The Moment of Madness Festival took place at Jersey's very own Water Splash last Friday night, and what the rock five-piece Electric Brick were looking forward to most were the alien encounters;
"It will be a great night and it’s nice to see an event to offer people the chance to see what a great pool of local bands there are. Also the other acts who are somewhat more established than ourselves from elsewhere, maybe we can learn a thing or two. Plus it is nice as we like having alien encounters. On a personal note I have seen and become friends with Lord Vapour a few years ago and played with them in another band of mine, and we had kept in touch and we have always wanted to have a gig together and hopefully the next one we can visit them on their turf. We are also very excited to play some more tunes of ours from our new album."
You’ve played numerous gigs and events in Jersey from Rock in the Park to Ratstock; which is your favourite event to play at?
"We have played many events over here. We have not been too actively busy as previously our singer was at university and so only really had him for the Xmas months and the summer. But that has kept us fresh for the events we do get to play. Our favourite being Groove de Lecq, it has such an amazing atmosphere and really showcases the local scene not only for music but for our community and talent everyone has to offer. I think because everyone puts so much time and effort in, free of charge, that the atmosphere just oozes quality beans. It's like a mini Woodstock."
Out of your own back catalogue, what are your favourite songs to play live and the ones you hate the most?
"We don't really have songs that we really love or hate playing but we have a general set list of songs which maybe some of the crowd favourites or are just easier to play or pull off. But we also try to keep it interesting for both ourselves and the audience. And so there maybe some that we always play and sometimes give some a rest and may bring them back later and it's like they have a new lease of life again, or sometimes we feel the event itself may help our decision. For example we played at RATSTOCK and we know mainly it's our friends or friends of friends in the crowd who support us so we played what we are often asked for. A favourite one we brought back for it was Apathetic Nation/Yes She Can. And for MOM we will be doing some more of our out there stuff from both albums and we have a new one that's about 10 minutes long we would like to try."
Being from such a small island with a limited music scene, it can be difficult to find like-minded people. How did you all meet?
"As it's such a small island it seems that friends or like minded people seem to magnetise to each other. Like the creation of the life on earth it's like the bacteria soup and certain microbes bundle together and start a brand new life form. That's the same with the musicians over here; it's bound to happen that bands emerge. Joe Young are good mates of ours and that happened with them as well as us and many other bands. It also seems if you are a musician over on the island you seem to know every other one, it feels like you’re famous."
Who were your musical inspirations growing up?
"In the band we all have different inspirations from the same areas of music and would be too long to say every one. But most of it is from the 70s and is either rock, metal, jazz, blues, psychedelic, prog ...etc. We just can't get enough of it. But growing up in the 90s obviously we heard stuff around at the time and it’s hard to say really what has had a direct impact but it must have somehow had some effect."
When you’re not playing music or gigging, what are your favourite pass times?
"It's hard saying what our favourite past times are as basically it's jamming and playing our music. Ollie likes to draw, Luke once wrote a stand up comedy idea, Joe is a keen wine taster, Rocky cooks a lot and is a fashion designer and I like to just drive with mates. We are pretty boring other than playing our instruments."
On your Facebook page you all have nicknames, all except Ginger. What are the origins of these nicknames and why does Ginger not have one?
"To be honest we didn't even know those nicknames were on there, we must have put them on a long time ago or maybe one of our previous members made it. But other than Rocky we never really have said them so they can't be good. And as for Ginger that was our previous bass player James Perchard; he wrote both albums with us and has only recently left as he wanted to move away...but he's back now. He has red hair and I guess that must have been a joke at his expense."
When writing for your first album, did you write your music collectively or did you tend to come up with individual ideas?
"When we started we just chose songs we would love to cover, we weren't bothered if they were well know or anything but we knew they would go down well live so we were doing things like Wishbone Ash, Blue Oyster Cult, UFO, Robin Tower, Grand Funk Railroad and many more. But we got such a buzz off of them and we would behind closed doors start writing and it wasn't long after we started that we wrote two pretty cool songs. But I think we only played them once and if I remember they were both sort of riffs one of us had came up with and we all collaborated in writing it. And this happened slowly but more frequently. I think though when it came to our first album, it started because I had the idea for Rituals which I had came up with in an older band of mine. But that was like the spark and we all just came up with the album together, really quickly, you can sort of tell who came up with which bit here and there but generally we write together based on someone's smaller idea."
I believe you are in the midst of recording your second album. How is that coming along and do you have a release date yet?
"We really enjoyed writing and recording the first album, but we had done everything ourselves from writing to recording to mixing with a bit of help here and there. But it was a long process and so for this album we decided to pay someone for the equipment and studio and we recorded it really quickly. The microphones compared to the first album has made a massive improvement in sound. We also recorded the music parts live all together which we hadn't previously done and so it was quick. We layered the vocals on top but because we were paying for the time it was rushed and we are now focusing on redoing them. We recorded it a while ago and it’s just been sitting there but we are now at the process of getting it done. It is hard to say when it will be out, but if we can get to a point where everything that is on tape is accurate by the end of summer we can then push our efforts onto things like mixing and mastering which is a long process and hard work. So fingers crossed early next year."
As an island, Jersey can be quite rewarding in its picturesque landscapes during Summer, but the same cannot be said for its music scene. What are you hoping to come out of your music careers, and where would you like to take Electric Brick?
"We are a very laid back band. We love what we do and love writing and that's enough in itself. We don't have many aspirations as such. We would like get this second album finished and start another one. It would be great to get our music heard and would be nice to get a gig either in the UK or in Europe but it's harder for us as two members have babies. But if anyone can sort us out with a long weekend gig in Amsterdam let us know..."
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