Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / The Plot Thickens With JAYME & DECLAN From BROOKLYN COMIC

Transcript

The Plot Thickens With JAYME & DECLAN From BROOKLYN COMIC · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm Jane. I'm the singer and the main songwriter in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn Comic, which is who you're interviewing today. And we've
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: also got.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I play play guitar in Brooklyn.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Nice. So you guys just released I guess first single
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: of the year, plot Heavy, That was on March twenty first.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: It's been out for just over a week now, what's
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: that felt like? Like has the reception been.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's been pretty pretty amazing, actually, I think it's I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: think it's done better than anything else that we've released
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: thus far.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of love and we put a.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Lot of a lot of work and a lot of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: effort into these songs that are coming out this year.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's good to see the reception come back.
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a little bit of the progression in the end,
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: like like for us as a band as well, I
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: feel that the news off is the new stuff is
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: the best stuff that we've put together, both like sonically
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: and as the base material as well.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: So like to to sort of head down a slightly
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: new direction.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: And have it be as well received as it has
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: been is really cool.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I'm glad it came across, you know, my desk because
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: sonically and lyrically, like it's really emotional and really heavy.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: It's it's some great stuff. You know, you've called it,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I've seen you call it like your most personal track.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Do you want to elaborate on that a little, Like,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: what's the story behind plot Heavy?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Plot Heavy is like it's a bit of an epilogue
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I suppose to the tracks that we released at the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: end of the year before and the start of last year.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So like Charlie's songs in Deep Nut Drive, this is
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Forever And basically the songs are about a relationship that
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I was in in the past that was quite abusive.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Another person that I was with was I had a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: lot of problems with addiction and trying to get her
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: through all that was a bit of a hard, bit
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of a hard slog I suppose, and there was a
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: lot of a lot of abuse that kind of came
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: with that, And so that's what those songs were about.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: After after that, there was a lot of searching on
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: my behalf to try and find closure from that situation,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and a lot of like resentment and anger kind of
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: came came about from that. So the song is basically
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: an epilogue to those songs and kind of a demonstration
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that there is kind of a light at the end
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of the tunnel, but you've got to sift through kind
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of all the anger and all the resentment to try
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and find it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, that's incredible when like in the lyrics
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: and all the songs you've done before, like there's such
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: a strong message of mental health and mental health awareness
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and it comes through in like the playing and the singing.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Is that important for you guys to maintain like that
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: level of mental health and your lyrics and just everything you.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Do, I believe.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think like our mission statement is is
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that it's that we're here basically to raise awareness for
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: mental health. And that's an all inclusive kind of thing.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So for anyone in any any kind of community and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: any kind of walk of life that they should feel
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: when they listen to when they listen to our music,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that they should feel that they're not alone kind of
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: in what they're going through.
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: But yeah, yeah, it's like we all struggle with, like
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: everybody in the band struggles with varying, varying different mental
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: illnesses and degrees of said I've said mental illness.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: And I think that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: We yeah, we definitely funnel all of that into the playing,
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: the writing, and the performance as well for the live shows.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: And we know how important music as a whole is
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: to dealing with dealing with these issues, and if we
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: can create a space where people feel that they can
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: come to to get get away from those struggles, that's
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: that's really what we strive for.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a firmally in the fact that music is
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a universal language as well, so like doesn't really matter,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: like if you can't even understand what the lyrics are, like,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: if if it makes you feel in some some way,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: then I think that you know, that's you know, that
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: kind of speaks in a different volume than than what
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: just anyone just speaking to someone or something like, you know,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: anything like that can do. So I know, like music
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: for myself personally has gotten me through like a lot
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: of hard times, Like I've been in positions where, like
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you know, I've felt like that's this is pretty much
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: it for me, and that you know, I'm just going
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to call it, call it where it is, and and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: music has gotten me out of that. So to get
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: stuff like that from other people as well, Like we've
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: had people messages on on our social media and come
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: up to us on our shows saying that, you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this song really spoke to us and like, you know,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: like I bore my eyes out in the car listening
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: to this song and stuff like that. Like it it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: it hits us, It hits us in the in in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: so many different ways as well, that like what we're
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: doing is working and what we're doing does matter, because Yeah,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: at the at the very core of this band, it's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: it's it's about raising awareness and mental health and making
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: sure people don't feel alone, and the fact that that's
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: happening is obviously very beneficial for us. I suppose in
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: a sense like this that what we're doing is actually
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: working and it matters.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, I.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Think that's the power of like just playing the type
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: of music that you do. You know, you guys don't
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: really fit into just emo or just like punk or
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: or like Meloda, cardcoll like it's a bit it's everything combined,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: and I think you know, that type of emotion really
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: comes through in the way you play, in the way
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: that you've seing and it's just yeah, it's incredible. I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: really dig the track and dig the message behind it all.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I think it's it's important stuff.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: Thanks, Matt.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Is there any new sounds that inspired what you guys
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: do any particular I guess newer bands or Melbourne based
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: bands that just helped you to get it all out there.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Not really like like we all we listened to like
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a mood of different kind of styles of music, Like
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: speaking personally, and I listened to anything from like kind
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of alternative emo, you know, hardcore, you know, all the
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: way out to like sugar and Knock Loose, Googier or
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: everything like that, all the way to like jazz. So there's, like,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of elements involved in in
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the writing process to try and be as unique as possible,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: while it's also staying true to like you know, who
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: we are I suppose as well. But yeah, like there's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I couldn't really like pin it down to like one
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: particular band that kind of influences us. I think there's
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: just there's just myriad of bands out there, Australian and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: international as well, that that have influenced us in some way,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: whether it be musically or how they portray themselves as well,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: or how good of a hang they are as well.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Like because we've like we've toured with some bands and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: played with some bands which are yeah, pretty pretty cool guys,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and so we've made some really good friends as well.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's kind of hard. Do you have anything
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to say about that deck one?
