Sure it’s true that many-a band have played the,
“I know everything about world events and politics, so I’m
going to shout about it” card (particularly in recent years, thanks
to the widely perceived notion that the Bush administration got it all
a bit wrong) but there’s more to Brakes than snarls and power
chords. I’d say it’s down to the fact that they’ve
written a whole load of white-knuckle guitar anthems. However the band
says, “We’re doing what we believe in doing, regardless
of demographic surveys or advertising agendas. What sets us apart? We
don't sound like a third rate Libertines”. And that they most
certainly do not.
So with this image established in your mind of some
kind of heroic, anti-this, pro-that, rock monster, it might blow your
mind to hear lyrics like ‘porcupine or pineapple / porcupine or
pineapple/ spikey spikey! / who won the war?’ - a line taken from
probably the most demented anti war song ever created, ‘Porcupine
or pineapple’.
Indeed the band has a taste for the zanier side of song-writing
but where there often seems insanity, you’re likely to find concealed
meaning. Eamon’s explanation for the song is of few words, but
takes Brakes off of the aforementioned ‘monster’ pedestal
and back onto a human one; “the best way to deal with fear is
to ridicule it.”
In fact songs like this are strewn over both of their
albums, the difference between their debut Give Blood and latest creation
The Beatific Visions being less to do with them discontinuing their
relationship with anger, and more to do with a transition to considering
world events rather than localised attacks on individuals.
Where previously we heard ‘I can’t stand
to stand beside you’ (targeting hypocrites), ‘Heard about
your band’ (about name-dropping rock types) and ‘Hi how
are you’ (on the annoying cliquey sort) - all painfully familiar
characters - we now have ‘Margarita’ (politics and control),
‘Porcupine or pineapple’ and ‘Cease and Desist’.
It’s the latter, and latest single, ‘Cease and desist’
that Eamon seems most open about today and he offers the motive behind
the writing of a song around religion.
“Well, there seems to be a lot of 'my God's better
than your God' type shit going on at the moment. And I wanted to write
a song about a drunken gambling God, based on the God that appears in
The Book of Job in the Old Testament, that fucks everything up.”
For those of you not up on your Old Testament, Job is
a most unfortunate individual. It is said that God listens to Satan’s
advice, permitting him to wreak havoc in his life, and the story ultimately
considers the futility in trying to understand God’s power. He
continues, “I'm fed up of all these Gods that call for mass murder,
either by dropping bombs or strapping bombs to humans. Why believe in
one of those? What good is that going to do? What good is God?”
But before we all get carried away and start tearing
up pictures of The Pope on live television, let’s not forget that
attitude alone can’t cover up bad music (exhibit A, Towers of
London), so it’s a good job that Brakes take no prisoners in combining
guitar anthems and a politically savvy mindset with a passion of ineffable
proportion. Eamon is the first to admit, “the whole punk attitude
is infused in us”, but ultimately they’re “just trying
to reflect these war torn, God bothering, suicidal times whilst also
trying to write good love songs.”
Make no mistake that Brakes have a lot to say. And they
mean every word.
