Breed 77 Interview

Breed 77 boast that flamenco skill is something you’re just born with. Yeah, right. Bishop Parsons feeds them to the monkeys

Blink 182, Sum 41, Breed 77, what’s up with all these crazy number names?
Merly A, Herts
Danny: “There was another band called Breed when we formed. Stuart was a bike courier at the time, and his radio number was 77, so we just added that from his name.”
Hammer: I heard a rumour that the 77 was actually from Paul’s birth year.
Stuart: “Nah, it was my name. I worked a courier company in London. I used to deliver condoms to prostitutes. That’s the kind of thing I had to do.”
Danny: “Don’t tell them what the tip was!”

WhosE idea was it to put The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ on your set list for the Bulldog Bash and will it be added to your September tour so we can all hear it?
Rockhen, Hammer website
Paul: “When we were originally planning for the Gibraltar August show, where we had a much longer set, we thought that we would throw in a cover, and a couple of days before, Danny and I were listening to some songs, and that came up. Maybe we will play it again, maybe we won’t.”

What’s the craziest gift you’ve ever been given by a fan?
Lettusss, Surrey
Paul: “She wants us to say glow sticks.”
Hammer: How you do know that?
Paul: “We know her.”
Danny: “People have thrown dirty underwear on stage before though, I wish they wouldn’t do that!”
Hammer: How did you know it was dirty?
Danny: “Because I looked, and in the gusset was Jesus juice.”
Adam: “As long as they’re from people between the ages of 18 and 26, then that’s OK.”

Did System Of A Down’s use of cultural roots musical influences and their subsequent success open the doors for you to do the same?
Biffer, Hamps.
Stuart: “I wouldn’t say so. We were doing it before them.”
Danny: “And Sepultura were doing it before that. And way before that, Carlos Santana was doing Latin rock. This has been done since the 60s and 70s.”
Hammer: But hasn’t System’s recent success made people more accepting of your style of metal? Paul: “Maybe if we lived in America it would have helped us to sell records, but we’ don’t. We are a Gibraltarean band in London, so no it hasn’t.”
Stuart: “But if System read this and want to take us on tour that’s fine with us.”

Paul, do a feel a pressure to keep in shape BEcause you’re always expected to take your shirt off?
Kylie, Rochester.
Paul: “They obviously haven’t seen us in a while, because I was out of shape, and I haven’t taken my shirt off for a long time.”

How come you used to sound like Korn, but don’t now?
Sally, Barnsley
Danny: “That was a long time ago.”
Paul: “Hey Sally, how come I was paying attention to your question, and I’m not any more?”

Can any of you Flamenco? And if so, what are your top tips for a good toe tap?
Chica, Chester.
Paul: “You have to have a face like you’re sitting on the toilet after a bad curry, that’s for sure. And you have to have passion.”
Danny: “Flamenco is actually in your blood, you either have it or you don’t.”
Hammer: So, the skill has to be passed down genetically?
Danny: “Yeah, and it is also about where you are born. It’s just there, you can’t learn it.”
Hammer: So that means only three of you can Flamenco?
Danny: “We’ll show you later, after a drink.”
Hammer: So you need alcohol in your blood too, not just skill?
Danny: “Yeah!”

Paul, what’S the weirdest thing you’ve signed?
Caleb, Ireland.
Paul: “A five pound note, and a passport.”
Danny: “Trainers and passports.”
Paul: “But a five pound note? I was like, ‘now you can’t spend it, what’s the point?’”
Danny: “Actually, don’t print that. It’s illegal to write on money in England isn’t it?”
Paul: “Hmm yeah, but I am pretty sure it was a note that is out of circulation.”

Can you teach me a rude phrase in Spanish? I want TO shock my teacher next term.
Clyde, Northern Ireland.
Danny: “Hijo de puta. That means son of a bitch.”
Hammer: What else?
Danny: “Cabron. If your women is messing about on you, but you don’t care, you are a ‘cabron’. It means you have horns.”
Hammer: That’s still pretty tame, isn’t there a word that you wouldn’t be able to utter in front of your mum?
Paul: “My mother curses more than than me!”

Breed 77’s private yacht sinks. There are five of you. your lifeboat only holds four. Who dies?
Alex, London.
Stuart: “The rest of the band, I’m taking that boat for myself!” Nah, I would go in the sea, I like swimming. Then I would catch a shark for the rest of the lads to eat.”
Adam: “I think that we would all take turns in the water, because we are a caring, sharing band.” Paul: “We’d kill Stuart and make a second raft out of him.”
Hammer: Hollow out his insides and jump on board? Classy.
Danny: “Yeah! We’re like that.”

