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I am Sat here today with Hez and Dan
from Daniel Spiller & The Broken Record Project.
Welcome to Contact Music and thanks for speaking to us today.
Not everybody knows lots about your music .
What can you tell us about the band and your influences?
The band is a five piece,
and every band member comes from a different country,
I am from the UK as you can probably tell,
Mr Hezron here is from South Africa
and he will tell you about the rest of the band.
Yeah as Dan said I am From South Africa,
Dan is from the UK,
Dani is from Spain,
Mauro is from Sardinia, Italy
and Marc is from Holland.
That is why it is a truly International band.
How did you all start collaborating together
and meet each other If you are all from different places?
Well obviously London is a bit of a hot bed for the rest of the world,
I started out on my own as Daniel Spiller just doing gigs,
I use to work for a production company and I am also a producer.
I work on both sides of the field,
I met a Bass Player working on a project called Dani Mourinho
and I just asked him If he wanted to Jam with me really,
and I met Hezron through Gumtree.
When I came into the country I met Daniel through there
and we kind of put the band together and we have been taking it off ever since,
We stuck with the name Daniel Spiller & The Broken Record project cos
that’s the way it started and the Broken Record Project
is the name put together from all the different musicians
from the different countries, so that’s it.
And who producers the music?
I produce the music down in a studio in Tottenham,
North London I’m a producer engineer anyway
I work with other artists,
I produce the stuff and the band also producers the stuff ,
and we have got a little studio and we all do it together.
I just send stuff backwards and forwards and they slate my work.
Hahahaha work in Progress Dan.
Its good fun, it is all in house really the band all chip in and do something,
Like Dani Mourinho is very good at designing artwork and
he has designed all the Myspace If you have a look
it is impressive and very very good.
Its all about chipping in and making the whole project work.
So you are a very self sufficient outfit, what about Shoot The Dog Records
what can you tell us about that?
That was put together by a guy called John Robinson
who runs a few studios in London and he works with lots of different acts,
I also work with a lot of different acts.
I used to work with Pixie Lotts before she became quiet famous as a kid,
I made her first couple of records and
I have also worked with Bez from the Happy Mondays
on his new band Domino Bones,
I use to work with his girlfriend who was a singer
and very good she worked on the production also.
So also under that banner I have worked with these guys
who are also session musicians.
And they all work in the studio with other artists
we are a band from that really.
Sounds fascinating,
You have a track called the fight,
I would just like you to tell everybody about the track,
you know what can you tell us about the fight.
Well maybe Hez you could tell us about that.
The fight is basically one of the few pieces
that was written by all the members of the band,
together as all five of us.
Although the track is called The Fight
basically it deals with anything really it is for you personally
and what you are fighting against,
we are not saying that we are standing up against anything
but it is for you and your personal fight,
and If you listen to the lyrics
it is how you interpret it as the audience or the listener.
What we doing really is raising questions,
when you hear the song and you hear it live with the band
and when you here us play it here acoustically,
you will understand where it is going lyrically.
It is more raising questions rather than making a political statement
so people can make there own interpretation of it.
Fantastic you brought some instruments along today
so maybe we can hear some bits later on.
You guys are busy guys gigging all the time, producing, recording and writing.
What have you got coming up in the next few weeks?
Well we are actually working on a movie called Ten,
the crew is actually part of the crew that did The Harry Brown movie.
All right with Michael Caine?
Yeah that's right with Michael Caine,
We are also doing one of the biggest festivals in Santiago,
That's Northern Galicia, Its actually the biggest festival at the moment.
In Spain?
Yeah we have a couple more dates on top of that,
We have also been in talks to headline the Nozstock festival
or to try and get on the Main Stage, Man we got so much going on.
And that guys from South Africa what is his name?
Oh yeah and we have also been in talks with Mbongeni Ngema,
the guy that is dealing with the World Cup in South Africa,
booking the bands for the World Cup,
the playwright he has done Sarafina and other stuff like that,
We have been in talks trying to get us to play at the 2010 World Cup,
So that will be good to play in my home town.
