INTERVIEW WITH ROCK BAND BROKEN WITT REBELS

“YOU NEED TUNES, GOOD ONES! THEY ARE LIKE YOUR CURRENCY



We went and hung out backstage at one of the boys gigs in Birmingham. We asked them how it all started and if they have a process when writing and recording.

HOW LONG HAVE THE BROKEN WITT REBELS BEEN AROUND?

Broken Witt Rebels have been around for around 5 years all in all. When our drum- mer JD joined just over 3 years ago I think we went for it more full time.

WHERE WAS THE FIRST EVER SHOW AND WHAT WAS IT LIKE?   
 
Our first show with new drummer at that time was the jazz cafe in London, it was for a magazine called Time Out, we were just branching out in the midlands and the room was rammed, nerves were there but we delivered.      

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVISE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS WHO ARE WORKING AT HOME ON THEIR FIRST BATCH OF SONGS?   

I think music is everything, you need the tunes, good ones! and you need a lot of them. They are like your currency, your only as good as the music you make. My other advice would be don’t be afraid to say NO. We’ve experienced a lot of time wasters over many years and I wish we said no back then, would have saved a lot time.     

WHICH SONG OR MOOD FROM BROKEN WITT REBELS PAST BEST REPRESENTS THE BANDS FUTURE?   

I would probably have to say guns, the song is about being proud about where we are from (Birmingham) and dreaming big. That mentality has never left us and we carry that message with us when we wrote our 2nd album.   
 
YOU HAVE DONE TOURS IN UK, EUROPE AND AMERICA, WHERE DO YOU LIKE BEST? 
 
They are so different in so many ways. The USA was amazing! Touring Europe we had some incredible times, but the UK for me is the best. Its home and theres so many beautiful places in this country that I would probably only have seen because of the band.  

YOU MUST HAVE SOME STORIES FROM BEING ON TOUR LETS HEAR SOME OF THEM.   
 
We have so many, hard to pick one but I'll go with one from USA when we toured the south. We had a long flight, 3 connecting flights and finally got to a hotel in Austin Texas like 3am in the morning, and our manager said theres a car outside with guitars in it. You'll have to drive your self around on tour. So we had like 2 hours sleep and then when we got to the car it was a big fuck off Ford thing and we had to drive to Oklaho- ma which was 7 hours away. We made it and was a lil scary driving as 3 of us had never drove there. But just driving from show to show down that way was incredible.     
 
WHO ARE YOUR INSPIRATIONS PAST AND PRESENT?   

We are inspired from so many artists, so hard to choose but from the past we would say Fleetwood Mac (rumours era.) And the present we are very much into 21 pilots.     

WHATS THE DREAM?  
 
Our dream would be to headline Glastonbury and go on our own world tour.      

WHATS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?  

We all create and have massive inputs to our music. On our new album we went back to the start, just got together in Luke's moms house like we used to years ago and wrote about what was going on at the time.   

WHERE DOES THE NAME BROKEN WITT REBELS COME FROM? 

Boring answer really but it was from a metro newspaper that was in our rehearsal room. We opened up a page at random and 3 words stood out. Luke said Broken Witt Rebels and we said fuck it let's go with that.   
 
HOW DO YOU GUYS KNOW EACH OTHER? 
 
Luke and I have grown up together. We met JT and JD on the local live circuit in Birmingham, they were in local bands and we admired their playing. And when they joined we were complete.

DEAD OR ALIVE WHO WOULD YOU LOVE TO COLLABORATE WITH? 
 
From past Fleetwood mac and present Brittney Howard from Alabama Shakes.

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE INTERNET HAS EFFECTED THE MUSIC BUSINESS? 
 
I feel it has had mixed reviews but I would lean more to the positive side. Everyone can get music out now which is great. You can do the lot on socials! But on the negative side I feel the internet has made it hard for musicians to really make a substantial living from it as physical sales are getting a thing of the past I do worry about that.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO PERFORM? 
 
I would have to say our new one out now "Running with the Wolves" it's a feel good tune!

WHATS THE BEST AND WORST ADVISE YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN? 

I was told a saying from our drummer years back "big or small fuck them all." Always stuck with me. That's my best advice. My worst advice was to wear a white suit on stage. For me and how I perform i don’t need a suit and especially a white fucker.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE MUSIC IN- DUSTRY WHAT WOULD IT BE? 
 
The music industry is ever evolving and it's about staying up with it. But still trying to stay ahead at the time. I would say let people become the artist they want to be, for that you need time. Time isn't always allowed. Theres a lot of bollox out there and I feel some people just jump on a trend because of lack of time and knowledge.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE BAND AND WHAT CAN THE FANS EXPECT? 
 
Our fans can expect a very busy 2020 releasing our new album “OK Hotel” in march with a headline tour to follow.






More images below from Danny Woodstock Photographer

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