Paul, why did you used to have ‘sick’ written on your stomach at shows?
Ali, Staines.
Paul: “We used to have a song called ‘Sick’, and I think that it was just me pushing home the sentiment.”
Hammer: Not because you had a terribly embarrassing disease that you didn’t want your fans to catch? Paul: “Actually, yeah. Gonorrhoea.”
Describe your most heinous stage mistake in excruciating detail. Fifi, Cuba.
Danny: “There have been loads. One of the worst though, I was in a really packed place, soloing, and just when I hit the note, my cables fell out, and I was left with no sound.”
Hammer: Where was that then?
Danny: “Download! This year.”
Hammer: How did you cover it up?
Danny: “I shouted at a roadie.”
Paulo: “One time in Galicia [northern Spain], and a member of the band that isn’t here anymore was playing a bit of the song that the rest of us were not.”[silence]

Why can’t you sell records? Or have you, and I’m wrong?
Dave, Brighton
Paul: “If we hadn’t sold any records, would you be writing in to Metal Hammer for a Spanish Inquisition feature? You are wasting your time Dave.”
Hammer: So how many have you sold?
Danny: “In the UK, we did 30 or 40,000 with album ‘Cultura’. And we had a single in the charts. The new one hasn’t come out yet.”
Hammer: How do you think that one will do?
Paul: “We don’t know, we are not business people.”
Hammer: So how do you go about gauging your success?
Paul: “The only sort of feedback that you have that’s honest, is when people come up to you and tell you that they like what you do. That is success.”
Adam: “Oh, and a mansion in Beverly Hills, with a swimming pool. That’s only a few years away, right?”

Are there many other metal or hardcore bands in Gibraltar? Tommy, Glasgow
Danny: “There are a couple around, local bands that play here. There is a band called The Seven Sins.”
Stuart: “There are a few. There was even a band named after a Breed song called Breaking The Silence. But they’ve spilt up.”
Danny: “But we’re the only metal band that have done well.”
Hammer: When you come back here to Gibraltar, are you greeted like returning heroes or sell-outs who moved to another country?
Paul: “People like that we keep coming back. They know that we think of this as our home. We come back and make sure people know that we love this place.”

“I want to wake up and drink from your river”, what does that mean?
Headbanger, Hammer website.
Paul: “Whatever you want it to mean. They’re subjective lyrics. If I explain my lyrics, it will take away from whatever interpretation other people have of them. I am not going to explain my lyrics, I am not a schoolteacher, that’s not my job.”
Hammer: But if it’s a ‘subjective’ river, how come you used a real one in the video for that single? Paul: “We’re simple small town folk. We don’t do analogies.”
Danny: “The river is just life.”

is your older material embarRassing?
David, Greece.
Danny: “I never find it embarrassing, and I never listen to it. I am proud of what we did in the past, but we don’t listen to the old things, we don’t look back. We have just finished a new album, and we’re already writing new songs.”
Hammer: What’s the oldest song that you would still play now?
Paul: “Anything from the first album, and that’s about six years old now.”
Hammer: You aren’t ashamed to play those old tunes?
Paul: “No. We are so picky about what we do, so everything that we have ever put out has been because we were proud of it.”
Hammer: But there was a time that you sounded very different from now? More nu-metal
Stuart: “When we first formed the band, we were still cutting our teeth. We were trying different things. Then one day Danny suggested that we should try the same shit that we do at home, so we incorporated the Flamenco thing, and that was when we found fame, bizarrely enough.” How long are you prepared to wait until music can fully support you? 30? 40? 50? frances, kent.
Danny: “It’s supporting us now!”
Paul: “We already make enough to earn a living…”
Adam: “Well, apart from me, but I’m new, and I’ll be leaving my old job soon. It will feel great to be fully supported by music.”

Have you ever used your position as a band member to chat up women?
James, London.
Adam: “Every day.”
Paul: “I think that it works completely the other way around. Women will come up to you because they already know that you are in the band.”
Hammer: So you have never approached anyone, and told him or her what you do to get in their pants? Danny: “That would be so cheesy.”
Adam: “I do it. I’ll tell them I’m in a band, and they’ll be like ‘Oh really? Breed 77? I’ve actually heard of them!’”
Hammer: How many of you are single?
Adam: “Two and a half of us.”
Paul: “That sort of question should never be asked by the press. It’s irrelevant. It should be about the music.”
Adam: “Wait, I’m single. I‘m happy for people to know that.”