Wow that would be absolutely amazing.
I have got to ask Hez who would you be supporting in The World Cup?
Are you a South Africa man?
Uhh Nigeria I think that is who my money is on!
Hahah I did not expect you to say that.,
That's Hezron's tip for the World Cup there.
I’m taking the month off.
We have five teams to support,
We have South Africa, England, Sardinia he kind of supports Italy
although Sardinia has its own kind of separatist thing going on,
same with Galicia Northern Spain where we are playing
they are very kind of into Spain, It is not like the Basque country
but it is like a separate sort of country
they are very patriotic about where they come from.
Lets talk about the World Cup!
Hang on for a second lets talk about some music.
Like I said this is an introduction for a lot of people,
as hard as it is I would like you to describe your music,
describe your sound to the viewers.
That would help people to see it from your perspective.
Okay well we label it as Broken Rock,
it is a mixture of Rock with Singer Songwriter influences.
Alternative , Indie
Yeah that's pretty much it
How do the songs come about what’s the starting point
and is there a set format for your writing and recording
or do they happen in different ways?
There is definitely not a format and songs come about for all different reasons.
I write with Hez , I write with different people in the band
cos I am a producer and writer by trade I also write with other people
and I will sit in a room on my own and write a song
or Hezron will sit in a room with Mauro the Keyboard player
and write a song.
We are just very passionate about song-writing
and what it means to be a songwriter and put messages across musically.
It is a process once a song is finished we put it in and say lets do it.
We come together as a band and work on it again and maybe
we take the groove and change it,
yeah and so that is how we work it.
I have seen you guys play live and you seem to be able
to touch people that don't always seem to listen to your kind of music .
Why is that you seem to have this universal appeal within your style?
I guess the obvious answer is that we come from different...
Backgrounds and different places.
You know somewhere in the western world but we have different influences.
I think what the unique thing about it is that
there is plenty of bands out there which have members from different countries
but with us each member is from a different country and it is what London is about
at the moment and that whole scene.
I mean we have people that come to our gigs
from Spain, Italy,South Africa, Holland and
it just brings that complete vibe and you have the U.K
and people just love seeing five different guys doing something different
instead of the normal boring stuff that is going on.
Your popularity on Myspace is unquestionable,
we can see from the live gigs up there that your gigs are rocking.
You have not been signed by a major label yet.
Why do you think that is?
Well we are still questioning ourselves with that one.
At the moment we have been trying with the Major labels and independent labels,
obviously we have been doing a lot of the stuff ourselves for a long time.
Does it matter to you.
What you mean getting signed by a major label?
yeah
Well it like people ask me this question all the time
and my answer is If someone gives you a winning lottery ticket,
are you are going to say okay mate I am going to carry on working
for 70 years but thanks for the lottery ticket.
Of course a major label matters to all of us
and anyone that says otherwise....... yeah
the ethos of the band initially was to make good music
it wasn’t to go anywhere and do anything so
we have taken that and we are basically rolling forward with it whatever happens.
to anybody that might be watching from a major label,
production company, management company.
What do you have to say to these people?
Up Yours!
hahaha That’s what we like to hear.
We got some good feedback from some producers
at good levels at BBC Radio 2
a guy called Jeff Smith, they really like the music,
they have some issues with what order we should put the tracks out
and initially we have a ballade that is a very good crossover track
but the feeling is that we should go with a track
that is a little more upbeat to start with.
I guess that is just a traditional way of putting stuff out there.
So we are just debating we have three singles ones is called The Fight,
The other is called It Don't Matter and the other is called.....
Everything
We are going to release a single in the next six to eight weeks
and it will be one of those singles,
we will probably decide in the next ten minutes probably.
Guys it has been an absolute pleasure,
I believe we are looking to get you to play live for us in a bit
and we are looking forward to that and all the best for your gigs all over the World
and calling England in the World Cup and Nigeria!
Thanks Nik