In today’s A-Z challenge, we ask Those Made Broken to tell us about themselves!
A song that made you want to make music?
Murray – That’s really difficult to pin down. When I was really young, maybe 5 or 6, I started to realise that music gave me feelings nothing else did. My parents had a small music collection and I remember getting a real buzz from Witchita Lineman by Glenn Campbell actually. There was something about the emotion in the chorus that was really powerful.
Scott – In terms of a wanting to pick up a guitar, it has to be For Those About To Rock. I was around 10 at the time when my brother brought that album home. I remember just standing there in awe listening to it. It was a life changing moment.
Best rider you’ve had?
Murray – We played an excellent independent festival in Germany called iRock. The rider was exceptional. Literally six-foot-high walls of beer backstage, hundreds and hundreds of crates of it too. Some members of the band, who shall remain nameless, also indulged in the peppermint schnapps mixed with chocolate milk….as you can imagine it got pretty messy!
Scott – Fun Fact! – Murray & I used to perform as an acoustic duo and once supported an act called The MacDonald Brothers, who had once appeared on The X Factor. Our rider was some fruit & a few snacks but we noticed their rider included beer, so we just helped ourselves and drank it all!
Craziest moment you’ve had in the band?
Murray – Our accommodation fell through at the very last minute the day before a show in Yorkshire a couple of years ago. The only alternative we could find was a little family campsite with wooden huts.
To heat the water you had to fill an external wooden stove, there were tiny beds….a proper pixie-land setting. Not exactly the normal environment for a touring metal band. Inevitably we partied into the wee small hours after the gig and made quite a bit of noise. Rather than being angry with us when we apologised to the staff the next day they were very friendly, said that we’d brought some life to the place and gave us free late check-outs. They also posted on their social media about what great guests we were.
Deepest lyric one of your songs features?
Murray – There’s a song on the new album called Rest. It’s about a friend of mine who committed suicide.
As is tragically so often the case, there were no warning signs, particularly as it came at a time when she seemed to have her life very much together, much more so than in the past. The song is written to her rather than about her.
If I’m honest I’m not 100% certain what I’m trying to tell her in the song, it was written more as a kind of expression of emotion at the time. Certainly, I’m trying to tell her that ultimately it was her decision to take her life and if she felt that was the best course of action then I can respect that and be at peace with it. The flip-side to that is the people she’s left behind, confused, broken, angry, guilty.
Easiest song you wrote?
Murray – Some songs are a real slog. Lots of rewriting and soul-searching. Occasionally one will just fall into place. Simpleman sort of fits into this category. The melody and lyric came together quite naturally and sat with the main riff and arrangement without too many changes.
Scott – Winter, from our first album Dead History. As unbelievable as it sounds, I woke up early one Sunday morning and before I got out of bed, the entire arrangement came to me. And I mean everything – riffs, chords, vocal melody…all of it! I could actually visualise the whole thing on a fretboard. I went to grab my guitar and the sounds in my head were perfectly in tune with my guitar. I knew how to play it instantly. I hear ideas in my head all the time but never quite to that extent before or since.”
Favourite song in your set?
Murray – For me it’s Little Keeper of Light. It has a bounce and an energy to it that’s quite different from the rest of the set. It has a lot of space rhythmically and the interplay between the vocals and guitars makes it a lot of fun to perform. It always gets a great response from the audience too.
Scott ‐ The opening track on our new album is called Almost Human, which I think is a perfect opener for our live set too. We’ve played it at a couple of shows now and it’s had a good response. I do enjoy playing that one.
Guest you’d most like to feature on your record?
Murray – Is this a fantasy island type question? Alive or dead? In terms of living musicians I’d say Jerry Cantrell as a guest guitarist. His influence on us has been huge and his tone would be incredible on one of our songs. If we’re talking the absolutely impossible I’d love to have had a chance to sing with David Bowie or Freddy Mercury. Having a kind of Under Pressure style song with one of them would be mind-blowing.
