Room Thirteen bundled Breed 77 into a cupboard at the London Barfly and discussed their new album. Full orchestras? Sounds like it's going to be an album to remember!
Room Thirteen: How long have you been hanging around the venue today?
Breed 77: We all live in London now, so when we played last night we could drive back and sleep in our own beds!
R13: How many places have you played on this mini-tour?
B77: Eight. This is our last one though! Then we have five days off. This tour has been like a way to see what the reaction to our new album will be. We wanted the people who care to hear this album first so we can get a vibe off of it.
R13: And what has the vibe been so far about the album?
B77: Very good...very good. Amazing actually. We're very touched people like it so much. All the comments we have heard are really positive. When you play new material people have a tendency to just stand around and look bored even if they like it. But for this, we've had a lot of people saying very nice things about it.
R13: Any press feed back about the album yet?
B77: No, none at all! The idea with this tour was to let the fans hear first. We want to know what our fans think, not the press! Everything has been sold out, so I think that's a good sign. We've been playing around 200 capacity venues. We wanted it to be intimate so we can see what's happening. It's still early days but the fans seem to like it. It's not like we don't care what the press think, we do, but the fans are more important.
R13: What have you been up to since I spoke to you at Download last year?
B77: Lots! After Download we went to Switzerland and then onto some European festivals. The whole time we were writing new material for the album. We started recording the album in September. We've been busy right the way through until now. We're in this band to work, so that's what we've been doing. Holidays are for when we retire, for when we can't stand up, you know?
R13: It's so annoying for fans when they're waiting for an album to come out and the band takes ages to produce it...
B77: We've tried to get this out as quick as we could! We had all these shows to play, then we came back and suddenly we had to compose again. We did it in the middle of nowhere in Wales, in a valley. We had peace and quiet to just make music night and day.
R13: Are you going to play festivals this year?
B77: Yeah, we hope so! We are going to play Download this year. We've been very busy so it will be nice to play again. When you're recording you don't listen to much music so it will be good to hear some new stuff. There's this whole Emo thing going on at the moment... and Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium... There are trends at the moment. But they'll go.
R13: Are you looking forward to going on tour with Fear Factory?
B77: Of course! Yeah, it will be great.
R13: What was the strangest venue you have ever played?
B77: We've played a lot of festivals... they're all different. The way they work, the people you get attending. Waken and Download are so different, they all are.
R13: What can people expect from the new album? A new style or improving the same?
B77: We judge the album differently to the outside. It sounds like Breed 77... Our influences are shown. We've had full orchestras, choirs, different instruments. It's very creative and diverse. It is still Breed though, but it's been beefed up. It's heavier, it's softer, it's more rock... it's more everything! It keeps it fresh and interesting and just good to listen to.
R13: What are your personal favourites off the album?
B77: Albums are like children- you can't just pick a few songs as the best. They're all good. I don't see the album as just songs, its one whole thing- it's an album not songs. It works all together. I am in love with the whole project.
If you want to check out their preview show review, click here.
Breed 77 are playing on the Main Stage at Download 2006. To see the full line up, click here.