Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Making Up For Lost Time With ROD YATES From BRACE
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, my name's Ride. I play bass in the band Brace.
- 0:04Speaker 1: We were playing around Sydney in the early two thousands
- 0:07Speaker 1: and we've got back together to play at Necrosonic Festival Kent.
- 0:12Speaker 1: One of the organizers very kindly invited us to play
- 0:15Speaker 1: and we're stoked. Can't wait to get to Brisbane and yeah,
- 0:20Speaker 1: see how it all goes.
- 0:22Speaker 2: See Rod, thanks for joining us that I made.
- 0:24Speaker 1: You're welcome.
- 0:25Speaker 2: Thanks having mate pleasure.
- 0:27Speaker 3: So as you say, Brace up making a return to
- 0:29Speaker 3: the stage for Necrosonic Festival at the Mansfield Tabin in
- 0:31Speaker 3: Brisbane on August of twenty third.
- 0:33Speaker 2: So Berksley, welcome back, Ray.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Thank you. It's been a long time. I think it's
- 0:38Speaker 1: been about twenty years since the last show, so it's
- 0:41Speaker 1: a long time. But you know what, it's sounding pretty good,
- 0:44Speaker 1: like we've picked up where we left off, which is good.
- 0:49Speaker 3: It has been twenty years since you disbanded in two
- 0:51Speaker 3: thousand and five. Like you say that Ken asked you
- 0:53Speaker 3: to come back, but I'm sure you've had plenty of
- 0:55Speaker 3: offers in the interim, so why decide that now is
- 0:58Speaker 3: the right time for Brace to to keep going again?
- 1:01Speaker 1: Mate? That's very kind of you to say that we've
- 1:03Speaker 1: probably had plenty of offers, because we've had zero offers,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and I think I don't know. Look, if Kent hadn't
- 1:13Speaker 1: asked us, you know, I don't know if we'd be
- 1:14Speaker 1: doing anything that we're doing now in terms of obviously Necrasonic,
- 1:18Speaker 1: but doing new music and all sorts of stuff. So
- 1:21Speaker 1: we'd always been mates since we split up. You know,
- 1:23Speaker 1: there was never any huge falling out, so we were
- 1:25Speaker 1: friends and I guess we all we still hang out
- 1:28Speaker 1: with each other. And then when the opportunity came up,
- 1:30Speaker 1: that's wow, someone actually wanted us to play a show.
- 1:33Speaker 1: We thought, yeah, like, why why wouldn't you. So it's
- 1:36Speaker 1: been great. We've been you know, reconnecting musically, which we
- 1:40Speaker 1: haven't done for a long time, and that's been that's
- 1:42Speaker 1: been really good fun. So yeah, super appreciative of Kent
- 1:45Speaker 1: and the opportunity to come up to Necrosonic and play
- 1:49Speaker 1: with all these other amazing bands as well. So yeah,
- 1:51Speaker 1: we stoked. Couldn't be happier. Now.
- 1:54Speaker 3: Speaking of amazing bands, Bracea one of five bands in
- 1:56Speaker 3: the Resurrected Back from the Dead category, alongside matth id Or,
- 2:00Speaker 3: Ruined Day's End and Bean Flippers, So you're in pretty
- 2:03Speaker 3: illust three his company just there alone.
- 2:05Speaker 1: Oh mate, kind yeah, absolutely, I can't believe that we
- 2:08Speaker 1: that we get to share a stage with those bands.
- 2:10Speaker 1: For one, I mean, Day's End we used to play
- 2:12Speaker 1: with quite a bit back in the day. Good friends
- 2:15Speaker 1: with those guys. Haven't seen them for a long time,
- 2:17Speaker 1: so that's going to be great. But you know, Beanflip
- 2:19Speaker 1: are one of the bands that you kind of grew
- 2:21Speaker 1: up listening to and used to read about in hot metal,
- 2:24Speaker 1: and so to see them back playing and to play
- 2:27Speaker 1: on the same stage as them, I mean yeah, super lucky.