Scott – I wouldn’t want anyone who would take the shine off of any one of us individually, so it’d probably have to be a keyboard player. Someone like Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater maybe?
Hardest thing about being in a band?
Murray – It’s probably the sheer amount of time everything takes. A three-hour rehearsal takes 5 or 6 hours out of your day. A 30-minute festival set can take all weekend. People only really see the end product but don’t appreciate the effort, time and expense it’s taken to create the song or the show.
Scott – Trying to do all this on top of working day jobs and in the case of Paul & Murray, raising families, definitely takes its toll. The social media aspect has added so much more to it, in that you really need to be a content creator now just to try to keep up with everyone else – and if the content you’recreating isn’t on par with what’s out there, you’re not gonna get taken seriously. The demands are truly never-ending.
Interesting fact about one of your members?
Murray – Our guitarist Scott used to be a bit of a judo expert. He once put me in a head-lock and I couldn’t move or breathe. He’s a quiet assassin!
Scott – Haha! I wouldn’t say expert exactly. I dabbled in a bit of Jujitsu a while back, but my training partner left to move to Australia so I fell away from it. I still know a few moves though!
Interesting fact about Murray – he does a lot of running…A LOT…and once flew to Thailand to be best man at his friend Don’s wedding. Wherever Murray goes in the world he’ll find a race to enter, and Bangkok was no different. He entered a race that took place the morning after the wedding, and ran while still slightly inebriated. He only ended up winning it!, and afterwards was even introduced to the Thai Prime Minister!
Jokes you have in the band?
Murray – Pretty much our entire existence as a band revolves around jokes and messing around. We’re basically four daft schoolboys in adult bodies. I can honesty say that if I shared these with you, we’d be cancelled immediately so I’ll leave it there.
Scott ‐ Yeah, it does get a little dark and out of hand at times, and I’d shudder to think what anyone would make of it if we could be heard!
Key to writing a song?
Murray – Honesty. As soon as you try to contrive something the insincerity is really obvious. Music has to mean something to you as a writer or there’s no chance it’s going to mean anything to the listener. We write music that we’d like to hear ourselves, basically. It’d be a lie to say that we only make music for ourselves and hope that others like it. We do write music that we want others to like and respond to but not with any compromises. We’ll never write something because we think it’s popular or has a sound that people are buying into at the moment. Chasing fads is for marketeers not musicians.
Scott – Critical listening. A song will tell you where it needs to go – how fast it should be, where it needs a ‘lift’ or where it needs ‘space’, or where you need to change it up a little. You just have to pay attention. As Murray said though – it has to mean something, otherwise you’re wasting your time.
Longest distance you’ve travelled to play a show?
Murray – Probably Germany, but driving from Glasgow to Brighton for a one-off gig certainly felt longer!
Most inspiring musician you’ve experienced?
Murray – There are so many, particularly in a live setting. One that sticks out to me was the first time I saw Meshuggah live. Scott and I went to their gig in Glasgow about 8 years ago and it was an incredible experience. The level of musicianship was incredible but the overall show was what really stood out. For such a heavy band they manage to create a properly immersive, almost theatrical show. The light show was a performance in itself, I think the lighting engineer physically ‘plays’ the lights in time with the music, given the changing time-signatures that’s seriously impressive. It was a real eye-opener in terms of what’s possible to achieve on stage.
Scott – Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel comes to mind. He plays solo & performed the whole set with his eyes shut, which is what he does apparently. I love to see musicians that display that kind of almost effortless mastery.
New band you’d recommend?
Murray – Our drummer Hutch put me on to a French heavy shoegaze band called Mascara recently. I’m really loving their debut album Going Postal. I also saw a Glasgow metalcore band recently called newshapes who I’ve been enjoying too.
Scott – Nottingham band The Five Hundred blew me away when I saw them at Bloodstock last year – I’d highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already. There’s also a young London based band called Scatter The Tribe, who I’ve been really impressed by too.
Opening for this band would be ideal?
