The Breakdowns Interview

(Left to right - Matt, Owen, Joe and Adam)

I’d like to write a massive list of who they are influenced by and what genre they play in. But it cannot be done. Finding a niche or trying to pigeon hole a band such as the Breakdowns is a very hard task. So a short definition of the undefinable? All that can be said about the Breakdowns is that they are a hook laden band who are big on their melodies and write songs with intense passion and worth checking out for yourself to see if you can define them.

Nix caught up with Joe, Matt, Adam and Owen just before their Tattooed Millionaires gig at Junktion 7 in Nottingham to talk about the problem of pigeon holing, fitting in with the current music scene, how it started, crashing vans into electric fences and stealing “Appetite for Destruction”.

N: A little bit about each of you?
Matt: I’m Matt and I play lead guitar and write some of the songs, that’s about it really.
Owen: I’m Owen and I play drums. I’m from Leicester - from Huddersfield initially.
Joe: I’m Joe, I’m front man and I play some guitar! Attempt to play some guitar. I write now and again and I like a lot of harmony vocals.
Adam: I’m Adam and I play the bass. I do a bit of singing and dancing. Oh and Owen didn’t tell you he is a doctor.
Joe: I think a doctor is pretty rock n’ roll to be honest!

N: How did you guys get together?
J: Me, Matt and Adam used to play in a band called the Rockets. They were a glammy Nottingham based band. A bit like underground legends, the Rockets were. A couple in New Gen were in the Rockets, a big rock family tree. A band called the Pitstops as well. Played in the Rockets for about three years, split them up the beginning of last year just because we wanted to do something a bit more pop. We were kind of sick of having big keyboards and riff and we’d gone a bit more 60's sounding. We were really into writing our vocal harmonies and we didn’t used to have any scope to do that - we used to play like 100 miles an hour! Like proper balls out rock and we spent about six months looking for a suitable drummer. We auditioned some pretty ropey drummers, drummers who wanted to be in metal bands and then we found Owen and it kind of just clicked really. He’s a new recruit kind of. We auditioned Owen and said ‘oh yeah, we’ve got a gig in two weeks’.
A: He had to join up, he didn’t have a choice to be honest.

N: What is the origin for the name, The Breakdowns?
M: Breakdowns from the Tom Petty song “Breakdown”.
J: We came up with names that were really a bit Un-PC. The first time we met Owen we gave him a list of band names that we were going over. Unless you like Jim Davidson or something like that they were just unacceptable! We’re all big Tom Petty fans. Matt came up with “The Breakdowns”
M: It sounded right!

N: Who would you say are your main influences?
M: I’d say the Ramones collectively. I like a lot of 50's and 60's music a lot - Phil Specktor stuff and traditional song writing. Stuff like that. The Flamin Groovies and The Real Kids - stuff like that. We’ve got that sound as well. That’s the kind of niche that we fit in with. We love 70's glam rock bands like Mott The Hoople and Bay City Rollers and stuff like that as well.
J: We’re not ashamed to say who we’re into. I’m a massive Mott The Hoople fan. They’re not the coolest band in the world. I’m also a massive Sweet fan. We love it. Owen is probably into a bit more of his hard rock though. But that’s cool. Being a drummer, that’s the kind of music that you want to listen to. I think the thing that sets us apart, especially locally is that we’re massive massive music fans. There’s a lot of bands that will have just once niche and say just listen to glam rock or metal. We like anything. We like big pop songs. Big choruses and big hooks and that’s what we do a lot.

N: Releases and stuff that people should know about at the moment?
M: We’re just waiting on artwork at the minute, we’ve got a CD finished. We’re going to record another single as well.
O: We’re planning on release something with an artist in Leicester called Hot Rod Lincoln. Just like a split 7" single. We’ve got a five track CD coming out, we’ve got a distribution deal sorted in America which is quite cool. Britain is a bit hard to come by because it sucks a little bit. We give away a lot of CDs at gigs because it’s the best way to get people to come back.

N: How has MySpace been in your success?
J: It’s alright. It’s good to get gigs through and it’s good to make contacts through. You get a lot of people that just want you to message them all of the time or comment on my pictures and stuff like that. It is a full time job! If we could employ someone to do it!

N: What type of person would be a Breakdowns fan?
J: Music fans. Proper music fans. People who like tunes.
M: People who are sensitive!
A: Just like us!. I think as a live band we try to be entertaining as well. We did a gig the other weekend as part of a Drop In the Ocean, end of the night at the Bowl. There were people dancing around and having a laugh. It’s good to see people like that, it’s what we want people to do when they see us play.
J: I think people that like come through MySpace - we’ve got people who really dig us. They’ll say ‘wow like you’re my new favourite band’ kind of thing. We’ve found that the people that are into us are the people that have a fantastic taste in music. That’s really important to us. You don’t want just anyone liking your music. Cool like us! The Sweet were cool.

