An Interview With Angus Richardson
By Caren Spitler
Almost five years ago I heard the sounds of Brother for the first time. Since Saturday March 25, 1995 I have enjoyed going to nearly every single gig this band has played in the LA and surrounding areas. Having discovered the musical joy that is the band Brother by complete accident at their gig at the Hollywood American Legion Hall, where they shared a bill with the Dogstar. I have been a devoted fan ever since that night.
The members of Bother are not followers and do not play the trendy card. This rock group plays with heart and honesty aided by poetic lyrics and a bit of cultural diversity. Co-founders of the band, Hamish and Angus, borrow from some familiar cultural influences blending bagpipes and didgeridoo's into the rock mixture. They have been creating music their own way for quite a few years now, and this has paid off for the band. Brother has a huge international following. I have seen them pack several venues here and have no doubt it's the same everywhere they go.
On March 19th '99 at the Troubadour, I was to see my last Brother gig for a while. On June 1999 three of the members of the band Steve, Hamish, and Angus along with their manager Fedj were all involved in a serious freeway accident. The band was forced to cancel the remaining dates of their North American tour, and they all went into what would be months of recuperation and healing (mental as well as physical I'm sure).
The story has a happy ending everyone is on the mend and Brother has decided to start to pick up the pieces of what was blown apart by the accident in '99. They played their first gig at the El Rey Theatre in LA on Wednesday, March 15th. We caught up with Angus recently to find out how all are faring and to get a little insight into a very special band.
Your accident in June of '99 abruptly ended your touring for the year.
During your recovery, was there ever any doubt in you minds that Brother
would have a future?
Of course you never know what's gonna happen. We were all pretty badly injured. You just pray and hope. There certainly was a time when we all wondered, but we just kept going.
Are you all totally recovered?
Everybody's pretty close to being totally recovered.
What inspired you to start playing music?
I can't remember. It was always there. I think we all started singing and playing from…well, from the time we could first sing probably. My dad used to always sing with us when we were really little. Our mom had us learning classical piano from the time we were five, and just different instruments after that. I think it was just always something we wanted to do. I don't really remember any specific point that determined that.
Rock & Roll with bagpipes and didgeridoo, as an American your music
was pretty unusual to me. What inspired you to create you unique form
of Rock?
Well, I guess it's been a real evolution. When we first came here we played the bagpipes, but we didn't really use them in the show we were just a rock band. In high school and before we'd played traditional bagpipe music and competed, but it wasn't until we came here that we had to get out on the street literally and street perform to pay the rent, that we started experimenting with using the bagpipes. Hamish had always wanted to play the didgeridoo, so he made himself one, and we started experimenting with that and the tribal rhythms and it just evolved into what it is now. We adapted a lot of what we learned on the streets to our rock and roll show.
How long was it from the time you came out here and were playing on the street until you developed the heavy fan base you have today?
Like I said when we first came here, we were a traditional rock band. We did lots of harmonies, we've always done that. Then concurrently, we started doing the street performing to get by, and that started to be really successful so we started doing quite a few festivals and doing that around the country as well. As I've said, it's sort of an evolutionary process. Establishing the fans as well, we had some fans from the rock days, and then fans that we'd pick up doing the street performing, and we slowly melded the two together. It was a real gradual process. That was over a few years. We've been here for about eight years.
What's in your CD player right now?
The best of Crowded House. Good Aussie band, Midnight Oil.
What are some of your musical influences?
Oh, where should I start? Over the years I've liked the Beatles. They have always been a big influence on all of us. You really can't pass up Led Zeppelin. I like the Police a lot, and some of what Sting does. We like just bits and pieces of everything. We're into a lot of the heavy stuff. A lot of world music, Peter Gabriel
You and Hamish write some of the most poetic lyrics I have ever heard, for instance the songs like "Purple Haze" and "Fly Away", could you tell me a little about what inspires your lyrics?
