CityLife

Brotherly love . . . and hate

Viva Brother are Britpop boys

Last November, a video did the rounds on YouTube of an unknown band called Brother dragging their amps and instruments to an empty car park in Slough, plugging in and playing.

In between shots of them performing were mini-interviews with the quartet bemoaning their old, mundane jobs, smoking and railing against “The Man” who had told them to turn down their racket.

The video was like something from 1996; the laddish foursome looked more like Ocean Colour Scene impersonators than a new band from 2010, and their music didn’t seem to belong in this century either, all snarling Liam Gallagher-esque vowels, chiming guitars and melodic, anthemic choruses.

While music journalists all over the country held their heads in their hands and wondered if the last 15 years had been in vain, a new generation of music fans liked what they heard.

Viva Brother, as they’re now called thanks to a recent name change, have arrived, whether the music press likes it or not. And their debut album Famous First Words, released last month suggests they’re going to be around for a good while longer.

“That video did work in our favour,” says drummer Frank Colucci, 22.

“Any press is good press, so in that sense we were very happy with the reaction that video got.

“We always knew we’d be a band that split people, that people loved or hated.

“No one remembers the boring in-between bands that people don’t mind.
They’re not exciting, and people don’t want to buy their records.”

Since last year, Viva Brother have been flying backwards and forwards between the UK and US, promoting their music with as much enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic.

“It was something we were always keen to do. To build something in one place, then have to start afresh in another, didn’t appeal to us,” continues Colucci. “We’d rather put the extra effort in and do both, which means more travelling, but also more fun as well.

“Life on the road in Viva Brother is entertaining. We never get bored!
Surprisingly, we don’t argue either. If the rot was going to set in, it would’ve done by now.”

Audiences in America lapped up Viva Brother’s typically English sensibilities. From the way they dress and speak to the music they make, Colucci admits the band are something of a novelty to their US admirers.

“They like the fact we sound so typically English. I think Americans like things to be exaggerated; the size of their cars, their portions of food...

Everything is done on such a big scale and I think they see us as an exaggerated version of an English band,” he explains.

Famous First Words is a bratty, youthful album with nods to the likes of Blur, Supergrass and Shed Seven. It is difficult not to be swept along by the likes of Darlings Buds Of May, Still Here or High Street Low Lives.

“We do get compared to Oasis, but I think that has more to do with an attitude, and the fact Lee wore round sunglasses in our first ever photoshoot,” he says.

Produced by Stephen Street, who famously worked with The Smiths, Blur and The Cranberries, Famous First Words was recorded without a hitch, says Colucci. Street helped round off the band’s corners to bring together their songs, which were written over two years.

“Our music does sound English, and the people we meet seem more entertained by us because of where we’re from.

“For the same reasons, I think we divide people in the UK. There’s love from one sector, and resistance from another.

“We’re not a novelty to anyone over here. We’ve never censored our opinions in the press, and some people only see that and don’t want to listen to the music, but others just appreciate the music whether they like what we say or not.

“We’ve never been rude, or openly offensive. I just don’t think honesty is what people want to hear. But if you’re going to ask our opinion on something, then we’re going to tell you in the same way we would tell a mate in the pub. Some people take that the wrong way, but equally others like that about us.”

The puzzling thing, though, is that however much the band bang on about this, they aren’t really that outspoken. I’ve interviewed Lee Newell, Viva Brother’s frontman, a number of times, and in search of his rumoured vitriolic, outspoken streak, asked him about Coldplay and U2, both headliners at Glastonbury this year and easy targets for even the most mild-mannered of musicians. His reply was that he liked Coldplay, aside from their last single, while he didn’t like Bono et al, but “can’t argue with their success”.

Today, Frank only has words of praise for fellow bands Tribes and Tame Impala. Hardly the words of marauding rent-a-gobs.

It might not win them as many headlines as the Britpop-inspired lagered-up lad image they’d like to convey, but Viva Brother are simply very nice, polite boys – and there should never be anything wrong with that.

Viva Brother play Club Academy on Sunday 25 September. £11 adv.