Breadchasers ***New Interview***

Strait out of the UK, the Breadchasers are a mix of old school and new school UK SKA. The band has great album out called 'Time to Stop' and has played shows all over the UK. If you are into classic SKA with a great new school feel they are worth checking out. I got the band to tell their story...

Introduce yourself…We are Breadchasers, a Ska, Dub, Punk, Rock and Reggae band from Nottingham. We like to play music that makes people lose all self control, crowd surf, sing at the top of their lungs and we like to make small venues shake and cause small riots at festivals!

How did the band start?

In a toilet....honestly...Gaz was playing some songs he wrote at an Open Mic night in a bar in Nottingham and Jim saw him, he spoke to him after his set in the bathroom and they exchanged numbers after both realizing they had similar taste in music. They kept in touch and then 2 years later they bumped into each other and Jim had started jamming with a guitarist and asked Gaz to come Jam, so they organised a Jam the following week. Gaz knew Animal and Ben and spoke to them about joining and Jim found Lewis in a bar. Will booked our first show but our original guitarist left 3 weeks before the show so we asked Will if he would be interested in singing and playing guitar...and he agreed....that was the start!

 How did you come up with the name?

Jim came up with it after seeing a news report in which some people were chasing a bread lorry and thought it sounded like a good name for a ska band! If you ask him however he will say it was deep thought out name about the fact we are all chasing the bread (money)!

Who would you say are your influences are?

We have real variety of influences, Jim is influenced by all styles of Reggae and Ska from Roots Reggae and 2 tone through to more more Ska/Punk. We are all influenced by a lot of that stuff, american artsists like NOFX, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Aquabats, Bomb the Music Industry, Less Than Jake and Catch 22 but we are also influenced by a lot of UK Ska and Punk music from 90's bands such as Capdown, King Prawn, Captain Everything and Lightyear though to modern stuff like Sonic Boom Six, King Blues and Mouthwash. We have also been influenced since we started by some of the great new bands we have had a chance to play with The Skints, Dirty Revolution, Jimmy The Squirrel and Jaya the Cat. 

We also have loads of influence from non ska and punk genres with members being huge fans of bands like Tool, At The Drive In, Korn, Metallica, Deep Purple, The Police, Paul Simon, Dire Straits, Queen and we also like genres like Hiphop, Junlge, Drum n Bass....abit of everything!

What is the punk scene like in the UK?

The tradtional old school punk scene has disappeared a bit but their is a really good new punk community which sees elements of Ska, Dub, Hiphop, Jungle and metal being introduced but still with the same DIY ethic and political messages and we love it!  It takes a while to find and to get involved in but once you meet a few people and discover a few bands, go see them and find the venues and promoters putting Punk/Ska nights on, it is one huge family!

Describe the song writing process…

It varies....some songs are written by one member and they come to the band with a very definite idea of what they want everyone else to do with it and others come from jams or from a rough idea that everyone puts input into.

You guys have an album out, 'Time to Stop', tell us about the album...

It is our debut album and we are very happy with it! We decided not to do the whole EP thing and the moment we had enough songs we recorded a album (we felt it was better value for money). We recorded it at The Maze venue in Nottingham where Gaz and Will work and we got a good friend Kav to produce it. We could take our time that way and it was a comfortable environment. It is quite DIY I guess since it was our first album and the first Kav had produced. We did all the artwork and stuff ourselves too so we are very proud of it and we were lucky to know Liam O'Kane (a great artist too!) who had just started a DIY label (Offcut Records) and offered to release it for us!

Have you released anything else?

Not at this moment but we are recording a show on our next tour and are hoping to release that as a Live album follow up to 'Time To Stop'. We have just started writting new material so hopefully we can get back in the studio before the end of the year to record the next studio album

You guys are a 6 piece ska band, tell us about the lineup...

Jim plays bass and has long blonde dreadlocks and likes a smoke.

Gaz plays Electric guitar and sings and has short legs and silly beards.

Will plays acoustic guitar and sings and is in another band called Arse Full Of Chips.

Ben plays keyboard and likes to dance and crowd surf everyday.

Animal plays drums and has shorter dreadlocks and likes Buckfast.

Lewis plays Sax and is Scottish.

Where have you toured?
We have done a fair few short tours of the UK and have a longer tour planned for June 2011. In August 2010 we did a week tour of Europe with our friends The Human Targets, going to Holland, Sweden and Denmark.

Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?

We have been really lucky supporting some ace bands from around the world, Chris Murray, Catch 22, Jaya The Cat and Swinging Utters from abroad and from the UK Sonic Boom Six, Spunge, Random Hand, Mouthwash and Dirty Revolution. One of the most memorable shows was when we played with The Beat, as being one of the founding bands of the 2 tone movement meant they were huge influences on us.

Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?

We love to play with a lot of the bands in the UK but one favourite is certainly Jimmy The Squirrel, they are our brothers and also from Nottingham, we played our first few shows with them and they are all good friends as well as a fantastic band. We also have lots of fun at shows with Arse Full Of Chips, who are Will's other band, but it hurts Will playing with both in one night as Arse Full Of Chips must be drunk to play so he has to be well balanced! We also love playing with Dirty Revolution and Clay Pigeon.

Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?

The Maze in Nottingham is our home, Gaz and Will work there and we recorded there and have played some awesome shows at that place and it always feels great, but we have had some awesome shows at other places too such as Red Bar in Kings Lynn and The Man On The Moon in Cambridge....we also have had some great shows at festivals, which are always fun. As kids we all hung out at Rock City in Nottingham and have seen some of our idols play that stage so playing there for the first time was really special and we always like going back to play there.

What do you see is the future of the Breadchasers?

A tour, a live album, more tours, another album, more dancing, more crowd surfing, more sing alongs, more tours, more songs, more drinking and more ska. Lewis says he sees World Domination!

How can people contact the band?‬

If your ever in Nottingham just come to the Maze, one of us is normally either behind the bar serving drinks or holding onto the bar drinking! If not email us at Bread_chasers@hotmail.com or we are on facebook, myspace, youtube, reverbnation and twitter. We like to meet new people!