With their third studio album released last week (1 February), New Zealand synth-pop duo Broods are attempting to shed their electronic-based image in place of a more rounded and full-sounding release.
'Don't Feed The Pop Monster' does just what it proclaims, with a body of work that draws sound and influence from actual instruments more so than at any stage of their career.
“Basically, people will tell you that you need something to be successful,” vocalist Georgia Nott says, when summing up their attitude towards writing and recording the album.
“They say you need to achieve this or have this, but actually success isn't defined by any of those things. If you buy into that way of thinking then you start to do what you love for an outcome, rather than what you are actually making.”
'Don't Feed The Pop Monster' benefits from this stance, with a collection of songs that sees Broods expand on the live experimentation started on previous album 'Conscious'. “It's a bit different from the last one,” Georgia says.
“I don't know though. When I say that I don't know if it's different to other people or just different to us because we had a different experience writing it. It's less programmed than the last records. It's got a lot more real instruments – real drums and bass – so it feels a bit more ‘band-y’,” she says with a laugh.
After the predominantly synth-electronic undertones of debut 'Evergreen' in 2014, Broods added live guitars, organ and electric piano to the mix for their 2016 follow-up, with Georgia arguing that it was more of a natural progression rather than a pre-conceived goal.
“We had a lot of time and we experimented on a lot of instruments.
“Caleb brought about one hundred thousand instruments in (laughs) and he plays bass on pretty much every song, plus we've got more electric guitar on this one and real drums. It was really cool working with mostly programmed instruments on the first record and it was freeing to have all the instruments online, so you could draw from anything. But this time we wanted to take a bit more of a nostalgic route.
“The kind of music that we listen to is Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac, and the Gorillaz and all these bands that have shaped who we are. We kind of wanted to be inspired by them rather than be inspired by – like I was saying before, by an outcome of getting a song on radio or getting it into some chart or whatever.”
Now based in LA, Broods – consisting of Georgia and her brother Caleb – started in 2013 with a synth-based electronic sound that despite defying current trends of the time resonated with the music-loving public, much to the surprise of the duo. “We had no idea what we were doing, to be honest,” Georgia laughs.
“We were just making music and thinking 'wouldn't it be fun if somebody listened to this', so I don't really know what we were trying to achieve. We were just in it to make music and at the end of the day that's just what it is. You make what you feel and whatever you're inspired by in your life and your experiences. That's how you shape your art.
“I think our first album was literally our first time writing electronic music," she continues, "so we were just guessing for the most part... the whole trend back then was to be super sad and bored and whatever, and pretend that you had problems when you really didn't, but it was strange because it wasn't really the type of music that we'd been listening to.
"Now, this album is more the kind of music that we were inspired by when we started so it's kind of weird that it took us five years to get back to this thing that inspired us to come here in the first place!"
'Don't Feed The Pop Monster' is available now.
Broods Australia Tour 2019
Tue 21 May - Forum MelbourneWed 22 May - Thebarton Theatre (Adelaide)
Tue 28 May - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Thu 30 May - Eatons Hill Hotel (Brisbane)
Sat 1 Jun - Metropolis (Fremantle)
