Since forming in 2008, Bedford quartet Don Broco have spent much of their time on the road. This year, however, was a little different, as the four – vocalist Rob Damiani, guitarist Simon Delaney, drummer Matt Donnelly and bassist Tom Doyle – buckled down to work on their follow-up to 2012’s Priorities. As the band approach the album’s finish line, we caught up with vocalist Rob Damiani to find out how his year has been. Which leads us to the inevitable first question…
So Rob, how’s 2014 been for you, then?
“It’s been the weirdest year for Don Broco, in the sense that we’re used to playing live all the time. When we first started, we’d play any gig we could. Tour after tour. As things got better, we started doing our own tours and new opportunities like that came up, so we were proper busy. When the year started, there was literally one thing in the diary – the You Me At Six tour in April. That was incredible. They were massive shows and we’d just started writing the album, so it gave us a nice reminder about why we’re a band and why we write songs. We spent time writing the album up until the Reading and Leeds festivals. We’ve been recording since then, really. We should be finished this week!”
How has the recording process been?
“It’s been going well. It made us think a lot about who we are as a band. When you’re touring a lot, there’s no time to think about anything. This year gave us the chance to sit back and write. I think they songs we’ve come up with are the best we’ve ever done. We’re really stoked about them.”
Are you close to finishing the album?
“Erm… the actual deadline was last Friday, so we’ve overrun. We set ourselves various deadlines – which we missed, obviously – but we wanted to finish before Christmas. Most of the songs just need mixing, but we’re so happy with them already, it shouldn’t take long. Sometimes you can go back forth on mixing and it takes a while. I have a few vocals to finish, but we’re really close. They say an album is never finished, but it’s just abandoned. You can’t keep tinkering with it. We’re just desperate to get the album out and let people hear it.”
**Money Power Fame got a great reception when the video was posted in November… **
“We started writing that last year and played it at Reading and Leeds. It’s a big, fun rock song and got an insane reception. We released the song and video a couple of months later, so it was great to see how people enjoyed it.”
When will the album be released, then?
“I don’t know, but I’m telling people Easter! There’s the various processes to go through but I think it’ll be out then.”
2014 has been a great year for British rock albums, with releases from Lower Than Atlantis, You Me At Six, Architects, Royal Blood, Twin Atlantic, Bury Tomorrow, Marmozets…
“Yeah, definitely. There’s been a lot. I was just thinking about Marmozets. They’re smashing it right now. Some of the songs on their album [The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets] are massive. They’ve always been such an incredible live band and it was hard to live up to that, songwriting-wise. But they did it – that album ticks all the boxes.”
So do you hope to carry that momentum throughout 2015?
“Well, getting the album out is our big focus. My big hope for 2015 is that people enjoy as much as we had fun making it. We’re really proud of the album, but people can only hear you say that so much until they can actually hear it. We want to get back on tour and play places we’ve never been to. I’m really looking forward to next year…”