- 2:31Speaker 3: Yeah, it's also going to be massive with other bands
- 2:34Speaker 3: as well, Like you got thirty bands playing across three
- 2:36Speaker 3: stages and twelve hours. There's bands like Portal bowlser there's
- 2:40Speaker 3: a Brammel and Franken Baklaram to name a.
- 2:42Speaker 2: Few, But who out of them?
- 2:43Speaker 3: Like, I know, you're probably looking forward to playing with
- 2:45Speaker 3: all of them, but are there any that stand out
- 2:46Speaker 3: a bit more for yourself?
- 2:48Speaker 1: I reckon look, days End and Franken Boc are two
- 2:51Speaker 1: which really psyched to see you haven't seen either of
- 2:54Speaker 1: them in a long time. And again franken Bach, we
- 2:58Speaker 1: used to play with back in the day, probably my
- 3:01Speaker 1: previous band before Brace Henry's Anger. We definitely played with
- 3:04Speaker 1: Frankenbach quite a few times. And real looking forward to
- 3:08Speaker 1: seeing those guys Alarum as well. You know, amazing band.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Haven't seen them in a long time. Pretty much all
- 3:15Speaker 1: the bands on the bill. I'm just stoked to actually
- 3:17Speaker 1: get up there and to play is going to be awesome.
- 3:20Speaker 1: But to get up there and see a whole bunch
- 3:22Speaker 1: of bands that I haven't seen before, and see some
- 3:25Speaker 1: old bands that used to see back in the day, Yeah,
- 3:28Speaker 1: it's going to be great. Really looking forward to it.
- 3:31Speaker 3: We mentioned Kat's name a couple of times now. Of
- 3:34Speaker 3: course without Kent, Necrosonic wouldn't happen. So how important are
- 3:37Speaker 3: people like him and festivals like Necrosonic to the future,
- 3:41Speaker 3: I guess of Australian metal music.
- 3:43Speaker 1: They're the lifeblood of it. You know, if these people
- 3:46Speaker 1: don't do stuff, then nothing ends up happening. It takes
- 3:49Speaker 1: people who believe in the scene, believe in the music,
- 3:53Speaker 1: are willing to put the time in, the effort and
- 3:56Speaker 1: the money in, you know, doing the things like this
- 3:58Speaker 1: isn't cheap COVID, everything's just got so much more expensive.
- 4:03Speaker 1: So to have someone like Kent who's willing to, you know,
- 4:07Speaker 1: take a risk on doing this to support the scene
- 4:09Speaker 1: which he loves, and he's been doing that for as
- 4:12Speaker 1: long as I've known him. He was doing that back
- 4:14Speaker 1: in the early two thousands when he used to bring
- 4:16Speaker 1: Brace up to Brisbane and play shows around Queensland. So
- 4:20Speaker 1: these people are the lifeblood of it and they're so
- 4:24Speaker 1: integral to the scene. But they've always been integral to metal,
- 4:27Speaker 1: you know, it's always relied on people who are passionate
- 4:30Speaker 1: about it and who do it firstly and foremost because
- 4:33Speaker 1: they love it. I think anyone who is doing anything
- 4:37Speaker 1: in the metal scene to make a buck, if that's
- 4:39Speaker 1: their main reason, then they're in the wrong industry. That all.
- 4:44Speaker 1: It's all about passion. And you know, it's great that
- 4:48Speaker 1: we have these people who are willing to do it,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and it's really important that we support them as well,
- 4:53Speaker 1: because without them the scene very quickly grumbles. So, yeah,
- 4:58Speaker 1: can't say enough good things about.
- 4:59Speaker 3: How or people like well said, mate, So are you
- 5:04Speaker 3: guys going to be there all day checking out bands
- 5:05Speaker 3: or are you going to leave it to you all jobs?
