Brothers Of North – Emerging Artist Spotlight NXNE 2013 Edition

June 12 2013 – North By Northeast (NXNE) is here and we are excited! NXNE may not be as well known as SXSW in Austin Texas but for us rock lovers in Toronto this festival satiates our musical hunger. We love discovering bands and take the opportunity of NXNE to find out more about some of them.

In 2012, T-Mak World initiated extensive coverage of NXNE and we saw a total of 51 bands/artists and interviewed the following 15 bands as part of our Emerging Artist Spotlight series:

Our wrap up article from 2012 is here and we are excited to be back in 2013 and to interview more bands to our Emerging Artist Spotlight Series. Today we focus on a band from Newmarket, Canada and their NXNE profile reads:

“Youthful, energetic, make you want to dance sound. A little bit of romance mixed in with some rockin’ solos. Driving bass and drums keep the feet moving.”

Here is what they had to say to us:

• Hey Brothers of North, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. Let’s start off with the obligatory introductions. Who’s in the band and what instrument does everyone rock?

BON:  We’re a four piece band. James Connolly is vocals and plays rhythm guitar. Joe Gallo is lead guitar, Petey Barnes plays bass and Tom Mackay bangs away on the drums.

• How about the history of the band, when did you get started and how did it happen?

BON: James (vocals & guitar) and Joe (lead guitar) grew up together in Aurora, Ontario and met Tom (drums) and Ed (bass) through mutual friends while in high school about 6 years ago. They decided to form a band after seeing each other at a party in 2012.

After playing through a song James and Joe had written, all four saw there was definitely something to pursue. After getting a show within a month through a friend, they put their noses to the grindstone and created and practiced 10 songs. Four days a week of writing and practicing was a blast and was just what they needed to kick start their great work ethic as a band.

After only a year playing shows in and around Toronto, Ed unfortunately decided to leave the band to pursuit other goals. During this time James, Tom and Joe worked hard on the EP and finding a new bass player. It wasn’t until one lucky day Joe met up with an old friend and found out his older brother had just finished school and had the itch to be in a band again. That older brother was Petey Barnes. Petey was a perfect fit for the band not only for his talents but for his personality and dedication to the band. The band has now never been stronger and rocking even harder then ever.

• Who are some of your musical influences?

BON: We all come from different musical backgrounds there are a lot of bands we like and a lot of bands we get our musical influences from.

Tom: “Thats a hard question to answer there are so many bands out there that have inspired me to become a better drummer but some bands that first come to mind are August Burns Red, Texas in July and Animals as Leaders.”

Petey: “Classic Rock, Rock, Metal anything that moves you really, there are so many too choose from! Gotta love bands like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Rush, Alexisonfire, Tool… tough question!”

Joe: “We all share similarities of bands we love, I know Kings of Leon is one of them for James and I, if it wasn’t for them I’m not even sure if we would have even wanted to start a band!  I love the Beatles though, Abbey Road has to be one of my favorite albums of all time, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, I could go all day listing musical influences.”

James: “Honestly, every band or artist that has written a song that’s made me go “God I wish I wrote that” is a musical influence to me. If I had to narrow it down to a few, I’d have to say Kings of Leon which is a big one for me, The Tragically Hip, and stuff like Led Zeppelin.  But it’s all of us and our different influences that give us a unique sound, because I know Tom is probably influenced by some crazy German metal band called Skull F***, and I know for a fact that Joe has posters of Taylor Swift on his wall.”

• Congratulations on being selected to play at North By Northeast, what does the opportunity mean to you? 

BON: Joe: “NXNE is huge for us, being only a one-year-old band and already being accepted to NXNE feels like a huge goal we have achieved. We have made a lot of new friends from bands we have played with over the year and were honored to be able to join them during this amazing week.”

• When and where is your NXNE gig? And more importantly, why do you suggest a music fan come and see your show instead of all the other choices available to them at that time?

BON: James: “So were playing at Tattoo Rock Parlour June 12 at 11:30 PM & the Hideout Thursday, June 13 at 1 AM. We can’t force fans to come see us play, but we can promise the ones that do that we will rock out and show NXNE why we deserve to be there. We have come a long way in one year and the most important thing to us is for the crowd to have a good time , rock out and listen to our music that we have worked so hard on.”

