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Friday, Nov 21, 2008

"One day, when I was back in Virus 3,...our lead guitarist / singer's brother came home from school, and told us about his crappy day. He was in school, and the teacher was playing a word scramble game on the chalkboard. The word was "bodily",...but it was all mis-spelt and nobody could figure it out. So his brother put his hand up and said,..."I know what it is,..it's LIDBOY...." everyone in the class started laughing at him,...and he tried to explain what a lidboy was,...."like a person who stands by the garbage to make sure the lid stays on." He was obviously just making up the answer as he went along. Nonetheless,..everyone laughed at him and ridiculed him,...so when he came home he was a bit upset...We all laughed at him too,..thinking that was pretty stupid,...but in a fun way. I was laughing and said,..."lidboy,...that makes about as much sense as ....BROOMFILLER". No forethought went into it,..I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. We all started laughing about how stupid BROOMFILLER sounded. Then the guitarist for Virus 3 said,...if he ever has a side project,..he'll call it LIDBOY,....we all laughed. The more and more I thought about the word,...the more I liked it. I told them that if I ever have a side project,..I'll call it BROOMFILLER. Virus 3 broke up a few months after that,...and I hopped off the drums, strapped on my guitar and BROOMFILLER was born."

Virus: So tell me about Kanawhapalooza.
Richard: Hmmm, well that was a great festival. We were the only Canadian band chosen to play so we were very honoured. You know, representing Canada. It was really cool. After a twelve hour drive there, with fart prone band members, it was quite the laugh. Many times we drove for about 10 minutes with every window wide open. I guess that's what McDonalds will do. Anyways, we played at this big venue, called The West Virginia Capital Centre. I think it held 800 people. We played with Kat Parsons, a female singer/songwriter from...???...in the US, but I'm not sure where exactly. We played the first night, and we were the 'featured band', and it was fortunate for us, that it was the first night of the festival, and no other shows occurred that night. So the main focus was on the Capital Centre. It was cool. Right after we played, we were approached by a man backstage about being involved with his music company. He talked about setting up a few shows, and possibly a tour of Ohio, but nothing happened from it...until I got a call from him finding out that our song, Decide Inside, was going to be on a radio only compilations CD hitting 912 US college radio stations. So, I almost shit my pants. That's amazing exposure for us. I haven't talked to him in a few weeks, but it should be out in April.

Virus: For people who haven't heard you, describe your sound.
Richard: Death Polka. