Broken Record is an emo/power pop band from Denver, CO featuring current and former members of such bands as Faim, Church Key, and Heavy Breath. Sighting influence from Jimmy Eat World, Gin Blossoms, and Jets to Brazil, the group echoes '90s emo with a modern edge. The melodies, sombre chording and poprock song structure create a sound that appeals to emo and indie pop fans alike. I spoke with guitarist and vocalist Lauren Beecher to discuss their new video for “Time Warp."
How would you describe your sound?
We like to half-jokingly call it power goth, which is somewhere along the lines of post-punk and '90s emo-influenced power pop.
What are your biggest influences musically?
While writing this album specifically I listened to a lot of '80s stuff like The Cure, Squeeze, and Wham!, but some of my big influences that definitely shine through are Jimmy Eat World, Gin Blossoms, and Jets to Brazil. We’re also really into bands like Alkaline Trio, Lifetime, Hot Snakes, Protomartyr, Title Fight, and Death Cab for Cutie.
Who produced the track?
I produced and recorded this track as well as the others on our album, but we had some huge help from Corey Coffman (Gleemer) who recorded all the drums and handled mixing.
Who produced the video?
Our other guitarist Matt and I. I handled illustration and art direction, and he did the animation.
You can check out our work at matthewbdunne.com and laurenbeecher.com.
Who are the members, and what other projects are they/have they been involved in?
I sing and play guitar, and function as the main songwriter in the band. Matt Dunne who I mentioned above plays guitar, Corey Fruin plays bass, and Nick Danes plays drums. Nick also plays in a hardcore band called Faim and a crust band called Thieves Guild, and Corey plays in a post-metal band called The Giant Mouse of Minsk. We’ve all been involved in previous projects too. Matt played bass in an emo band called Churchkey in Chicago, and Corey and I both played in bands while living in Connecticut. Corey played guitar in a groovy hardcore band called Heavy Breath, and I played drums in an alt-country band called NYR.
You have members from all over the country, How did you all come together?
Corey and I are originally from Connecticut, and Matt is originally from Chicago. Nick moved to Denver for a few years from California, but actually lives in Albuquerque currently. After Corey and I moved to the Denver area, we caught Nick’s other band playing a Halloween show at a great brewery in town called Ratio Beerworks. Broken Record actually ended up playing their Halloween show the following year as a 3 piece (we did a Green Day cover set), and we swapped instruments and opened for ourselves as “Alkaline Trio” with Matt on bass. We’d asked him previously about joining on as a second guitarist, and he told us he wanted to do it after the show!
What’s the track about?
Something I’ve kind of struggled with in my life is knowing how and when to move on from situations, whether it’s a bad environment or just people kind of moving into different places in their lives. The song is about learning when to let go, and realizing it’s a good thing even though it can feel bad at first.
What can you tell us about the new album?
I Died Laughing is Broken Record’s first full length, and it was written during 2018 and early 2019. As I mentioned above we started out by tracking drums with Corey Coffman in Loveland, CO, and then we actually recorded everything else ourselves in my basement. We sent everything back to Corey for mixing, and had it mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio.
We’re excited to be putting out tapes with a label called Snappy Little Numbers based out of Denver, and we’ll be rolling out the album digitally on April 24. We’ve set up physical and digital pre-orders to go along with this single release, and will be making a matched donation of 20% from those pre-orders to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Tapes got a bit delayed due to closures related to coronavirus, but should be shipping out by the end of May.
You can listen to more of Broken Records' music at Bandcamp, and keep up with the band on Instagram.
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