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: I mean we we as a band, it's our listening
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: habits and like where where we come from as like
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: musical backgrounds is quite varied. Like I grew up on
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: like nineties pop punk and stuff, and then as time
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: time goes by, I had, as everybody does, go through phases,
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: but I keep finding myself going back to like that
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: a lot of the melody driven stuff, whilst incorporating things
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: from Yeah, I have elements of a hardcore shoe gaze
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: even like.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Very like radio rock style stuff.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: I know, like Emerson, our drummer is like comes from
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: like a bit more of the like metal core side
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: Steve very indie rock. So yeah, I don't think there's
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: like any one sound that or any one band that
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: any of us draws from. It's a culmination of everything
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: that thatunnels its way in through us as individuals and
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: then becomes what Brooklyn is.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense. How does that like impact your
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: writing style? Did the lyrics come first or do you
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: have instrumentals that you've been working on for a while,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Like how do you construct a track for your band?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: The lyrics come first, basically, so it'll be like a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: few lines here and there, something that like you know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: at that particular time keeps coming back to me, So
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: something that's like not easily forgotten or something that I'm
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: kind of going through at a particular time. So yeah,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the lyrics kind of come first, and then from there
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the music kind of it comes and goes like it
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: starts off a certain way and we'll end up a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: completely on a different other direction. So yeah, it's it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a bit of a tricky one, but mainly, mainly lyrics
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: come first over over it all.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I really like I had to write a
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: bunch of lyrics down just from all your stuff, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the one from Plot Heavy is if this pain is
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: what you're after, I'm on my own inside of my flaws.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: That's an insane line I just did with with your lyrics.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Do you look back on events and is it your
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: way of, I guess, dealing with them or is it yeah.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: It's because I go to therapy and you know, I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: have my own therapists and that kind of thing. And
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: she is blatantly just told me, like when I'm going
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: through something, like have you written anything down for that?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: And it's like, well no, and she's like, well there's
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: your first miss a kind of thing like.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: So it seems to.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Be just, uh, the the default thing for me to
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: be able to process something, I'll get through something is
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: to is to write it down and and create something
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: out of it. Yeah, Like every every song that's been
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: written for for Brooklyn has been about something that I've
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: had to deal with or some some like closeted pain.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I suppose that I've had to I've had to process.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And I think the way that it's that's kind of
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: gone about is that in order for it to be processed,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: it needs to be processed into something positive, and that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to me has always been music. So yeah, that's to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: put it bluntly, yes, it's that's that's a way that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I can seem to process things is through writing music.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: And did that like impact the music video at all?
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Because the music video has this really kind of in
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: depth story where they're both actors and lots of symbolism
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: in there.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I think the the plot heavy the video.
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: The video in particular, I had the idea for that
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: video after hearing the demo like a year year and
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: a half ago.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: I was just.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I was walking from.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: Like the Woolies near where I work, and I was
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: listening to demos and just I had. All I had
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: was the demo and of title, and so within that
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: I started hearing I was hearing the song coming to life,
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: and in my head just started picturing, Okay, what if
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: what if we're shooting a video.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Within the video? And then that just stemmed on.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: Because typically I typically I don't like videos where the
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: bands are playing.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I like narrative ones more.
