We caught up with Perth-based musician Bromad, following the release of the single ‘’Manchester by the Sea’’, for a full interview.
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Bromad, and I am a 26-year-old electronic music producer based in Perth Western Australia.
What is your songwriting process?
Honestly, that’s a very broad question. Some of the time, it can just be me messing around with synthesizers until I come across something that I think sounds really cool and I can turn it into something more complete. Other times I kind of have an idea already in my head that I can sort of just smash out. On a more consistent basis though, I like my EP’s and Albums to have a story or theme.
Tell us about your latest release?
So I just put out an official remix for my friend Trent-Jean’s debut single ‘Manchester by the Sea’. The original is a really cool song, and I really vibed with it. I did some work on that too, so I already had quite a few ideas on how I wanted to approach it. Too many in fact.
I kind of had to decide what I wanted to do whilst maintaining some form of structure, so I ended up just fitting as many drops in it as I could whilst keeping some form of structural consistency.
I only knew at the least that I predominantly wanted it to be a four to the floor track with my signature sort of ‘brostep’ sounds.
What message do you think your music conveys to your fans?
I don’t know if I have any ‘message’ per se; however, I have sort of grown tired of this trope in dance music where once something gets put out everyone’s kind of like “okay cool, what’s next”.
I hate that we need to put an extended intro or outro in tracks just to make them DJ friendly so I try to avoid that if I can. However a trope I more readily avoid is this thing I’ve noticed where a vocalist will be on the track just as an accessory of sorts just to make the song more marketable.
I’ve always poured my heart into what I write lyrically, maybe excluding tracks where the vocals are just one vocal line intended as more of a sample than a structured “verse, hook, chorus etc.” I’ve always tried to make my lyrics intellectually engaging, and I feel like whilst I like to make people dance, I also like to make people feel and think as well, and I feel like I always try to make my music reflect that.
Who are your musical influences?
I’m pretty sure the first album I ever bought was We Are The Night by The Chemical Brothers. My mum’s been a fitness instructor as long as I can remember, so I grew up listening to a lot of EDM and pop music, and this was the late 90’s/early 00’s so this was when EDM was probably better known as “techno”.
So I grew up on a lot of stuff like Fatboy Slim, Groove Armada, Scooter, Jamiroquai and she also listened to a lot of Motown stuff as well like Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and so on.
But on the other hand, my dad loved more classics like Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Nat King Cole. He loves Blues and Jazz, and it’s no mystery I get a huge amount of influence in my own music from that.
However, presently I feel like Skrillex, Eptic, Kill The Noise and Feed Me have had a huge influence on my sound.
Who are your non-musical influences?
I actually get an enormous amount of inspiration from movies, but I genuinely feel so inspired to create something once I’ve finished a really good video game.
Shoji Meguro who is the composer of the OST from Persona 5 and the other Persona games have had probably the heaviest influence on both my sound and also artistic direction than anyone I’ve previously mentioned.
It’s just such an immersive and captivating medium to express an artistic vision, and when it’s captured well, I feel like that’s something very special, and because as a medium it’s generally more immersive, I feel like I emotionally invest in it more.
What’s the best gig that you have ever played?
The best gig would probably have to be Library Nightclub in 2019. It was so fun, and I was headlining alongside Daunt and Midsole. It was just such an unreal crowd that were so incredibly responsive, and it was absolutely packed as well.
What is your funniest gig moment?
Probably at the previously mentioned gig at the library. About 40 minutes into my set I dropped ‘The Horses’ by Daryl Braithwaite sort of as a joke.
To my surprise, 4 or 5 girls hopped on the little ‘mini stage’ like thing in front of the booth, and all started twerking, and I don’t know if I find that as funny as I do confusing?
Like there were so many other songs they could have done that to, but they chose that one. Either way, I imagine their parents must have been very proud of them.
What do you think are the biggest obstacles for bands/artists today?
Streaming. Or rather being paid fairly for people streaming your music. It’s really sad that people starting out or even more established artists cannot make a living on their own music because nobody buys mp3’s or CDs anymore. That in itself wouldn’t be as sad if streaming services (looking at you Spotify) actually paid their artists fairly because as things stand, they don’t.
I cannot stress enough how important this is if you like an artist and want to support them and if you want them to continue releasing music, buy directly off Bandcamp or iTunes or whatever. Go to their shows. Buy their merch. Share their Instagram posts on your story and their Facebook posts. Comment on their stuff. Thanks to Spotify, it is basically impossible to make money off of the sales of our music anymore unless we’re already huge like Post Malone or Kanye.
We make barely any money from record sales any more thanks to Spotify. SUPPORT YOUR ARTIST FRIENDS, AND SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.
What advice would you give to other bands/artists starting out?
Don’t give up, don’t be arrogant, and listen to constructive criticism and DON’T GIVE UP.
What are your hopes for the next two years?
As unrealistic as it seems at this point, my hopes are that the streaming business model is looked at and radically reformed to pay artists fairly, but I sadly don’t think that is going to happen.
As far as Bromad is concerned, I’m working on an album as well as a couple of collabs at the moment, but that’s all I can say right now. Either way, it’s going to be a very busy two years.
FV Music Blog August 2020
https://www.facebook.com/BromadMusic
https://www.instagram.com/bromad
Twitter: @BromadMusic
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