- 5:07Speaker 2: Just before you set and sort of concentrate on that.
- 5:10Speaker 1: No way, well, no way, we'll be there early. Absolutely,
- 5:14Speaker 1: we'll be there early. I mean I think I don't
- 5:16Speaker 1: know how it's all going to work backstage with all
- 5:18Speaker 1: the gear and all that sort of stuff, whether you know,
- 5:21Speaker 1: whether it can even once all the bands there that
- 5:25Speaker 1: early at the same time, or whether he wants to
- 5:27Speaker 1: sort of move things around. But no, this is going
- 5:30Speaker 1: to be a full day experience for us. I think
- 5:32Speaker 1: we're playing at about seven o'clock, so obviously we're really
- 5:35Speaker 1: going to be excited about that and have many beers
- 5:40Speaker 1: after we've played.
- 5:41Speaker 4: But before that, like I said, I'm just really excited
- 5:47Speaker 4: to be around this community and see so many great bands.
- 5:53Speaker 1: Yeah, couldn't couldn't be more excited now from.
- 5:55Speaker 3: What I know at the venue, there is a large
- 5:57Speaker 3: area that's going to be called off for on the
- 5:58Speaker 3: bandgear and stuff too, So should problem to going in earlier.
- 6:01Speaker 1: All right, sweet, that's good to know.
- 6:04Speaker 3: So, as you mentioned before, it's been a while for
- 6:06Speaker 3: you guys since she's been on stage, so the nerves
- 6:08Speaker 3: starting kicking yet it's less than a month away.
- 6:12Speaker 1: The nerves, Yeah, I don't know, maybe a little bit.
- 6:15Speaker 1: It's more just I got. The thing we've found in
- 6:19Speaker 1: rehearsal and we've been jamming is that it's pretty amazing
- 6:23Speaker 1: how quickly it's all come back, like that muscle memory.
- 6:25Speaker 1: And and you know, most of the guys have been playing,
- 6:29Speaker 1: so everyone's sort of still been active and you know,
- 6:33Speaker 1: kept their chops up in the past twenty years. So
- 6:36Speaker 1: more excited than nervous, I think, you know, we'll just
- 6:38Speaker 1: get out there and have fun, do the best that
- 6:40Speaker 1: we can. We'll be ready. You know, we're practicing a lot.
- 6:44Speaker 1: We'll be tight, and that's all we can do. So
- 6:47Speaker 1: we're just going to get out there and have a
- 6:49Speaker 1: hell of a good time and you know, hopefully see
- 6:51Speaker 1: lots of old friends and make some new ones. And yeah,
- 6:54Speaker 1: really excited.
- 6:56Speaker 2: I said.
- 6:56Speaker 3: For those that are unfamiliar with braces, you guys porn
- 6:58Speaker 3: back in two thousand and two, at least you day
- 7:00Speaker 3: do ep before you begin. And then he called it
- 7:02Speaker 3: a day in two thousand and five, Like, personally, why
- 7:06Speaker 3: why called a day back then? And secondly, what's changed
- 7:08Speaker 3: twenty years later to make you decide to go again?
- 7:11Speaker 2: Oh?
