EP 2: A Brand New Hope

From a slightly biased perspective, Brand New Math are some of the nicest musicians I have ever meet. On Saturday night they played the Einstein Music Journal launch party without any fuss and helped guide us in some of the finer details of running a show. A couple of weeks ago I had the guys over to my house for afternoon tea. After eating an entire packet of chocolate chip cookies we turned the dictaphone on and started talking about the band.

Having just completed a very successful period in the band’s short history, the guys are extremely pleased with their achievements as Brand New Math. I’m talking about what drummer Jordy Fuller likes to call the Moustache Party era of Brand New Math. “I kind of think of it like an era, if we had a wikipedia page it would be called ‘The Brand New Math Moustache Party’ era”. Throughout May, the band hosted a group of shows, running with the theme of nineteenth century moustaches and everything gentlemanly. The band managed to pack out venues in Auckland and Wellington and people embraced the theme openly. Bass player Calum Gunn admits, “They were the most fun gigs I’ve ever played.”

“…the story I heard was that when ladies cried during the movie they could go there and weep silently.”

Continuing with the moustache theme, the band decided to call their second EP Moustache Party. Brad Fafejta (guitar, vocals) explains simply, “It sort of made sense to go from there (the parties) to the EP,” Calum adding “We’d planned to have it finished a bit earlier so it would coincide with the moustache parties.” But being perfectionists of their own craft, they all wanted to get everything sounding tip-top. It was a band decision to take a bit more time to achieve the perfect sound. Brad says “I think if you spend as much time on it as we had, you may as well take an extra day.” “There’s things you can live with and things you can’t,” mentions Tim Neale (keyboard, guitar). The result is something the guys can be very proud of; all four tracks emphasise a different creative force, showing the guys have made a lot of progress towards achieving an innovative sound. There’s chemistry within the band structure that was perhaps missing before. And for a band who have worked so hard, the public seem to dig it; not only were the moustache parties a huge success, their song ‘Idiot Savant’ has entered the 95bFM chart at number 6, one place higher than their first hit single ‘Weapon Of Parnell’, which entered the chart at number 7. ‘Weapon Of Parnell’ subsequently went on to hold the number 1 spot for a month.

But while ‘Idiot Savant’ turns more and more people onto Brand New Math, the band has declared an end to the moustache era. Tim, the member of the band who managed to grow the most impressive moustache says, “The moustaches are going after Friday. I’m shaving mine off, Friday’s the release gig and then that’s the end of the moustache era.” Thankfully there’ll be plenty of memories from the Brand New Math ‘Moustache era’, like recording part of the EP in Devonport’s old Victoria Theatre. The theatre is currently used by The Depot, a recording studio in Devonport that Calum manages. Tim fondly remembers Jordy’s proudest moment, “We had to set up on the stage and we got Jordy to sing, it was the first time he’d done a vocal take.” But perhaps the best memory is of the place being haunted. Tim says, “Upstairs by the balcony it’s freaky.” “There’s all these little places where creatures could be hiding, and there’s a crying room. It’s where you go to cry,” says Calum. Brad adds further to the story, “It’s like this sealed little area, the story I heard was that when ladies cried during the movie they could go there and weep silently.”

As the band moves towards the future, there’s a lot of exciting things just waiting to happen. Perhaps a record deal, perhaps a tour of Australia, right now the guys are playing things by air. But with the band gaining popularity, it can’t be long before someone important pops over for a chat. Calum admits “There’s more and more pressure when playing live to be really good. I kind of feel it’s getting to the stage now where if you play really well, an opportunity can come out of every gig you do.” The guys dismiss any claims that playing with the Naked and Famous was just to impress certain record label executives, but nothing feels better than upstaging an obviously well represented band, something Brand New Math has done on a number of occasions.

The idea of touring Australia later this year has already been discussed, Tim says “It’s not that hard, it just involves a lot more organisation and without a manager that can be hard.” The band jokingly admits, right now it seems hard enough just going to Hamilton. Brad says, “If you go to Hamilton and they don’t know you there’s less chance of getting a crowd.” Tim sheds some light on the situation, “They have a big committee about this in Hamilton, they have meetings all the time. The problem of Auckland bands rocking up, maybe giving two weeks notice and doing a bit of postering and then no one goes. Phoney Bone (Tim’s previous band) played a show there with the The Sneaks and Voom, when Voom was all over the radio and there was maybe 20 people.” One would hope by now Brand New Math are popular enough in Hamilton to draw a crowd.

Brand New Math- Space Food: MP3

Brand New Math- Walking Talking Animals: MP3

Brand New Math- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under New Zealand