I had the pleasure of having a chat with Matt from Brownbear, prior to their headline gig at Beat Generator in Dundee, (click HERE to check out our review) just to ask him a few questions about the band, the local scene and the future of Brownbear. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Where’s your favourite place you’ve ever played? And why?
The Barrowlands because it is the best venue in the world. There’s just something special about it, like the vibe to it and it’s got that history and culture. The thing is it genuinely has a spring floor, so it actually bounces, it just is special and that’s why it’s my favourite.
Q: Who are some of your most influential musical icons?
For me probably…I was a massive fan growing up of Queen, the theatre of it and the same with Michael Jackson. I just became obsessed with songs then I was obsessed with Ray Charles as well I love his voice and the way the songs were. Then Motown became a big thing for me, through that it was Stevie Wonder, then I found Production which is Quincy Jones which lead me back to Michael Jackson but with an understanding of the music behind it and I think I’ve taken a lot from that. Then as I got older, we ended up doing supports with The Libertines and I learned, from seeing them live, just how great music can be. Somewhere along the line I realised I just loved songs like I loved when a song told a story and when a song was complete and for me that’s what music is. When you can relate to something, the genre doesn’t matter, you can play any genre and it’ll be relevant to you.
Q: What’s your personal favourite track from your debut album “What is Home?”?
I think “What is Home?” the title track is probably the song that I sang that just sums up where I was then, I also think that if anyone was to get that song, they’d get me and where I was at, so I’ve got a lot of attachment to that emotionally. But I’ll always have a pure love for songs like “Wandering Eyes” and the more upbeat songs because when you play them live people get into them. I don’t know though, as I feel like I’ve found ten tracks that really works well for me and that I’m really proud of it as a piece of work and I’d never had that before, I’d never left something being proud of it, I’d always come back to it saying I could have done this I could have done that but with this, I haven’t really done that and even if I do do-it it doesn’t matter because I’m happy.
Q: Where have you played before this gig? What was it like? And have you got any up and coming gigs?
We’ve played London, Newcastle, Tynemouth and Dunfermline so far in the tour. I think Tynemouth might have been the highlight as they just went for it, you know like northerners always do. And we’ve got Aberdeen on the 19th of October, Inverness on the 20th of October, Doonan, Bathgate and then the big show in Glasgow, Oran Mor, at the end of the year and that’s the biggest show to date. It’s a big task and a big challenge but hopefully it’s worth it and it pays off.
Q: Since you’ve played Dundee before, what’s it like playing here compared to other places?
I love it because it is a musical town but as I’ve got to know the musicians here more and more and the history, I feel a pressure as the musician’s standard in Dundee is massive even now but also historically, it is a music town. I think there is a different kind of crowd here, they really listen to what you’re doing and the intricacy’s that you’re saying and playing. I guess that brings out a better performance in you compared to Edinburgh as a city and even Glasgow. Glasgow is a very music loving city, but I don’t know if they’re quite as music critical, I feel like Dundee is a city full of great players from so many great bands. Even ones that didn’t maybe even make it when you come to Dundee, they were still massive, people still talk about them as if they had made it and I think that’s just something amazing about the history of music in Dundee.
Q: What’s the plans for 2019? What’s the main focus?
New music, I think we’ll have new music out early on and I would like to have the second album out, it’s written so studio time, but I never cut out new songs coming. Even when we did the first album some songs came very late on, we would say “aw its written” but we’d put something new in. So, we’ll do that then tour a bit and hopefully get back in the festival circuit. As with any band you’ve just got to keep your head down, keep working hard and hope someone, somewhere or the right thing happens that just makes you take it to the next level. Our aim is obviously to move it up a level again but it takes time and we know that its just about working hard for us, we graft away, we go out every year and we do shows and if the band can’t do them I do them solo we just keep working and working and working and hopefully one day it all pays off.
Q: Who is your favourite Scottish artist in the scene at the moment?
Bar Billy Mitchell? Billy Mitchell is my favourite artist of all time. That’s not even a lie that’s just the truth I think its just common knowledge now. I’m really loving, and I’m not just saying this because we’re in Dundee, but the St Martiins they’re cool, and they’ve just got with 13 Artists so I hope that takes them again up a level. Ded Rabbit that are playing tonight, I heard that awkward family portraits thing they did a few tunes back, it’s got that old-fashioned vibe but different. Black Dove a wee band from Greenock a solid indie/brit rock kinda band. I always keep up to date as much as I can, I think there’s so much to offer in Scotland right now and hopefully everyone starts to club together. I saw Spotify did a Scotify playlist and that’s a good start for noticing Scotland has its own thing.
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