Breed 77 Interview
Unlike most bands these days, Breed 77 is anything but an overnight success. Their trials and tribulations have mirrored that of many bands, but the success they have achieved, as an unsigned band is no less spectacular. One of Blistering.com is Australian correspondents, Justin Donnelly, caught up with vocalist Paul Isola at his home in Walthamstow (East End London).
“Oh man! I’m still waking up. This time difference sucks man. It’s 9.20 in the morning! I’ll be right though. I’m making the most of the week break between tours. We’ve been pretty busy touring, but we like it like that. We just came off the road with Ill Nino and Raging Speedhorn. And then we’re off on tour with Prong. Both Ill Nino and Raging Speedhorn have treated us really well. They’ve been awesome. Raging Speedhorn are really old friends of ours, and Ill Nino are Spanish Americans. We all speak Spanish, and we’ve been getting along famously. We badmouth terrible promoters and people around Europe in Spanish, and nobody would understand us. That was cool.”
While most would think that linking legendary industrial pioneers Prong with rock act Breed 77 was a clash of styles, Paul sees things differently.
“I’m looking forward to it! (After a short pause) We don’t approach tours in the sense of whether our music will suit theirs or not. It’s very hard to find people that go with our sort of music. We seem to fit in with a lot of people and yet no one at all. So I see this tour as an opportunity to play in front of somebody else’s crowd and also playing in a lot of places that appeal to us.”
After numerous years slogging it out on the local London underground scene, Breed 77 finally caught the notice of the mighty Albert Productions. The band may have breathe a collective sigh as all their hard work finally paid off, but they also knew that timing played a big part of that success. ďThe old saying that all good things come to those who wait is true.
”I’ll be honest here and say that for a while there we carried an enormous chip on our shoulders. We were asking ourselves why this was happening to us (Not being signed). After all, we’d been around and paid our dues. We’ve done this and done that. Once you’ve been in the grinder a couple of times like we have, you come to know the nature of the beast that is the music industry. Everything is up to chance, and there is no time scale in this. Things will happen when they want to. We’re just really happy that we did get a deal in the end. We now have the chance to get to places like Australia, Europe and the U.S.. We’re older and wiser and I think we’ll do better with our record deal now than if we had actually been signed five years ago.”
While some writers and musicians claim they hate putting a band into a genre box, it’s sometimes a necessary evil. Trying to label Breed 77 into any one genre is another matter entirely.
“First and foremost, we’re a rock band. I think that covers our music a broader sense. That’s the easy way out right? (Laughs) Basically we have many influences, I’d probably have to call it flamenco/Arabic/nu-rock kind of thing! (Laughs) Wait till our next album comes out. That’s going to be even harder to clarify.”
While Paul’s created a whole new genre tag for Breed 77, some critics have written the band off as another mere nu-metal band.
“I suppose that’s true to an extent, because we exist within that genre. I don’t listen too much of that stuff anyway. I think itís the nu-metal tag that puts me off rather than the bands themselves. I’m sure there’s some good nu-metal bands out there, but I can’t say I’ve heard that many. I don’t find anything particularly new about the nu-metal scene. If you mention rap rock, I think of Aerosmith with Run D.M.C., Public Enemy with Anthrax, Mordred and Faith No More. There’s also Rage Against The Machine, who have been doing that stuff for years. So you can tune your guitar down really low. So what! (Laughs) It’s just a different tuning to the guitar, but as far as being new, I don’t think so.”
For more information on Breed 77, check out - https://www.facebook.com/breed77.
© Justin Donnelly.
