The Brute Chorus have written a ‘track by track’ guide for ClashMusic about their new album ‘How The Caged Bird Sings’.
The Brute Chorus surprised fans twice last year. Firstly, they rather daringly decided to record their debut album at a live show. Secondly, the London based indie four piece actually pulled it off.
Matching vibrant live energy with a rapidly maturing songwriting ability, The Brute Chorus won plaudits for their daring debut. Retreating to the countryside to write a follow up, the band have complete a rapid fire return.
Due to be released on Monday (September 13th) the new album is a strong return. Building on the sonic palette of their debut, ‘How The Caged Bird Sings’ is at times an extremely beautiful offering.
Singer James Steel wrote ClashMusic a ‘Track By Track’ guide, and revealed that one song was inspired by a tragic incident at a party. ‘Could This Be Love?’ is an ode to a band mate, conceived in hospital.
“I’ve often been interested in the links between religious/spiritual experiences and love” he explained. “I got the idea for this song after our drummer Matt had been assaulted at a party. He was in pretty bad shape. All the Brutes were there at Lewisham hospital while he was being cared for.”
“I was totally spangled as a result of the party and so I went out into the car park for a breath of air just as dawn was rising over the ambulances. It was a pretty psychedelic experience as I recall with the sun reflecting off the green and gold machines. I combined the imagery of a man in the back of an ambulance being rushed to hospital as his soul is called to the light and all the time he still thinks he’s on his way to see his girlfriend.”
“The riff’s pretty much out and out rockabilly but the structure isn’t. I refute anyone who says we’re a rockabilly band. We take stuff from many genres to use in the music we make.”
Elsewhere, The Brute Chorus use imagery from nature. James Steel explains that ‘Starlings’ was written on Boxing Day. “Near where I grew up on the Somerset Levels there is a fen where vast flocks of starlings come to roost at certain times of the year. I went to see them on Boxing Day and wrote this song as a poem as soon as I got home.”
“The song’s structure is meant to mirror this spectacle where a couple of the birds drift in, seemingly, out of nowhere and are gradually joined by others until all of a sudden the sky practically turns black with a heaving mass of starlings. Then it’s over almost as quickly as it started. We used lots of drone notes and guitar feedback with a roiling drum beat to create this song and Nick even borrows from Mendelsshon’s Fingal’s Cave for his keyboard part. Listen out for that; it get’s a bit buried in the tumult of everything else.”
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