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 The bright winter sun shines through a
crisp, cool and calm air, beaming over an ordinary house that lies in a
quiet, unsuspecting little village called Billinge.
Hardly seems like the right setting to meet a bunch of buoyant and
boisterous brothers who play in a punk rock band, does it?
Yet that’s exactly what it is. That ordinary house is home to the
Bradbury brothers, Adam (21, guitars, vocals). Liam (19, bass, vocals).
Ryan (17, drums), who together escape this sleepy village to rock stages
across the country as The Five-0s.
A few hours before the boys pack up their frenzied fusion of energetic
punk rock and crazy on-stage antics for a gig in Liverpool, The LINC
were invited over to the Bradbury household to talk about life at home,
on the road and on stage.
How did you all get into music?
Adam: We all had music lessons in primary school and stuff, like I had a
few piano lessons, but I only started playing guitar when I was fifteen.
Obviously I wanted to form a band after that, so I started jamming with
a few mates. Then these two started playing instruments and we ended up
coming together.
How did you make the transition from playing piano to picking up a
guitar and playing rock?
Adam: It just comes from what we listen to.
Ryan: I still play piano. We all like different types of music…
Adam: We write our own stuff which people say sounds like this or sounds
like that, but it’s all influenced by what we’re listening to at the
time. Our older stuff is more influenced by Green Day & Blink 182,
whereas our newer stuff is more influenced by Fall Out Boy and stuff
like that. It’s still original but I mean you always take your
influences from places don’t you?
After Adam picked up the guitar, was it a natural thing for you two
[Ryan & Liam] to pick up other instruments or did you start playing with
the intention of the three of you playing together?
Ryan: Yeah, it was sort of a case of ‘OK, he plays guitar and vocals’ so
we need a drummer and a bassist, I’ll take up drums and Liam can play
bass.
Did you both pick it up quite naturally once you had your instruments?
Ryan: I think we did.
Adam: When we first started, Ry’ was about 11, and he’d been playing
drums for about a month when we had our first gig.
Liam: We weren’t good... but we had potential.
Adam: We were still like the best band around though!
Ryan: [laughing] Best Billinge band anyway!
You used to have a band called Sketcher….
Adam: We were called Sketcher yeah. We started off as The Edge. Then we
got signed to a management company who changed our name to Sketcher
because they had an advertising deal with Sketcher shoes or something.
We had another guy playing with us called Gaz Birch on guitar as well,
and it was going good for a while, we played with The Matches and 4ft
Fingers and that in London, and played with some signed bands in
Manchester and Liverpool.
We then got in touch with Bryan Adams’ UK tour manager, and we got to
play two stadium dates with Bryan Adams, which was quite cool. After
that though, it got a bit weird, our manager wanted to push us towards
the more Girls Aloud, Busted stuff.
Ryan: He wanted us to be the next Busted, and we’re not comfortable with
playing songs that…
Liam: He wanted to write songs for us and stuff.
Adam: He was pushing us to play his songs and some covers that we didn’t
like. So we had a meeting with him and at the end of our contract we
didn’t sign with him again, but Gaz wanted to make money so he stayed
with him.
Ryan: Every time we do interviews though that always comes up so…don’t
mention too much about that. We’re trying’ to move away from that now.
Adam: Now though, I think we’re a lot stronger. We play some of the same
songs but the sound is completely different, it sounds more raw, tighter
and together.
When Gaz left, did you ever consider recruiting a forth member to
replace him?
Ryan: We thought about it yeah.
Adam: But we’re three brothers, so at the end of the day, whoever came
in, it was gonna be awkward for them to fit in.
Liam: We’ve had other guitarists before but they’ve all left.
Adam: I’d love to have another guitarist. I’d love to be able to just
sing and have somebody else play guitar, but I think that it just
wouldn’t work. We’re all different personality wise but because we’re
brothers, it’s like anybody else who came in would feel like an
outsider.
So you three all live together and play together, is there any time when
you get on each other’s nerves?
Adam: I don’t know. When we first started there were obviously a few
arguments, but because we’ve grown up together doing the band, we
know…it’s really professional the way we work. Even if we have a big
argument just before a gig, as soon as we get on stage, it becomes our
job. We have to play our songs and put on a performance and by the time
we get off stage we’re all hyped about our performance so we just forget
about whatever it was we were arguing about.
There’s hardly any arguments anyway, we’ve all got pretty passive
personalities anyway.
Ryan: If somebody says something to us, we’re not gonna jump on them, we
normally just let it all go over our heads.
Adam: I think that’s why we work so well together in the band.
Is there a point where the band ends and simply being brothers begins?
ADAM: I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it like that.
RYAN: It’s a tough question, I don’t see it like that, it’s all mixed.
ADAM: We’re three brothers, and we’re in a band together, and I think
that’s just it, there’s no ‘two sides’ to it.
LIAM: Even when we’re not on stage where always playing about with
instruments and music all the time.
ADAM: It’s not like we’ve got two lives or anything. It’s not like
there’s the band life and then the home/brothers life.
LIAM: It’s just…. life.
What do your parents make of it all?
