incoming: BROWN BROGUES!
Mark Vernon has been in many bands. Most probably more than most musical folk. In fact if you’re reading this, there is a good chance you’ve been in a band with him.. But with best friend Ben Mather (drums/backing vocals) - who has an uncanny resemblance to Leemun Castrovalva - he has found his musical compadre. The duo have played with other musicians but subsequently sacked each one, realising they’re simply better off as a duo than with anyone else. And it works. Brown Brogues sound more like a garage band from San Francisco than a band based in Wigan (well, Mark is from Euxton, Ben from Winstanley). The band have a very low-fi approach to recording and performance with Ben using just a floor tom, snare and cymbal and Mark a telephone mic, fender strat and a few pedals. The songwriting takes influence from the garage greats of the US underground scenes making BB stand out from other bands trying the garage dance. They recently played a show for WMC supporting Former Bullies and just last weekend played with Texan rockers The Strange Boys at The Deaf Institute in Manchester where we caught up with them for a chin wag.
WMC: Hello Brown Brogues, Brown Brogues, Brown Brogues, Brown Brogues, how did the gig with The Strange Boys go at The Deaf Institute?
Mark: It was last night and it was amazing probably the best we’ve ever played. We hung around in the secret flat in the back of the Deaf Institute with them, Ryan and Phillip are really cool guys, they promised us some more support slots next tour…but I think they were just being cute. We invited them to a ‘crusty’ party (it was like the end of the world with a big fire in a shopping trolley) with the Bullies but when The Strange Boys phoned I had to tell them it was shit, then they phoned back because they ended up having a party later and invited us back but we were stuck in this community joy ride in the arse end of nowhere and couldn’t get back. We’re pretty gutted about that.
WMC: Your is setup is very minimal, Ben’s a bassist really isn’t he.. Is this an intentional thing or do you just not really get on with anyone else?
Mark: Welllll…. The short answer is no, I am quite the obnoxious misanthrope…The set up is minimal so that the full band and all the gear will fit in a 15 year old Punto and we can set up anywhere we like. Plus I saw Ben beat 3 other drummers in a knife fight, those doughnuts will be wearing Harlem Sunsets for the rest of their lives.
Ben: Yes I am a bassist and those nickel rats are resting in Chicago overcoats. I spent a small fortune on my bass set up and ordered it in from the states and now Mark makes me play on a £50 kit that he scammed off some kid on ebay.
WMC: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it?
Mark: It sounds like a crow pissing in your bath.
Ben: It sounds like a party you’re not invited to.
WMC: Your guitar sound is bad ass, what’s your secret?
Mark: The original Fender pick ups got trashed in my Duo Sonic when we played with thee oh sees and since then I’ve been messing with it alot. My friend Nick from Former Bullies gave me a knackered old 60’s guitar for recording them and the 60’s humbucker sounds amazing so I put that in my guitar. I couldn’t get the right 60’s (like the fuzz on strychnine by The Sonics ) fuzz sound from standard pedals so I made one which is a modified Fuzz Face circuit. David Bailey painted it and we’re due to make some more and sell them in his shop. (shameless plug?) He sells loads of cool books and artwork and clothes and some of Ben’s stuff too.
Ben: Yes.
WMC: Any plans for a single/album release anytime soon?
Mark: We’re due to do and E.P with a tape label in Manchester called Giant Hell but we have only just got enough money to by some new reels for my tape machine and pay Roger to use a room Compose Yourself over night to record it.
WMC: Have you thought about doing a Christmas song yet?
Mark: I think that would be straight from the fridge Neil but I dont know my groceries enough to do that and nobody would want to hear it!
WMC: Who should we be listening to right now?
Mark: The Strange Boys, Milk Maid, The Graveyard Shift, Paddy Steer, Former Bullies, The Pharmacy, Sic Alps, Silver mt zion and….Mark Morrison.
Ben: ALL FM on Monday 19th from 9 til 11.
WMC: Do you own supermarket reward cards?
Mark: Good question..No. Wait does a boots reward card count? Cos I don’t have one of those either.
Ben: I like to float below the radar, I ain’t no longhair.
WMC: Is it true you write songs about your friends?
Mark: I do.
Ben: I don’t.
WMC: It definitely seems the alt/noise movement has died out and there is a new low-fi scene in the North bubbling, how do you feel to be a part of it?
Mark: I dont like the buzz words now like lo-fi and DIY, they don’t really mean anything anymore. I like analogue recording, the sound of tape hiss and tape compression. Digital doesn’t sound right to me and it doesn’t lend itself to what we do. I like recording live it’s quicker and sounds good as it retains all the interesting things that catch your ear that usually get edited out. There’s a difference between lo-fi and amateur and I think alot of people forget that and just excuse shit recordings by saying its lo-fi. I don’t know about a scene in the north but there’s definitely something happening in Manchester, we’re too socially awkward to fit into a scene or clique but I’m hoping to take the mattress route…I hope it lasts because theres a lot of good music coming out from tiny garage bands living in the past (in a good way) and its the perfect answer to the slick riding academy of electronic bands and dreary folk acts that followed the awful indie landfill bands.
WMC: You’ve clocked up some pretty killer support slots - Think Thee Oh Sees, Joe Lally from Fugazi, Castrovalva, Former Bullies, The Strange Boys - anymore around the corner?
Mark: You missed out Electricity in Our Homes and Sic Alps, they were really good. Were playing with the Pharmacy on the 2nd of May at Trof in the Nothern Quarter they sound really good, I heard they used to be Kimya Dawson’s band. Were doing a session on ALL FM on the 19th we have some more shows in the pipeline but dont want to say before they are confirmed.
WMC: Do you think you could ever write a rap song?
Mark: I could and I have…Sort of, it’s called ‘Money over Bitches’.
Ben: Those Bitches had to die.
WMC: What are the plans for BB for the rest of 2010?
Mark: Elocution lessons, meeting Barbecues and avoiding any more roundheels!
Ben: Try and find something to fill the void left by Inspector Morse…Lewis ain’t shit!
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Brown Brogues play Trof (Nothern Quarter) Manchester with The Pharmacy Sunday 2nd of May.
Download BB’s ‘Grind A Go Go..’ HERE
