Auckland, New Zealand’s Broods—siblings Georgia Nott (lead vocals) and Caleb Nott (multi instrumentalist and production) released their freshman EP, the self titled “Broods,” in February of this year on Capitol Records.
For their single “Bridges,” Broods enlisted producer Joel Little, who is noted for his work with another New Zealand native, the ubiquitous Lorde and her monster hit single “Royals.” “Bridges” was released to some critical acclaim and even reached number eight on the popular music charts in New Zealand. The vocals are powerful and charming and the instrumental arrangements are haunting and carry enough ambiance to engage even the biggest of venues.
Prior to a tour stop in Washington, DC this month, we chatted with Georgia and Caleb about music in general and their thoughts on vinyl records in particular.
Since this interview is for TVD, do you guys enjoy vinyl records?
Oh yeah, we have vinyl on the merch stand tonight. We pressed these really cool, transparent vinyl records in this blue-green see-through color.
Do you guys yourselves have a long history with vinyl records?
Our friend has a vinyl player and he plays Cat Stevens on it. I grew up listening to Cat Stevens, so that’s always good.
Do you guys have a major collection going on?
We really don’t get to play vinyl right now, cause we don’t have a vinyl player. It’s been on our to-do list to get one and the kind we want is sort of expensive, for a nice one you know. We want to get a super good player. The funny thing is that I’ve got some really strange vinyl from this huge garage sale in Holland.
Anything that sticks out in that collection?
My cousin got this Christmas album and I got this ’80s compilation pop vinyl with Whitney Houston on it. They were only a dollar each.
Do you guys have a favorite record that you own for when you find the perfect player?
We’ve got quite a lot of new artists like London Grammar and Disclosure (another sibling duo from the UK). They’re about the same age as us as well.
Do you know the band Disclosure personally?
No, we just know them because we are huge fans of their music. I feel like we are on the same maturity level (laughs).
Speaking of the sibling dynamics, is making music something you guys have always been interested in?
Pretty much, we’ve been playing music together since we were eight years old and it’s something that comes pretty easily and very naturally to us. We decided ages ago that this is what we were going to do. We just didn’t believe that it was ever really going to happen.
I love your recordings and since I’m a relatively new fan, I’m excited and looking forward to your live performance. I hope the crowd loves it, I’m sure they will, it’s packed in there.
We hope they love it too (laughs).
You guys did a live Spotify session, can you tell me a little about that?
It was in when we were in London. We just basically went to the Spotify offices and we played a few acoustics songs in their studio. Now it’s part of our collection on Spotify.
What I noticed about the Spotify performances as opposed to the albums was the appearance of the acoustic guitar on those tracks. Were those recorded in just one session?
Yes, it was just one session. We just did a quick sound check and then just went into it. It was pretty easy to go from electronic to acoustic just because we come from quite an acoustic background. We do most of our radio performances in acoustic.
How long ago where your Spotify recordings made?
It’s only been a few months since we were there so it’s pretty fresh…