- 7:12Speaker 1: What what made us called it a day? It's just
- 7:15Speaker 1: general band bullshit. I think, you know, it's just it's
- 7:19Speaker 1: hard like being in a band with five in you know,
- 7:23Speaker 1: distinct personalities, and you know, it's it's hard work to
- 7:29Speaker 1: keep it, you know, to keep five people on this
- 7:32Speaker 1: all sort of united and heading down the same direction
- 7:35Speaker 1: and keep it harmonious and you've got creative differences and
- 7:39Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So I don't think there
- 7:42Speaker 1: was any one reason why we called it today. I
- 7:44Speaker 1: think it was just, you know, just put it down
- 7:48Speaker 1: to intramand differences, I suppose, do you know what I
- 7:52Speaker 1: mean it was. There was nothing dramatic, but it just
- 7:55Speaker 1: it just stopped working for each of us. So I
- 7:57Speaker 1: think that that was the decision then. But mates, we
- 8:00Speaker 1: still stayed mates, which is great. And like I said,
- 8:03Speaker 1: I think we just needed an opportunity or an offer
- 8:06Speaker 1: to come back and play together that sort of made
- 8:09Speaker 1: us think, well, yeah, let's do it. I mean that
- 8:11Speaker 1: we've been sort of talking about it over the years,
- 8:14Speaker 1: and we have been sort of getting together every now
- 8:16Speaker 1: and again. We recorded a whole bunch of songs before
- 8:19Speaker 1: we split up, so a keyboard player, Laughlin is a producer,
- 8:24Speaker 1: So every now and again, every couple of years we
- 8:26Speaker 1: get back together and do a little bit more on
- 8:28Speaker 1: those songs, and so we've kind of always had that
- 8:32Speaker 1: relationship throughout and again being asked to do Necrosonic was
- 8:35Speaker 1: just the catalyst that made us go, all right, let's
- 8:38Speaker 1: finish these songs that we started recording twenty years ago.
- 8:42Speaker 1: Let's play, let's have fun, you know, let's bring the
- 8:46Speaker 1: fun back to being in a band, because towards the
- 8:48Speaker 1: end of the band, it just wasn't that much fun anymore,
- 8:51Speaker 1: which is why it all ended up. So you know,
- 8:54Speaker 1: we split up.
- 8:55Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, now, twenty years is a long time in
- 8:57Speaker 3: the music industry, Rode probably longer than any our industry
- 9:00Speaker 3: out there, to be honest. So you've been just starting
- 9:03Speaker 3: over again or you're just picking up where you left off.
- 9:07Speaker 1: I don't probably not, probably neither of that. I think
- 9:10Speaker 1: we're just playing, do you know. I don't think I
- 9:13Speaker 1: think we'd be I don't think we're starting all over
- 9:16Speaker 1: because I don't think, you know, we we're just doing
- 9:20Speaker 1: this because we love it. We're not doing this because
- 9:22Speaker 1: we have any ideas that this is going to We're
- 9:25Speaker 1: just going to keep working for our big break or
- 9:27Speaker 1: any of that kind of stuff. So I don't feel
- 9:30Speaker 1: like we I feel like we're just picking up where
- 9:32Speaker 1: we left off in terms of just playing the songs
- 9:35Speaker 1: that we wrote and that we loved and enjoying playing live.
- 9:40Speaker 1: But I think that's probably as far as it goes.
- 9:42Speaker 1: You know, there's no master plan or anything like that.
- 9:44Speaker 1: We've just got music that we want to release, stoke
- 9:48Speaker 1: to play some shows, and you know, we'll just see
- 9:51Speaker 1: what happens after that.
- 9:53Speaker 3: One of the beauties of festivals is there's so many
- 9:55Speaker 3: bands that people I've never heard of, I've never seen before.
- 9:57Speaker 3: So say someone's come along and they don't know break,
- 10:00Speaker 3: give us three of your songs so they can listen
- 10:02Speaker 3: to get an idea.
- 10:03Speaker 2: What do you expect, all.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Right, Well, they could listen to Well, we had five
- 10:07Speaker 1: songs on that EP, so half of it. So I
- 10:11Speaker 1: reckon they should listen to Colors of Decline, which is
- 10:15Speaker 1: the song that opens the EP in which we always
- 10:17Speaker 1: open our sets with, which I think puts together a
- 10:21Speaker 1: lot of the different elements of Brace, the sort of
- 10:24Speaker 1: the metal, the rock, the post hardcore, the alternative stuff,
- 10:29Speaker 1: the keyboards, it all kind of comes together in that song. Rewind,
- 10:32Speaker 1: I think is probably a thrashiest song, but it's still
- 10:35Speaker 1: got great melody in there. And we're actually putting a
- 10:38Speaker 1: new song out this Thursday, on July thirty one called
- 10:42Speaker 1: break the Sun and I Reckon that's a really great
- 10:45Speaker 1: song too. So they're the three which I would choose.
