“I thought we sounded like the Ramones and the rest of the universe thought we sounded like As It Is,” Brawlers vocalist Harry George Johns laughs, sitting on a stoop outside a Camden restaurant and bar. It’s anecdotal proof of his dissatisfaction with his own band in recent years, having undertaken some drastically necessary housekeeping in the Brawlers camp. Now set to release ‘The Black EP’, their first new material since last year’s ‘Romantic Errors Of Our Youth’, it’s only been possible thanks to the amicable parting of ways with key members of their management. Almost not seeing the light of day, ‘The Black EP’ is their reawakening.
“We spoke to Frank Carter,” Harry recalls, laughing at the name-drop, “who told us that if we don’t do what is in our heart, we’d have to spend the next year doing shows we didn’t want to be at.” Sound advice from an artist who has not only reinvented his musical style on various occasions, but moved from band to band in order to avoid compromising on his passion. “It really resonated with us.” At that moment Brawlers cancelled everything, developing a newfound desire to write songs. “Now we are back with some songs and working with people who understand us,” Harry celebrates.
Yet shaking off early associations might not be as easy. Brawlers have in recent years sat on the fringes of the pop-punk scene, touring with the likes of Decade, Set It Off and Real Friends; bands that they admire and share friendships with, but with whom they don’t necessarily feel a musical affiliation. “The first year as a band we played with The Thermals and Icarus Line,” he says enthusiastically. “Last year we were still very lucky to have done the tours we did, but it was with bands that are just not coming from where we are coming from.”
Earlier today, Brawlers performed to a sizable crowd at Camden’s Dingwalls, vocally proclaiming their dissatisfaction with the over-saturated pop-punk scene. “I’ll be completely blunt,” he beings when elaborating back on the stoop. I draw a baited breath. “The pop-punk ethos is to almost ignore important things, but to complain about trivial things in this sugar-coated way,” Harry continues in equal measures exasperated and civil, never overselling his place and consistently positive about others. “If a pop-punk song is heartfelt, it’s about some girl dumping you and how you’re going to skate home and complain about living with your parents. That’s just not my fucking world.”
“My world, just like the rest of the guys, is about not earning enough money. It’s about our jobs sucking. It’s about how we are ever going to buy a house when our parents owned one at our age. Am I supposed to settle down and have a kid? What am I supposed to do?” Ultimately, for Harry and his bandmates, it’s about growing up. “Don’t get me wrong, I like certain bands in that sub-genre,” he appeals, “it’s just for young people who have a lot of life to live.”
Having outgrown their scene, Brawlers are looking forward with ‘The Black EP’. Lead single ‘Day Job’ encapsulates Harry’s biggest frustration, balancing the necessities of life with a need for enjoyment. “I want to write and perform songs that tell people my day job sucks. That all I’m doing is drinking on a Friday and Saturday, hating my life on Sunday and then going back to work on Monday. I’m not saying I’m Billy Bragg, but it’s a thing that every single human being in my age bracket is thinking, and I’m going to sing about it.”
The remainder of the EP follows suit. Be it conversations about self-esteem (‘Better Looking’) or general despondency (‘Shake Me Into Shape’), it’s all presented in Brawler’s distinctive chatty tone, something that has evolved further since their debut full-length. It’s about vocalising those awkward internal conversations, exposing them and presenting them to likeminded audiences. As with ‘Romantic Errors Of Our Youth’, ‘The Black EP’ steers clear of interpretation. Everything is delivered in a matter-of-fact way rather than hiding the meaning under hyperbole.
“The songs and lyrics are more immediate,” Harry says of the new EP. “I’m fairly certain every human on the universe goes on the internet and gets envious, so I wrote a song called ‘Better Looking’ which is dumb but simple. Whether you admit it or not, we all do want to be better looking. It’s about how the internet makes things difficult, and how it affects trust. It’s all the stuff you might not necessarily easily admit.”
“From Brawlers’ incarnation I always wanted to write lyrics that are honest to the point of being awkward,” he continues. “Like on the first EP we have ‘I’m A Worthless Piece Of Shit’. Everyone’s felt like that before. Even ‘Mothers and Fathers’, despite sounding like a glossy pop song, it’s about fractured relationships with your parents. Even when we were a new band we were still trying to write songs that meant something to us.”
This continued blend of the serious and the upbeat draws influence from unusual sources. “I’ve been listening to a lot of original 70s afrobeat music,” Harry admits, apologising to me in case this makes him sound pretentious. “It’s incredibly interesting because it makes you want to dance and make friends, but it actually came out of this huge violent political struggle in Nigeria. Born out of that came this style of music.”
He links it back to Brawler’s style. “I want people to think: I feel like that sometimes. You don’t have to sound like Iggy Pop’s new record, you can put that to the background of music that makes you feel like, fuck it, I’m going to ring my mates up and have a good time.”
With that, ‘The Black EP’ takes the characteristic Brawlers formula and propels them into adulthood, in the hope that their associations follow suit. More recent tours with the likes of Blackhole might be testament to their early success in doing so, shaking off the pop-punk umbrella that has followed them in recent years. “It’s exciting,” Harry beams when I ask about the current state of Brawlers. “It might sound super fucking lame, but it really is. We might just be three shows deep into being the band I finally want us to be.”