“We never found ourselves taking a break.” Jim admits. “We always told ourselves we need to have a bit of a break to write new songs, but next thing you know all four of us get gig offers and say yeah and the next years done.”
Photo: James Darcy
There’s a cathartic rush to the titular screams on Bruise Control’s latest single ‘No More’. The Manchester garage punks’ newest release kicks open the door for their entry into 2024 with a fittingly unhinged burst of aggression. The song itself was originally born out of a riff half-jokingly thrown into the band chat by guitarist Niall Griffin.
“He just said ‘Look at this song I’ve just made it’s so funny’ and I listened to it and I said ‘fuck off that’s amazing! I really love it!’ explains singer Jim Taylor.
Expanding on this idea, drummer Tommy Morris adds “It’s mad, every song Niall writes that he takes time with – he’s been writing it for months or years adding to it – and then he’ll play one riff in practice and Jim will just be like ‘That’s fucking right good!’ and Niall doesn’t want to use it, he’s like ‘What? Really? We can’t use that!’ and we’ll be like ‘Nah, we can!’ That’s happened a few times.”
The titular cry for a reprieve is telling of a band who’ve pushed through all hurdles and kept sprinting until their lungs were empty. Formed a year before the pandemic, the band’s first scheduled gig was cancelled by way of national lockdown. The band took the opportunity to get as gig-ready as possible
“By the time we came out and did our first gig people were like ‘Fucking hell! This is never your first gig!’ and we were like ‘Yeah, but, disclaimer: we’ve been practicing together for three years now.’ Tommy explains. “People had been waiting two years to go out and go to gigs, so when we were starting to play there was a proper electric buzz about anything, even if people were going out to Wetherspoons. There was this atmosphere for a good six months when people started going out. I think we really benefitted from that.”
It was this buzz that pushed the band on into two years of constant motion. Through this came last year’s debut LP Useless for Something, a documentation of their first few years of song-writing. “It was the first time [recording an album] as a band and so obviously there were gonna be some issues and some stuff we couldn’t control that thwarted it, but what we had in mind was go in, do it, boom. Press it, put it out, do a tour, whatever. We didn’t have much of a plan but we thought it would be straightforward.” Jim outlines.
This was complicated when the band went into record and it became a year-long effort, as Tommy elaborates. “From the moment we went into the studio, we got drums down, it took us a year. It was a full year because we were doing it ourselves and Niall kept going back to it and it was a labour of love, we didn’t really set ourselves a time limit as such. It meant we could take our time with it, but it also meant by the end of it I was fucking sick to death of it, and I can’t even begin to imagine how Niall felt because he was the one who was listening to it solidly for a year trying to mix it and adding bits to it.”
Then, after a five month wait for pressing, came the album rollout, complete with live sessions, music videos and, obviously, more gigs. “When we actually release it and we can start releasing new content for it and start doing videos, that’s where it starts to get fun again.” Tommy explains. “It breathes loads of new life into it. Filming videos is one the most fun things I’ve ever done. It’s been mad, running around town at 12 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon with a briefcase, Jim throwing up in an alley, businessmen walking past us like ‘What is going on?’ It was pretty funny in that sense.”
Jim adds “The album came out in April, from mid-December to then it was like music video, live session – it was intense… The videos were next level, it was intense. We’re definitely gonna go all in on videos again. But then it’s funny, on ‘No More’, we did the complete opposite. Usually it’s a whole operation, our filmer Phil did a screenplay for the ‘Bruise Control’ video that was five pages long. This time it was ‘Phil show up we’ve got an Iphone SE and bring an old digital camera’ and we did it all in an hour. Bringing out the video and knowing people are listening to it, it’s like a physical release.”
But with two and a half years of non-stop grinding under their belt, it took personal circumstances to put the brakes on for the band.
“We never found ourselves taking a break.” Jim admits. “We always told ourselves we need to have a bit of a break to write new songs, but next thing you know all four of us get gig offers and say yeah and the next years done.” Tommy echoes this sentiment. “Before you even know it you say yeah to a few gigs and you’re like “Are we free on this weekend?” and you check and you’ve pretty much booked up 10 months and it’s like ‘Fuck we were meant to be writing that album!'”