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so I was trying to come up with
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: an idea where it was sort of the best of
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: both worlds. So that's like why we have the two
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: actors playing in front of us a lot, and then
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: just the rest, like the story within that. It was
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: like our video guy, Niko, he and I were just
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: going back and forth shooting ideas around. He came up
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: with the script and I just had the overall general idea.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So I think like.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Having the lyrics affect the video in this case not
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: so much, but I think there is definitely an element
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: of around that that sort of toxicity found its way
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: in just naturally.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I think you're right. It's a fun
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: kind of way that. Yeah, most music videos are all
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: it's ban playing the song, but it's a fun spoof
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: to have you guys play kind of behind the story
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: that's being told. I think it's it's interesting.
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: The original The original idea that I had was we
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: having us as like part of the furniture, I guess
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: more as like set dressings, so like they the actors
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: would have get cut and then like somebody would come
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: in and like dust, that soft type thing would be
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: half in the train. And over time that had to change.
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: But the general idea that I had a year and
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: a half ago is still very much there.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so just some of my basic stuff. You guys
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: formed in twenty twenty two.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Correct wrong with that?
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Did I guess forming kind of post COVID? Did that
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: affect you all of yours ideas to be a very
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: mental health focused band or has that been something for
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: all of you that you know you felt necessary to
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: put into music.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: When Jamie and Steve started the band, that was always
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: particularly James goal is to always have it very mental
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: health forward, and I think the post COVID era, that's
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: that's sort of a necessity to have that because everybody's
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: life changed, particularly music, and.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: So drastically in the case of music. So yeah, like.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: The message was always there from the get go. I
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: don't think it's so much as like, oh it this
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: band had formed in twenty eighteen, it was still still
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: would have been the same.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it definitely I'm back by the way, Sorry, I haven't.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Changed my phone because my computer is stacking out, So
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: it definitely it probably wouldn't exist if it wasn't for COVID.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: So the way that it kind of went was the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: first few songs actually basically our first ever EP was
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: all written in a one bedroom apartment during the second
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and in New South Wales, and like, I didn't even
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: have a lounge. I had a pink armchair and an
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: acoustic guitar and I just was going through a lot.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: My life had drastically changed in this point, and so
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I just started writing music and yeah, that's what the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: whole EP kind of originated from. And then yeah, from then,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: it's just kind of just just always been the way
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: that I've kind of written music. So yeah, as much
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: as as COVID was such a shit time for so
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: many people, such a bad time for so many people.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I look at there's like a bit of a silver
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: lining with it that if it didn't actually happen, then
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: this band might not actually exist.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: So yeah, COVID helped to bring mental health kind of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: to the forefront. Maybe that's why it resonates with so
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: many people now, you know, you guys aren't shy about it.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: It helps me get through whatever it is.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: Pretty much.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I guess twenty five this is the first single.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Is it going to be a big year for you guys?
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Do you have a lot of planned?
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, big things coming, as they says, yeah, yeah.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Watch this space, you know. Now we've got we've got
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a few things planned. This song is the first song
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: in a a culmination of songs put together that one
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: would call an album. And yeah, it's the first song
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that we've released, and we're releasing them kind of sporadically
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the first half of the year. And yeah, we've got
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: some I've got another one coming out and a few weeks,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: which yeah, is very very exciting.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: As well, because I've got some stuff planned for that
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: one as well.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: So yeah, awesome.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Are they going to have like a continuous story or
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: is it just all all separate things.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: They're kind of like they're all similar as far as
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: their their content. Like at the very core of every
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: single Brooklyn song is like the mental health struggles, but
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the next song is about It's actually probably one of
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the hardest songs I've written, because the song is about
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm in a better place mentally than
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I have been in a long time, and because of that,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: it's so much harder for me to write music, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: so I wrote a song about it. And yeah, so
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that's Yeah, the song's called Easier Said, and we'll be
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: coming out in a few weeks. But yeah, it's It's
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: still got the same kind of core element to it
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: as every Brooklyn song does. But yeah, the song's more
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: about the more questioning is the only reason we can
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: do this because we're in a bad state?
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Is it because like you know, we're going through problems
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: and mental health problems, or you know, can we move
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: forward from that and still do what we love doing
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: without having those problems.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear it and the rest of
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: the album. Thanks anything else you want to push.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: I don't think so. Anything else you want to ask us.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've got we've got shows in Wollongong coming up, Yeah,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: we do. Next.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Next show we've got in Wollongong is on the twenty
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: fifth of May, which just got announced today, which would
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: be it's an awesome show. It's got a pretty pretty
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: missed bill mixed lineup which I honestly think is going
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to be pretty rad. So yeah, if anyone's reading or
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: listening to this or anything like that, you should come
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and check it out because it's going to be a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: good night.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Stream plot heavy, stream plot heavy, that's right,