ADAM: They’ve been really supportive since we started. They don’t wanna
get too involved because they don’t wanna tread on our feet or anything,
but they always help us out. Dad takes us to gigs and helps us out a
lot. If we didn’t have him we’d find it really hard to, especially in
terms of finance like travelling down to London and that. Fair enough
sometimes you might get paid for a gig in London to cover petrol or
whatever, but you still need the money to start with in the first place.
Do you not drive them mad making noise all the time?
RYAN: Well, we don’t have a drum kit here because we don’t rehearse
here, but I’m always on the piano and stuff.
ADAM: I have a tendency to play my guitar at two in the morning so
obviously they get annoyed at that, but other than that they’re just
really supportive.
Where do you rehearse?
RYAN: Fuzzbox at the minute.
You recorded a split EP with Smudge last year, how did that come about?
ADAM: We’ve known Smudge for ages, we used to skate with Dan Fisher
[Smudge guitarist] all the time. When we formed a band he was always
coming to our gigs, so then when he formed a band we were really
supportive of his band too.
RYAN: It’s like a rivalry but it’s not…
ADAM: I wouldn’t say it’s a rivalry….
LIAM: They basically phoned us up and asked us if we wanted to do the EP
we’d done a couple of gigs with them as well.
ADAM: They practice in the Fuzzbox as well, and I always go out on a
Friday with them so we’re all good friends.
We made 100 copies of the EP, then did a two-week tour in February
[2005] and it actually sold out half way through the tour so that was
really good.
Where did you go on tour?
ADAM: It was mainly around the North West. We went around Nantwich and
Stoke, Manchester and Liverpool, and we played in St. Helens, Wigan,
just all over.
Are you friends or fans of any other local bands?
RYAN: Yeah, quite a lot actually, but now you’ve asked I can’t think of
any!
ADAM: There’s a lot of bands in St. Helens were friends with as well.
Because we’ve been playing for five or six years we’ve kind of just got
to know everybody who we’ve been playing with.
What do you make of the music scene at this level? Is there a lot of
competition between bands?
ADAM: I don’t think there is a lot of competition.
RYAN: I think there is. There’s a lot of bands who’ll tell people to
come and see them, but then tell them not to watch bands [who are also
on the bill] there’s quite a lot of that going on.
LIAM: Indie bands do that a lot.
ADAM: That’s my experience, you get a lot of indie bands who do that but
with punk bands, they’re all really supportive of each other. I guess
maybe indie bands support other indie bands. That’s the competition bit,
between different alternative bands.
RYAN: There’s a lot of people who go to local gigs these days. It died
out a bit a couple of years ago, but it seems like a lot of people are
getting back into it.
What kind of fans do you normally attract?
ADAM: The age range is kind of between 14-18, so obviously we struggle
to fill venues that are 18 and up.
RYAN: Mainly girls, because lads hate us!
ADAM: Like I was saying, with venues in Manchester where it’s over 18s
because of alcohol and stuff we maybe get ten or twenty people down, but
if we play somewhere like an all-ages gig at the Roadkill in Liverpool
where we’re playing tonight, we get loads of people down.
They enjoy our music, but they know that when they come down to watch us
there’s a bit of a social thing there as well, so I think they come for
a bit of both.
By ‘socialising’ you mean people come down to meet other people who like
you guys and who are into the same sorts of music?
ADAM: Yeah, like we played at The Citadel [St. Helens] and a lot of
people came down there just because they knew other people were coming.
RYAN: There’s a lot of ‘bad’ bands as well though. There’s a lot of
people who say ‘oh I’m not watching the bands’ but they’ll just go down
to talk and they’ll say ‘oh this band’s rubbish’. I think if you put
good bands on as well, I think it’ll start something.
LIAM: What are you trying to say?
RYAN: I’m just saying that, from what people have told us, they’re like
‘Why don’t you play with some good bands’…. I don’t know what I’m trying
to say but…
LIAM: You could name some bands Ryan if you want….
RYAN: No no, I’m not…I just mean that people go out to socialise instead
of watching the bands, whereas if you put good bands on, people would
want to watch them.
ADAM: The thing at the minute though is that a lot of bands are like,
‘emo-metal’, hardcore bands, and I think that people are like…Not bored
of the scene in general, just bands who are trying to do that and can’t.
There’s loads of bands out there that just play Drop-D and scream all
the time and can’t actually play their instruments. A lot of kids see
that and think ‘wow, that’s really good’, but then they see a band who
can really do it well, and…. There’s just too many bands who can’t
actually play.
If you could pick any bands to play on the same bill with, who would you
pick….
ADAM: Local or….
We’ll go for local first, and then we’ll go international.
ADAM: Locally it would be our mates’ bands, because we could see them
play and then have a good gig as well.
RYAN: In terms of signed bands…Whitesnake.
LIAM: Blink 182.
ADAM: Fall Out Boy, there’s not that many big bands that are like us at
the minute, I think Fall Out Boy are the main ones, and then it’s older
bands like Green Day and Blink. The Get Up Kids, I don’t think they’re
going anymore, but bands like that would be really good for us to play
with.