It’s easily done, especially coming off of the post-covid momentum. As Jim details “What happens is you have 8 months off and you say right we’ve got this one in June, we’ll do that. It’s down south, so we’ll have to book a weekender to make it worthwhile for the travel. Right, we’re not taking any gigs that are just one offs then someone goes ‘aw my mate’s just said this!’ It gets to the point where some randomer has just offered us £40 to play 3 hours away and we go ‘Is it worth it? No. Will we get enough money for petrol? No. Is it on a weekend? No, it’s on a Tuesday night, fuck it let’s do it.’” He laughs “I’m sure that’ll continue to happen, that’s the fun of it isn’t it. We’re just in the middle of working out, but a similar thing happened where this guy wants us to play his festival in Germany, so we’re just going to drive with a couple stops in between. If my 16-year-old self knew I’d turned a gig down in Germany because it wasn’t fiscally viable I’d be fuming at myself.”
Just a year on from their debut full-length, Bruise Control are already a much more well-oiled machine. Tommy points to their “cleaner” song-writing, and Jim’s lyrical perspective has evolved. “I’d never been in a band in my life, had no intention of doing it, had never written a song or anything like that. Pretty much all the lyrics on the first album – apart from Taxman, that was a good fluke – were pretty much just made up on the spot almost… Some of the lyrics are just thrown together. Like ‘Disco Fury’, love the song but fucking hell my lyrics on that one make my arsehole curl sometimes.”
Jim talks openly about finding writing lyrics difficult. “I’m quite numb in the head to be honest. I’m quite simple with my emotions, maybe it’s because I’m from Wigan, but there’s nothing too complex going on my head, my mental health’s as clean as a whistle, so I’ve not got much shit to write about.”
Tommy laughs at this, interjecting with “He’s got no angst! Got none of that depression to write about. It’s just like “Woke up, ate a raw potato, went to work. Had a great day!” Jim, laughing, goes on. “That’s pretty much it! I obviously don’t think every song should be from the depths of your emotion, but is something I’m trying to do. It’s usually out of a place of feeling tired and angry. That’s the main theme, just feeling very tired and very worn out, apathetic at everything that’s going on. No matter what you try and do you end up sinking even more. But I am conscious of that, I don’t want to just sing about being angry at the government and stuff like that, I’m trying to incorporate some happier stuff.”
Trying to be more emotionally present in his lyrics beyond just frustration seems like a strong focus for Jim, as he elaborates. “You don’t have to always write about what makes you sad or upset. What do you care about? Who do you love? What are your friends like? It’s what I’m trying to do going forward. I’ve not particularly done that yet because it’s so out my comfort zone that it’s so far to reach. There will be a day where I write a love song for my love, I’m trying my best. It’s just hard for me to go deep with stuff sometimes, it’s all quite simple up there. As Tommy says it’s just some raw potatoes floating around for the most part.”
Both Jim and Tommy agree that joy is an important thing to focus on with all that’s going on in the world, but Jim hammers home that highlighting serious issues is important, as long as they’re coming from a genuine place. “Any time we are playing to a bigger crowd and we know it we do make a point of saying that we have a bit of a platform here and what can we do about it? There are bands who go hard on it, but I know just as many bands that completely avoid it. My biggest gripe is a band of all straight guys, and every song is about women, or a girlfriend they’ve had or a breakup. I just think what’s actually going on in your head? There’s something not right if all you can sing about is describing a woman or how a woman’s feeling yet you’re all white guys, like fuck off. Especially in the indie scene. ‘She takes a cigarette…’ Shut the fuck up man.”
Re-emerging with No More is a leaner, meaner Bruise Control. With instruments recorded live in-session, a quick and to-the-point video and rejuvenated from a short break, the band are set to take to a short run of gigs next week in their triumphant return to live performance. Now that the well-gigged ‘No More’ is out, the band will take their newly-written material to be road tested and get back amongst the scene for the year.
You can catch Bruise Control at the following dates in the UK:
February
22nd – Blondies, London
23rd – Old Bus Depot, Nottingham
24th – Deaf Institute Lodge, Manchester (LOW TICKETS)
March
1st – 1in12 Club, Bradford
April
5th – Kazimer Stockroom, Liverpool (Supporting Enemic Interior)
Tickets are available HERE
