Pretty Boys Make Braves

New York power-quintet The Bravery are an eyeliner-driven burst of Strokes cool and Killers tunes. Currently the band are holed up in The Metro Bar, London’s premiere mud-pit, where they have been leaving audiences agog and wet of knicker as part of their one month residency. Gigwise caught up with their keyboardist John Conway…

G: We were at your show last Thursday at The Metro, seems like you guys are lapping up the UK crowds?

JC: Absolutely. We enjoy playing pretty much wherever we are, but in London and the UK so far the crowds have all been really good. We’re definitely excited about finishing off the next two (Metro) shows pretty strong.

G: Being a keyboard player you weren’t feeling too left out then?

JC: It’s hard to jump into the crowd with a keyboard. Me and the drummer, we can’t reach.

G: It also seems like there’s a lot of sex in the show.

JC: I think I would probably say there’s a lot more sex after the show.

G: Right. Ok then. Fair Enough. So you’re all into your DIY-ethic bands like Fugazi and Jawbox and then you form your own band that starts writing Killers/Duran Duran electro pop/rock. How does that work??

JC: Well, Sam (Endicott, lead singer) and I started really working on these songs together as a recording project a few years ago. He grew up listening to Fugazi and Jawbox, all those dischord bands and I think what he was really into was the DIY-ethics of the whole thing. Just like doing music yourself, creating everything and at the time so much other stuff was happening in New York. Except we both felt that the songwriting was sort of, lacking. And y’know, we’re also huge classic rock fans – I mean, the whole band are into such a wide variety of stuff, so I think when we got together, we sort of wanted to take advantage of all of the cheap technology available and mix it together with more traditional songwriting and take rock n’ roll back to being a dance music.

G: Right, and that DIY ethic, would it have anything to do with 9-11?

JC: I’m not sure I see a link there…

G: Well, perhaps… erm… maybe there is a new skepticism in New York? Perhaps there’s a sense of new beginnings?

JC: Erm… I think some of the songs are sort of about… that…vaguely. And I think that it just sort of came out of the atmosphere in New York at the time. I think our name sort of means that… In a way… But the atmosphere’s definitely not just in New York, it’s in the States as a whole. But yes, the environment lends that kind of sense to the songwriting.

G: Okay back to the proper questions… You’ve just done Jools Holland, how was that?

JC: Oh that was great, it’s a great show. I wish we had it back in the States. We got to meet Ian Brown, which was fun.

G: Whats the plan for the band?

JC: Our plan is just to keep playing, I think we’d probably be the happiest band in the world if we could just play in every country.

The Bravery's 'Unconditional' EP is released in the UK on 15th November.