Every situation is different. Sometimes you can have an epiphany and a song will just come to you. With "Purple Haze" Hamish wrote the better part of it when he was driving over the Blue Mountains in Australia with his little daughter. It just came to him, and we finished that just before we recorded it. I can't remember now what section we needed to get, we literally had to record it. We were recording out of Collin Hayes Studios, the lead singer from Men at Work, he has a wonderful studio out in Topanga. We had to finish this song so we went out to his garden, and while sitting there the end of the song just suddenly came to us. We were just sitting there and a little hummingbird came down and hovered between the two of us and it just came out. And that's usually how it happens, the easier it is, the more inspired it seems to be. Some songs take up to eight months to finish.
Since the addition of Steve as your guitarist, I've noticed a difference in the Brother sound. Steve plays a bit more aggressively. How did you find Steve and how do you feel having him has helped to shape Brother's sound?
We found him through Dalbo, he'd done a lot of playing with Dalbo, and came highly recommended and we heard he was a real groover, and that really appealed to us. The first time he played with us it just felt great. So I think he widened the groove a bit for us… as they say in the industry. That's something we really enjoyed, he's just a really comfortable player. He brought some different sounds to us, like Middle Eastern sounds, which I think, really complimented the music, the sound and our approach as well.
Brother draws a very large female audience, do you ever worry that they are coming to see you because you are good looking and not because of the music?
It never really worried me. I was always really aware of people grooving to the music. That's all I really worry about. One of the things that people have always pointed out is the variety of people at our shows. That's a real affirmation for us. We get a lot of older people, and a lot of young kids as well. People from varied cultural backgrounds as well, which I always find really pleasing, and affirming. That's something we've always wanted to do with our music; have it as a venue to bring people together. That's something we have always aspired to, we think music has become a bit too segregated again. Traditionally, it was always something that sort of brought people together, from different age groups and backgrounds and I think it would be good to get back to that.
With all of the new technology, the Internet, MP3's and CD Burners, do you think this is changing the face of the music industry for the better or worse?
I think it can only help to mix it up a bit and provide more opportunities and avenues for musicians to get their music out there. In the end it still comes down to just access to people. You still have to be able to promote yourself, and get your name in front of people, and get their interest. I think anything that provides alternative avenues for getting music to people is great. Because it's not an easy industry. It has been kind of locked up by major record companies, a lot of the access and distribution. I think the Internet provides a real alternative opportunity, particularly for acts that are different.
Do you have any plans to take advantage of this technology?
Yes, but I am probably not the best person to ask when it comes to computers. I don't know what specifically, We've only started to get the website up after years of being harassed by our fans. We got that up and running last year. I feel that we will take advantage of the Internet more as time goes on. At the moment we are just trying to make sure that we can get up and play.
What's happening with the fan club?
We also started the fan club recently, as well which, is going really well.
Have you written any new material?
We certainly have, we've been writing, particularlyin the past few months. We have a lot of new material we'll be playing for the fans. We did songs using the didgeridoo and the bagpipes, of course, and maybe a bit of tin whistle, we'll see. I think I'll save the details and people can hear them at the shows.
Are the new songs more rock oriented or instrumental? (BTW, I love the songs with mostly bagpipes)
Maybe a bit of both, there's still kind of a Celtic edge to them. I don't know, we really haven't been together as a band for a while, so we'll have to see how they shape up. There's always different directions you can take a song in.
Are you planning a heavy tour to make up for lost time or will you still be taking it easy for a while?
We have a few dates lined up, but we're just gonna see how it goes. We don't quite know how it's gonna turn out, we're just going to play it by ear, and hope for the best. We just came to play again, so we'll just see what happens.
Will you be recording any new music?
We might do some live recording, we're tossing around some options right now.
With 99 behind you, what can the fans expect for Brother in the next year?
The future is kind of wide open, we obviously
want to get to as many people as possible. I think the main thing for
us now is recording the new material we have, and seeing how it shapes
up. Playing it live and then having the opportunity to get it down properly.
We'll see how it sounds and just take it from there...
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| Photos By Caren Spitler / © 2000 The Scene LA |
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