What should people expect from a ‘5-0s live show.
ADAM: Erm….
RYAN: Crazy!
LIAM: Sometimes we dress up stupid and mess about.
ADAM: We try and focus mainly on the music obviously, like we practice
loads and try to get it sounding as good as we can.
LIAM: But if people don’t like the music then at least they can watch a
good show.
ADAM: Yeah, it’s like there’s two different sides to it. There could be
a band on stage who are really good, but if they just stand there and
play, it’s like ‘well, why don’t we just go and listen to your CD’, but
if they come out and jump around and have fun then people will just go
‘what the hell?’ and want to watch.
We always try and do something different every time so people don’t get
bored. It’s more of a show, isn’t it? It’s like a musical or something!
LIAM: I wouldn’t call it a musical!
RYAN: It’s just a bunch of insane people dressing up and playing music.
You’ve also recorded an album?
ADAM: Yeah, we did it at the same time as we did the EP. We recorded two
songs for that and then recorded the rest of the songs after the tour
with the money we made. We never got round to releasing it though
because we were too busy trying to get a deal so that we could hopefully
re-record it. But we decided that we just wanted to get it out there and
get the songs on CDs.
We originally only had twenty copies because that’s all we could afford
to make. Then that sold out pretty quick so we’ve gotta make some more.
What does the album sound like?
ADAM: There’s a lot of different styles because we’ve got some of the
old songs on there as well. So there’s songs on there that are like punk
and rock and then there’s stuff on there that’s acoustic.
It’s a bit like a mix between Brand New and Green Day.
RYAN: It’s very English sounding as well, there’s too many bands out
there that sound American. OK, we play American music, but you know,
we’re English.
ADAM: The thing is, with my singing, when I sing quietly I sound
English, but then if I sing big and loud I do sound a bit American, but
a lot of American people who’ve heard our stuff say we sound English and
a lot of English people say we sound American.
It’s kind of good though because people from this country think we’re an
American band and the American’s think we’re English.
RYAN: A lot of English bands do well in America don’t they?
ADAM: Yeah. It works the other way too, I mean The Killers, they’re
American but they sound really English.
RYAN: I always thought they were!
And you’re off on tour again soon?
ADAM: Well we’re on a French tour in the summer. We’re just waiting for
confirmation of dates and stuff like that at the minute. That’s being
organised by a French band called Madcaps. We were supposed to be
playing with them at The Cavern [Liverpool] last week but it got
cancelled because they double-booked or something, but we’re trying to
get a few gigs organised so that they can come over here and play with
us in Manchester or Liverpool.
How did that come about?
ADAM: We were both playing The Cavern at the same time, and then they
got in touch. I can’t remember if we mentioned it or they did, but it
just came together.
How does the live show compare to the recorded output?
RYAN: You can express it more live.
ADAM: I think when you record, you spend a lot of time listening to
tracks and concentrating, you kinda of loose the energy, but when we
play live we just hammer the instruments, running around and playing. If
we play a wrong chord it doesn’t matter that much. Live, it just sounds
really big and in your face, but when in the studio, you loose all that.
What does the future hold for The 5-0s?
ADAM: I think we’re all happy just doing what we’re doing, just building
up people’s awareness of the band.
RYAN: A small label deal would be good.
ADAM: Yeah, possibly a small label to release something so that we don’t
have to do all the work of releasing things, but I think we can do a few
albums and organise tours ourselves, we don’t really need a label.
If we were to sign, we’d want a deal where we could tour with signed
bands and have an album released in shops because those are the sort of
things that we can’t do on our own, but everything else we can manage
ourselves.
That DIY spirit seems to be very prominent in music at the minute, with
the sense that you don’t need a label to get your music out there. How
much of a role do you think the internet has to play in all that?
ADAM: I think it’s a big thing. Myspace is genius! It’s the best thing
out there for promoting bands and promoting gigs. You can just type in
the postcode of the place where your next gig is, find people in that
area who might like your stuff, and ask them to check you out. Then it
just grows from there, like they’ll tell their friends, and their
friends will tell their friends and so on.
LIAM: The only problem with Myspace now is that it’s getting too popular
you know? Everyone’s just gonna go on and find something else. Like even
Radio 1 are catching on to it about ten years after everything else.
RYAN: I think the the thing is, you’ve just gotta follow the people… I
talk about rubbish! Just cut me out of this interview! Yeah, Myspace is
good.
ADAM: Myspace is the easily the best thing for bands. Like, we’ve got a
gig tonight, so I just sent a message out saying ‘if you’re coming down,
let us know and get your friends down as well’.
RYAN: What did we do before Myspace? Know what I mean, it’s like, how
did we get people to come to our gigs?
ADAM: We had to literally phone them up. We used to phone people and get
them to come down. Now with the internet though, you just press a button
and your off.
And finally, what would you say to any fans of yours who’d read this?
ADAM: Keep coming to the gigs and that.
LIAM: Buy the album!
ADAM: Yeah, just come down to the shows and talk to us because we don’t
have any friends!
Recommended link:
www.myspace.com/the50s
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