BROODS: SPACE ISLAND
BROODS, Georgia and Caleb Nott, sat down with Tasha Tziakis for a morning chat about Space Island, collaboration and writing ahead of their Aotearoa tour this late April.
Effortlessly chic, Georgia and Caleb Nott settle into the couch nestled in the my Zoom side screen. With Georgia based in New York and Caleb in Aotearoa, BROODS are getting prepared for their Aotearoa ‘Space Island’ tour in April and celebrating the release of their new single ‘Fuck My Money’.
Fuck My Money describes how isolated one can feel when perceived as purely a production machine and how the music industry suffocates their artists with politics and bureaucracy. When asked about how they navigate those environments and situations, they simultaneously say “together”, with Caleb continuing, “we do it together, we have this person to be honest and check in with.”
Georgia expands on the idea of honesty “there’s kind of like this pressure to always be easy to deal with, and not have needs or anything”. They both confess that those people-pleasing pressures have seeped into their personal lives and that the biggest thing for them right now is working with people who cultivate working environments that value empathy and assertion, with Georgia adding that “finding a way to be both of those things takes a while for everybody, to find that balance.”
Caleb states that “Before Space Island we dropped our whole team, we replaced everybody because it just wasn’t doing them good.” Having been with that same label since they were 19 and 21, they decided that “It was time for new people, and now we have a lot of respect for the people we work with and [there’s] a lot of transparency and honesty.” Georgia replied, “and with relationships, that’s an important one. Not putting yourself above or below. Seeing people eye to eye, that’s the most healthy way to collaborate.”
BROODS’ collaborative history with international and local creatives goes far and wide, but for the shooting of the three amazing Space Island visual chapters they chose to drive around in their Mum's truck with a few childhood friends. The whole production was “pretty grassroots”, with one of the stand out props being a plastic coffin made by Nelson Plastics. Caleb explains that “we went and were like, can you make this, and the people in there were like “oh this is so exciting””.
Included in the visual triptych was an animation by Dr. D Foothead, who the two had been wanting to work with for a while. BROODS sent the song ‘Heartbreak’ to Dr. Foothead and when BROODS got sent some of the imagery back, it was exactly what they’d hoped for from such a collaboration. Georgia elaborates,”that’s the whole thing you know, that’s the high you get when you’re bouncing off of someone and you’re on the same page”.
The visual Space Island world reflects the album’s lyrics - how it feels to traverse the often alien-feeling landscape that is grief and growth. Heartbreak and Gaslight are two tracks from the album that stand out for their hopeful and heavy nature. Heartbreak was written in one afternoon and its mantra-like lyrics stem from a stay that Georgia had with her parents for a few months in the lead up to Christmas following her divorce.
Georgia explains, “My Mum has this advent calendar and hand wrote all of these encouraging quotes about going through grief and every day I opened one up and the notes she wrote were about staying with the feeling and letting it open you up, rather than pushing it away and being this hard shell that forms around you.”
Gaslight was written for a close friend of Georgia’s who was going through similar things at the same time and about how “the experiences we were having and feeling like not wanting what your partner wants makes you crazy and off-track”. But that’s going to happen, you’re going to change all the time. It’s a song from me to me. It’s fully just not turning your back on yourself and not gaslighting yourself. Don’t walk out on yourself.”
You can see all the magic of BROODS and Space Island live in Aotearoa this April in Otepoti, Tamaki Makaurau and Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Space Island is available on all streaming services. Tickets available via Ticket Fairy:
https://www.ticketfairy.com/tour/broods-space-island-tour-2023