Late night article today – it’s been busy – but it’s never to late for new music!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Both our frontman and rhythm guitarist are from Caracas, Venezuela (Alex & Jack). Our lead guitarist is from Clane, Ireland (Rob). Our bassist (Val) is from Lithuania and our drummer (Adrian) is from Brazil.
How did you meet?
Our story begins a few years ago, when Alex and Jack emigrated from Venezuela. Both met back in Caracas in 2010 through a mutual friend that Alex raced motocross with. Jack was playing in various underground bands at the time. And, coincidentally, eight years later they both found themselves in Dublin. Alex started jamming some blues in Jack’s house near East Wall for few months in early 2018. Jamming became a weekend routine and then that led them on a journey to starting a band.
Later that year, Alex met Rob in Fibber Magees a well-known rock & roll bar in Dublin. At that point, two became three and with their mutual deep-rooted love of heavy rock, they formed the band. The next few months were filled with rehearsing, jamming, writing, playing some covers and looking for a bassist and drummer. In September, Dougie joined the band as bassist, now ex-bassist, shortly followed by Alessandro Siqueira our ex-drummer. Adrian Puppo is our brand-new killer drummer from Brazil as well as Val Entas experienced bass player from Lithuania who Rob bring in.
We played our first gig in “SinÉ”, a live music venue on the quays of the river Liffey in late November, followed by Fibber Magees last December supporting The Jailbirds. From that point It’s been an electrifying, crazy, mad and beautiful few months for us with back-to-back gigs all over Dublin, supporting ASLAN and the pinnacle for us so far – our first release this August, Midnight Train.
How long have you been playing as a band?
This November 2019 will be our first year as a band!
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
As a band, Brake Loose is a bit of a mixed bag and while nationalities define our place of birth, we view ourselves as citizens of the world – individuals who have loved, lived and experienced a lot of different cultures, countries and continents before settling and forming our band in Dublin, Ireland.
Each of us brings different tastes, ideas, experiences, emotions and stories to the band. And, each of these things form the fabric of Brake Loose’s identity, meaning and reason which is awareness.
Awareness of all that life has to offer. So, over pints when the name Brake Loose was said, it just fit as it encapsulates our reason perfectly.
What are your influences?
There are five of us in the band and each of us has different music tastes and influences to bring to the table. However, we all have an affinity to heavy rock, so while the differences in our individual tastes inspire us as a band, we are connected by our love of AC/DC, The Doors, Guns & Roses, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, The Black Keys, Mastodon. In terms of musical heroes, our frontman, Alex, credits Jim Morrison, Mike Patton & Vile Valo for enlivening his desire to leave pro-motocross and front a band. While our lead guitarist, Rob, has always revered Angus Young and Slash and our rhythm guitarist, Jack, respects and looks up to Tony Iommi and Jimmy Hendrix.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our music is unique, but we would say that! Put simply, our music is energised heavy rock that’s full of attention-grabbing catchy badass riffs, electrifying guitar solos that are complimented by passionate spoken word performances and powerful lyrics. In a sentence, we would describe our sound, our music as dirty, mischievous and fearless.
But we always love to hear how people interpret our sound, so, if you give it a listen, let us know on Instagram what you think!
Do you have any lyrical themes?
A lot of our earlier lyrics were written by our frontman, Alex, on an acid-fuelled trip with friends to Mérida, Venezuela, which lies at the foot of the Andes Mountains. This proved to be a very productive time as Alex’s creative juices were flowing, but more importantly, this experience and the poetry he wrote during this time, led us to our distinct style of adding spoken word into our music. In more recent times, we’ve written a lot of our music while jamming and rehearsing in the studio. Life, time, death, indulgence, sex, friendship, love, awareness and other passionate existential or universal themes can say that mostly surround our lyrics.
We think, especially in a band, that everyone brings their own taste for things. So, we say it’s a compilation of each members individual experiences, emotions, stories. But essentially our biggest influence is life, as our message is awareness. When we say awareness, we mean awareness of life’s preciousness and its intensity. We say intensity since we are a Heavy Rock band.
So, we encourage others through our message to live a life without fear, with no fear. Live a life knowing that there is no tomorrow, that what really matters is today (to act today). A life of uncertainty, of excitement, of embracing life’s thin red line, its roughness, madness and fragility. Basically, a life of self-discovery through rock. Through our spoken word and poetry, we encourage others to avoid being content with living a quiet, well mannered, orderly life when so many injustices are going on. To get more involved with our reality and merge ourselves in self-expression, so we can avoid being sleepwalking individuals.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Wild, energetic, full of people jumping with ups and downs like a rollercoaster from hell that goes up to heaven and back again. We interact a lot with the audience on our gigs. We have played exactly 21 gigs. 20 in Dublin so far and one in Clane County Kildare supporting Aslan.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
You got to see us play live haha, it’s lovey, dirty, tight, badass. Live rock & roll with spoken words punching your ears.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We have two Gibson SG’s. One Tama drum kit. A tasty Washburn bass guitar and one Beta Sure 58a. We love Orange amps.
What are your plans for 2019?
Before the year is out, we will be playing a few more gigs in Dublin and one in Galway. Dublin will be in Fibber Magees, Lost Lane and hopefully Whelan’s. Galway will be Roisin. We will announce the dates on our socials. Oh! and don’t miss New Year’s Eve in Fibbers! Will be playing with other big rock/metal acts! it will be savage!
We have our second single “Through the West” coming out soon. Song about facing your deepest fears. And, we have a very tasty Rammstein-like song due to its main guitar riff with spoken word that talks about Dublin called “Dublin Games” that we will be releasing soon if not by early 2020.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We will love to support our or open for one of our favourites, either AC/DC and what is left from The Doors, Motley Crue (if they are ever gigging again) Rammstein, Pearl Jam, Black Stone Cherry, Greta Van Fleet, Rival Sons, Alice in Chains, Mastodon, Tyler Bryant and the shakedown, The Black Keys, The Temperance Movement, Walking Papers, Idles we can go on and on from All Them Witches to Black Pistol Fire haha any of them will be amazing for us. We are grateful to be alive and eager to show more of our sound to the world.
