are passionate about the music they consume and still want to own it. We are dedicated to upholding that ethic.

I believe you all have jobs as well as being in the band. How do you find time to fit everything in?

It’s difficult. Nathan lives in Brighton, William lives in London and I reside in Nottingham. We all work jobs that demand a lot of time so finding any for Brontide is difficult. The main reason this album has been such a long time coming is because of this but we manage. Obviously we don’t get to rehearse as much so this normally happens when can meet up maybe the night before a show. It helps us use our time productively but we have missed out on some good shows and tours. You just have to be prepared to work hard, there is a lot of travel and hours involved that can be draining but this is our hobby. If we were not doing it in Brontide I’m sure we would be equally busy on something else.

You’ve spoken in previous interviews about the difficulties of making money from your album. Do you think that’s a reflection on the state of music at the moment?

Everyone knows the music industry is rapidly changing and the oppurtunities for an artist to make profit are very different to how they were 15-20 years ago. We are lucky to attract the sort of listeners who still appreciate owning a record collection and support independent music. However Brontide was never intended to make money. It’s simply not the kind of music you can make a career out of and we just try to earn what we need to allow us to play shows. Bands have to rely on other avenues more then ever to make money, touring, merchandise and syncs have taken the place of record sales. I think labels such as Holy Roar are still maintaining that quality and music come first so for as long as these labels exist we can still expect class music.

Lastly, what are your plans for the rest of the summer? Have you started any work towards new material yet?

Over the summer we have some shows lined up and will make it over to Europe to tour the album, followed by something in the UK later on. As far as new material , we have odd ideas floating around for the new album and it’s an exciting prospect but one that will be a little way off yet. We like to maintain quality over quantity so don’t want to rush into another release that we aren’t happy with. What comes next will be superior.