Sophomore albums come with enormous pressure; none more so than for New Zealand brother-sister duo Broods and their upcoming release, ‘Conscious’.
It’s definitely a thrilling yet somewhat nerve-racking time for Georgia and Caleb Nott, known by their stage name Broods. “We’re excited and a little bit terrified at the same time. We’re just hoping for the best reaction, and putting out a second album is probably the scariest thing we’ve ever done,” says Caleb, the duo’s backing vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist.
This time around the siblings have a big pair of shoes to fill, considering their 2014 debut album, ‘Evergreen’, topped the charts back home, in Australia and in alternative lists around the world.
The new album is still uniquely Broods with incredible vocals from Georgia, but the conceptualisation and creation were different for ‘Conscious’ Caleb says.
They worked harder than ever before and Caleb took over the reins in terms of the production on the record. “We felt that the last record we kind of threw it together because we were under some serious time constraints, but this time we had the freedom to experiment a little bit more and a lot more decisions went into production and how we were going to deliver this piece of work,” Caleb says, also decoding the meaning behind the album title.
The pair have been working on ’Conscious’ since the release of their original album, and compared to the five weeks of writing that went into ‘Evergreen’, the new songs depict a variety of feelings and experiences endured by pair in the successful two years following 'Evergreen'. “Every song is different, because most of them were not written at the same time at all.
"You go through different periods in your life and you write about those different things, so it’s pretty broad in the themes and topics.”
Their talents for songwriting have always been a joint act, as Georgia and Caleb have been writing music together for most of their teenage and young adult lives. With an influential musical upbringing, with both parents being musicians, the siblings fell in love with playing music at a young age. “There was always musical instruments laying around the house, so it was kind of hard not to explore them.
"I guess it was a huge focal point in our upbringing, not just our family but our cousins were really into music as well. Our cousin actually comes on tour with us now – he’s our drummer – so it’s nice that we can keep it in the family.”
Fans have had a taste of the forthcoming album with the first single ‘Free’, which shines as a true forerunner to the developing talents of the pair. Though if the new track is anything to go by, we can certainly expect to see a stronger and more energetic side to Broods.
Plus, since touring the US with music industry idols such as Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith, the young duo have certainly picked up some hints from the best in the business to amp up their live show. “Our tastes in music have developed and our abilities have improved a lot playing live all the time.
"That’s had a huge part in how we approached our new music because we hadn’t really played any shows when we wrote the first album. They were just songs that we wanted to write, and now you think about how it's going to be received live and it’s something you can’t really get away from.”
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And with that, Australian fans can expect shows to be bigger and better than ever before, as Broods tour the east coast during July. “The energy is going to be a lot bigger than in the past; the music is a bit heavier and I think as performers we’ve developed a lot over the past year.
“We know more about what we want onstage and who we want to work with and it’s just going to be a bit more refined than it has been in the past.”
‘Conscious’ is released 24 June.
Broods Tour Dates
Fri 8 Jul – The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane)Sat 9 Jul – Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Mon 11 Jul – The Forum (Melbourne)