N: How do you see yourselves fitting in with the current music scene?
A: It’s very difficult because we always find it difficult to find bands to play with. We’ve always had a problem where if we get on a bill with a metal band unfortunately we go down like a sack of s***. We’re not very angular which means we’re not very trendy at the moment. I dunno, we sound a bit like McFly sometimes!
J: We played a gig at one of the club NME nights in Nottingham and played for a real trendy young crowd, a real studenty type of crowd. The first two or three songs that we played went down really really well then when they realised that every one of our songs was going to be a rock n’ roll song the kind of just got a bit p***y with us. We don’t want to play to people like that.
A: You don’t want to go to a place and have them go “are they cool or not? We can’t decide”

N: What’s the most rock n’ roll thing you’ve done?
J: Ooh, what have we done that’s mental? (Laughs) Have you got any dark secrets? Adam broke his wrist throwing a frisbee once. That kept him out of action for a while because the bass player is quite important.
M: When I first got into music I stole an “Appetite for Destruction” album on vinyl and a Chuck Berry album! It’s rock n’ roll and its rock n’ roll music as well!
J: I did crash a lorry into an electric fence in France but that was just through stupidity. I think I was about 14.

N: What’s your best Breakdowns song?
M: I kind of still like “Crying in the Rain” best.
O: “Fool For You” is my favourite.
J: “Heartbreak Radio” which isn’t on our CD but we’re recording!
A: I was going to say that as well!

N: What made you want to get into music?
J: As a kid, it was two things. Football and music.
N: Who do you support?
J: Tottenham! I realised that I wasn’t going to be a footballer. My parents are massive music fans. They took me to see the ‘Stones when I was 3 and took me to a lot more other gigs back then. It’s the only thing I’m good at. Oh and Championship Manager!

N: What’s been your biggest challenge so far?
J: Getting gigs in Nottingham.
M: Being too pop for a lot of metal kids and being too heavy for a lot of indie kids. We’re finding it hard to get a market.
J: When we first started playing, we tried to play to all the trendy venues in Nottingham and Leicester and stuff. Playing to all the kids that read NME and stuff just to see how we’d go down and we kind of realised that although we like different types of music - we’re a rock n’ roll band and we just want to play loud guitars.
N: How long have you been going?
J: It’s a year this month. Not long but we’ve done a lot of gigs. 30-40 plus gigs now.

N: What bands around today inspire you?
A: We should give a big shout out to Nottingham band The Tommies.
M: I also like New Generation Superstars as well. They’re excellent lads and they play proper rock n’ roll music. Is there any bands that you can think of?
O: I still listen to AC/DC every day!
J: We played a festival a few weeks ago called the International Pop Overthrow Festival. We played with Japanese bands and Swedish bands and Spanish bands. That was awesome going back stage.
A: It was really great to feel like you’ve fit in stylistically. I didn’t see a band that day that I thought I wouldn’t listen to.

N: Three ‘Or’ questions! Indie or rock?
(All) Rock!

N: JD or beer?
M: Beer for me
J: JD!
O: Beer!
A: JD!

N: Glastonbury or Download?
O: Glastonbury for me
M: Download for me
J: I’d probably say Download as well!

N: Do you think it is important to be technically proficient in the instrument that you play to create a good song?
M: Not massively. To an extent.
J: It’s not what we’re about, it’s about songs.
M: I think a lot of lazy bands use that as an excuse. There’s no shame in being a good musician. We’re not a flash band at all musically.
J: The only thing that we would be probably be in is vocally.
A: This is the arrogant bit of the interview but we can p*** on most of the bands that we’ve played with vocally. Vocally we’re fantastic. Maybe that’s our gimmick. I’ve never thought that I’m a technically proficient musician.
J: I think that we all do our jobs really well. From the back, Owen is a fantastic drummer, Matt’s an awesome guitarist, Adam I think is technically the best musician in the band. I just wear a guitar (laughs) but I think I’ve got a good voice.
M: If I left this band, I wouldn’t write songs again for anyone else because I wouldn’t want anyone else singing them apart from him (Joe).

N: What would you say is the best gig that you’ve done?
J: The favourite band that I’ve played with is the Diamond Dogs from Sweden which was here (Nottingham Junktion 7) but we had a bit of a poor turn out so that was a bit of a downer on ourselves. It was great to play with a fantastic band like that.

N: Do you have a worst gig that you’ve done?
A: We played a gig in 20 minutes, where was that? (Laughs)
J: We haven’t actually played a shocker. The NME gig. We got a bit testy on stage because the audience were a bunch of d***s.

N: What are the aims for the rest of this year?
M: We’re intending to go over to America. We’ve been invited to play in New York in quite a few places over there. We’re hoping to do that in New Jersey and Boston as well.
J: The cool rock n’ roll places, that’s where you want to be. Also get the ‘product’ sorted.
M: Get an album out.
J: I think we want people in Britain so say wow this is a really good band. You do want your fans don’t you? At the end of the day, even though we do it because we enjoy it, we do it so that other people can listen to it. We’re not going to say that our aim is to make it huge and make it big but Top of the Pops at Christmas would be nice wouldn’t it?!

N: What one question would you ask yourself that I haven’t asked you?
J: (Laughs) What makes your songs so fantastic? The answer would be hooks and harmonies. We listen to so much music that everything we listen to is just big hooks. That’s what makes our music. That’s why we stand out from a lot of bands that we play with. We play with some great bands but we like to hit people in the face with our music! I also want people to not be able to categorise us which seems to happen. A lot of people say to us, we’re not sure what we sound like. We had a guy say to us the other day that we sound like a 60's rock mod band!

Check The Breakdowns track “Fool For You” out on Pure Rawk’s “Unleashed and Loaded” Volume 1 CD. For more of their stuff go to www.myspace.com/thebreakdownsband or www.thebreakdowns.co.uk

Words by Nix, images kindly supplied by The Breakdowns - taken by Amy Brammall

© Pure Rawk 2006