Montreal band Born Broken are born broken.
They make their first visit to Lethbridge when they play the Smokehouse, Aug. 8 with Calgary’s Stab.Twist. Pull.
After dealing with a lot of personnel turnover, they will be playing as a trio, including long time bassist Pepe, lead guitarist Mike Decker and new drummer Carlos Ojeda.
“We’re usually a five piece. I grew up listening to bands like RATT and Dokken where that was the formula — you had a singer, a drummer a bassist and one guitarist. So I’m used to playing as one guitarist,” said founding member Mike Decker, who has been playing in metal bands since 1991.
“I grew up listening to bands like Judas Priest, Krokus and Budgie,” he said, adding he has always been interested in playing heavy music, though the definition of heavy music has changed.
“When I was five, I discovered Supertramp and I thought they were heavy, though they really aren’t but they are when you’re five,” he recalled.
They are making their first foray out west in support of their latest CD “ The Years of Harsh Truths and Lies.”
They formed in 2008.
He said it has been frustrating going through multiple band members.
“A lot of people don’t understand there is work involved,” he said.
They play a fair amount, just not around their home base.
“We don’t like to play 15 to 20 times around Montreal because we don’t want to oversaturate.,” he said, adding the new Cd has been a long time coming as they released their debut eight years ago.
He noted band turmoil influenced the darkness of the lyrics and intensity of the music.
“Bu I also keep an eye on to world around and see everything that’s happening around me. Even driving in Montreal is crazy. The roads are in horrible condition and the drivers don’t pay attention to pedestrians,” he observed.
“Even the weather goes from -40 in the winter to +40 in the summer. And there is always something happening in politics. Though this isn’t a political based CD,” he said.
“We’re hard to put your finger on to describe us,” he said, adding shows are an intense experience.
“ Response to the the CD has been great. Live, we don’t talk very much during the set, we don’t ask how everyone is doing. Though we like meeting everybody after the set,” he said.
They haven’t played Lethbridge before.
“Though one of our singers, Michael Hewlett is from Lethbridge originally. he had moved to Montreal,” he said, adding that didn’t end up working.
“Forming a band is like doing a puzzle, you have to make all the right pieces fit,” he said, adding there are a lot of work involved as well.
“There’s a lot of work. You have to think about merch, CDs, press. There’s a lot of things that need doing and some people can’t do the work. It’s fun, but it is also a business,” he said.
Driving to the shows and rehearsing has to be done.
“The tour is two weeks long. We’ve been rehearsing for three months for this tour and it feels like three years. So we’re already pretty primed for it,” he said.
Born Broken play the Smokehouse, Aug. 8 with Stab.Twist. Pull