• What’s it like being on stage? Do you get nervous or are you thriving on the adrenaline (or somewhere in between)?

BON: Tom: “Ya, there is always some nervousness before each show regardless or size we do but it disappears once we start playing and the adrenaline kicks in. I think the nervousness is what keeps us grounded, and not one of those bands with our heads up our asses. We all seem to have different jokes we crack when we’re nervous too. Joe says he gets nerve poops and James tends to think he’s funny by saying his “classic” line “I can’t do this guys! I’m gunna throw up” and pretends to gag a little. Other than us having a drink or two before we play, our nerve jokes have almost become tradition haha.”

• What does 2013 hold for you?

BON: 2013 is going to be huge for us, were releasing our EP “Stolen Cars” and are planning on doing a whole bunch of shows and videos in our spare time. We’re planning on doing some acoustic covers of our songs too so we’re excited to get started on that too.

• Imagine that you were asked to be the opener for any band’s world tour (both current and historical). Which past band’s tour and which current tour would be your dream opening gigs?

BON: James: “100% Kings of Leon live at Bonnaroo 2004, just so I could be in the crowd after we opened for them, get drunk and watch them rock so hard at the end of “Trani.” One of the best live performances ever. Right now Monster Truck are rocking really hard, I’m loving there tunes and they look like they would want to party so I would be so down to open for them”

Joe: “ Lynyrd Skynyrd live in 1977. When they played Free Bird and broke out into that legendary solo at the end, my jaw dropped and I knew I was in love with Rock and Roll. Current band I think would be like the Arkells, Foster the People, Foo Fighters can’t make up my mind”

Tom: “Blink 182 would be the band I would have loved to open up for back in the day, they were probably the main reason why I wanted to be in a band.  A current band would be August Burns Red because they are just really talented musicians and I would love to be able to talk to them, learn from them and drink with them.”

Petey: “Man another tough question to answer, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon tour for the high quality of musicianship, sound and visual aid. For current I have so many I would want to open for, Protest the Hero, Tool, Lamb of God, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age”

{Ed Note – Tom I love your sense of  what you consider a “historical band” – thanks for making me feel real old dude! LOL}

• How important is the performer/audience connection for you? Can you rock a show as hard for 10 people as if you could playing an 80,000 person festival?

BON: Petey: “Its very important to I think all of us. For me I try to just be myself, give it my all, and hopefully the audience will feel it. For me the larger the audience the more unnerving it can be, but I look forward to picturing 80,000 people in their underwear.”

• Where can people get your music/CD, is it being sold anywhere? 

BON: Right now our EP is in the final stretch of being completed, were hoping to have a release date in the next week or so. The CD will be called “Stolen Cars” and have six songs on it. You’ll be able to buy hard copies at our shows or you can download it for free/donate online at brothersofnorth.com, iTunes and other music websites.

• At the end of 2012 we published our picks for top 10 albums of 2012. Lists like those are always a reflection of personal tastes so if you were making the list what are some albums you would you have had on it?

BON:  Joe: “Man so many to choose from, 1) Abbey Road – The Beatles for sure, 2) Why I Sing the Blue – B.B. King, 3) How the West Was Won – Led Zeppelin, 4) Young the Giant – Young the Giant, 5) Contra – Vampire Weekend, 6) Wasting Light – Foo Fighters, 7) Constellations – August Burns Red, 8)  Furosity – Monster Truck, 9) Aha Shake Heartbreak – Kings of Leon, 10) Torches – Foster the People.

• Any closing remarks for our readers?

BON: James: “We want to just say hey to all of our fans, we love all you guys and looking forward to playing these awesome shows and putting on an awesome show for all you. I like you, party hard.

Thanks so much to Brothers of North. We hope that you can see them live. They are playing Tattoo Rock Parlour June 12 at 11:30 PM & Hideout Thursday, June 13 at 1 AM.

The band’s website is brothersofnorth.com and as you would expect they are on @BrothersOfNorth and facebook.com/BrothersOfNorth. In the meantime check out their video below from YouTube.

Author: T-Mak