- 10:48Speaker 2: Actually raise a sort of good point.
- 10:49Speaker 3: They're like, when you guys started, like the whole metal
- 10:52Speaker 3: with the electronics, with the post hardcore, all that sort
- 10:54Speaker 3: of stuff bladed together that you did was only pretty
- 10:57Speaker 3: new and like, so you would have been pioneered in
- 10:59Speaker 3: a way. Now you're coming back and so many bands
- 11:01Speaker 3: have done it in the interim. It's sort of, yeah,
- 11:04Speaker 3: it's got somebody that you're a part of the start,
- 11:06Speaker 3: and now you're just bitten in with everyone else.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Really Yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean, hopefully the new
- 11:13Speaker 1: songs which we're doing are a little bit more reflective
- 11:16Speaker 1: of I guess where we're at now, and then add
- 11:19Speaker 1: some new elements into it. But yeah, you know, these songs,
- 11:22Speaker 1: like you said, twenty years ago, it was a different
- 11:24Speaker 1: time and yeah, but it is what it is, right,
- 11:29Speaker 1: So I guess there was an element of you know,
- 11:33Speaker 1: pioneering some sounds back then, but by the same token,
- 11:36Speaker 1: you know, we're obviously really inspired by artists who had
- 11:40Speaker 1: come before us as well, so you know, bands like
- 11:42Speaker 1: Faith No More and quicksand and all sorts of stuff.
- 11:46Speaker 1: So you know, everything borrows from everything else, and everything evolved.
- 11:52Speaker 1: But yeah, I know what you mean. But I think
- 11:54Speaker 1: it still sounds pretty fresh today, which is good.
- 11:57Speaker 3: Now you've mentioned new music a couple of times, so
- 11:59Speaker 3: tell us about that. What do you got coming out?
- 12:01Speaker 2: Is it what people would expect for Embrace?
- 12:04Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon, I reckon. I mean it was just
- 12:06Speaker 1: you know, these are songs which we started working on
- 12:08Speaker 1: twenty years ago before we been and had been working
- 12:11Speaker 1: on for a year or two before we split up,
- 12:15Speaker 1: So I think they're probably just you know, the next
- 12:18Speaker 1: step from Before You Begin, which was that debut EP.
- 12:21Speaker 1: We recorded that before we'd done a single show, so
- 12:25Speaker 1: they were really like the first songs that we ever wrote,
- 12:28Speaker 1: whereas these ones, you know, the genesis of them steps
- 12:31Speaker 1: backstretches back to you know, we've already been playing for
- 12:34Speaker 1: a year or two. We've done lots of touring with
- 12:37Speaker 1: bands like She Had and Deftones and stuff like that,
- 12:40Speaker 1: so we've kind of got our live legs together and
- 12:44Speaker 1: played a lot more and I think you can hear
- 12:45Speaker 1: that in the music, so I think it's I don't
- 12:47Speaker 1: think there's any surprises, but I just think they're better
- 12:50Speaker 1: songs sor.
- 12:51Speaker 2: Right roight roll. Thanks very much for your time.
- 12:53Speaker 3: Rae Brace will be part of Necrosonic Festival August twenty
- 12:56Speaker 3: third at the Manscreet and Brisbane. Over sixty percent tickets
- 12:59Speaker 3: are sold and I know that's not bullshit. They're going fast,
- 13:01Speaker 3: so if you want one, getting monster quick and we'll
- 13:04Speaker 3: catch you for bear on the day Bright.
- 13:06Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Chris really appreciated. See
- 13:08Speaker 1: you up there,