Murray ‐ I’d personally give my right arm to open for Deftones. They’re a band which has gone from strength to strength over the last 30 years and just seem to improve with age. I love the drama of their music, some songs are brutally heavy, others are incredibly fragile. I like to think we create something similar, albeit not as well as they do of course. Top share a stage with them would be an honour.
Place you’d most like to tour?
Murray – Japan. It’s such an incredible country in terms of the food, culture, architecture and history. It’s also a place that completely embraces music and bands, whether they’re metal bands, J-Pop or anything in-between.
Quote you’d like to pass on to our readers?
Murray – If you value music, pay for it. But physical copies, support bands.
Reason for the title of your recent/forthcoming release?
Murray – Our new album is called A Door You Can Never Close. The title is a line from one of its songs These City Walls. The song is about Jinn, creatures from Islamic mythology, similar to angels or demons. They’re believed to be hidden from human sight and live in societies similar to ours. Historically they were believed to live in caves and deserts, but some modern writers believe they may be inhabiting the digital world and controlling AI. Some think this is their way to infiltrate the human world and ultimately take it over.
See us live at?
Scott – You can catch us on Friday, November 20, at the War Memorial Hall in Pickering, as part of the ‘Homecoming Weekender’ being hosted by our good friends This House We Built.
The old days of music were better than the current, do you agree?
Murray – Definitely. You used to have to put in some effort to listen to new music. Whether it was hearing new stuff in a club, on the radio or at a mate’s house, there was a process and a social aspect to it. You had to explore, ask questions, save money and buy your music. Now everything is right at your fingertips to stream for free and that’s absolutely devalued music completely.
Scott – I can understand Murray’s point of view but I don’t agree completely. I don’t think streaming necessarily devalues music anymore than reading War And Peace for free in a library could be said to devalue literature. We all made recordings of vinyl albums on cassettes for our friends back in the day, even though, in the UK, the BPI had the ‘Home Taping is Killing Music’ campaign in the 80’s. The difference then, was that artists were still capable of making a very good living from music whereas nowadays, it’s the lack of renumeration from streaming services that’s causing problems.
A.I. though – that is a MAJOR problem currently, that didn’t exist back then.
Unusual merchandise?
Murray – To be honest our merch is fairly standard, t-shirts, hoodies, hats, patches. We’ve looked into having our own brand of chili sauce but we’re not quite there yet.
Variations you’d like to do on any of your songs?
Murray – We’ve actually recorded some piano versions of one of our songs which we plan to release later in the year. It’s a bit different from a straight-up acoustic version but still changes the feel of the song a lot. We’re really happy with it.
What do your fans mean to you?
Murray – Without them there’s not much point in doing what we do really. They’re amazing and we appreciate every one of them, whether they come to a show, buy an album or listen to us online it’s all vital to us as a band to have them. We have fans who travel to pretty much every gig we do and it’s massively appreciated.
Scott – Even the idea of having proper ‘fans’ when you’re in an unknown band still seems surreal to me. It’s amazing, and truly humbling, to think someone would put so much time, effort & cost into coming to see us.
X-rays or any treatments needed for band related injuries?
Murray – Backstage at the Winterstorm Festival our drummer Hutch fell off the stage backwards and somehow managed to pin my head between the back wall and a ladder. I was fine but he left himself with a pretty hefty haematoma….which he never got checked out of course!
Scott – I did once break a couple of Murray’s ribs after he had passed out drunk the morning after his stag night. I was a little worse for wear myself, and as he was lying on his bed, I decided to try to wake him by diving headlong on top of him.
He did wake up, to be fair…
You’re late for a show, whose fault is it?
Murray – Probably mine because I’m off somewhere warming up or I’ve got talking to someone and they couldn’t shut me up!
Scott ‐ Murray – without a shadow of a doubt!
Zoo animal that best describes the personality of your band?
Murray – A chimpanzee. Childish, uncontrollable but impossible not to love!
Picture credit: Dave McAleavy