Don Broco talk Priorities

Rising ‘lad’ rockers Don Broco are a band who’ve been on everyone’s lips recently, and there’s good reason for that. The past couple of years have seen the Bedford gang take on a relentless touring regime, which is incidentally why they’ve taken their time to release debut album Priorities. We caught up with the band recently to find out if it’s been worth the wait.

“We toured on half written songs, just trying to build up a fanbase,” vocalist Rob Damiani says, speaking of the bands’ early years. “Looking back, some of the shows might have been a waste of time…” he adds. But these early shows seem to have thoroughly prepped Don Broco for their long awaited debut album. “We definitely feel like now is the right time to release it, and we can’t wait for people to hear it.”
“Had we not taken 4 years, I don’t think we would’ve come up with this product, and this product is exactly what we wanted to put out.” guitarist Si explains. Bassist Tom confirms “it feels like the right time for us.”

So, after the long wait, how are the Broco boys coping with the pressure of the release? Drummer Matt Donnelly admits “we’d be lying if we said there weren’t some nerves, but we’ve had quite a lot of reviews come in now and people seem to be very positive, so the excitement has taken over.”

An even bigger cause for excitement in camp Broco has been the recent signing to Search and Destroy Records, which has really given the band the tools they required to push Priorities to the next level. Si acknowledges “it’s phenomenal to have a team of professionals behind you to actually push the album as far as it can go rather than being limited.” It’s going to be big, then!

If (like us) you’ve been impatiently scouring the internet to find out how Priorities is going to sound, you’ll have probably noticed that Don Broco are all big pop-music lovers. “We listen to loads of pop, we’re big Usher fans” Matt confesses. The band are quick to reassure us that ‘Priorities’ is primarily a rock record, though. “We’ve always been a rock band but we’ve got quite an eclectic taste” Rob adds. Phew!

Don Broco’s live shows are arguably the biggest reason for the band’s rise to fame, as YouTube videos of the band doing “The Walk” have been spreading like wildfire. Can we be expecting any new moves when Broco perform some of their new tracks? “We spent most of our rehearsal the other day choreographing a new dance move rather than actually practising any of the songs” Tom laughs. So, that’d be a yes then. The boys are hesitant to reveal said move however, although Matt jokingly adds “it would make Bruno Mars embarrassed to be seen with us because his moves would be so lame in comparison.”

We can’t wait…

WORDS: Emily Carter
PHOTO: Richard Barnes

Priorities is out now via Search and Destroy Records – Click here to get your copy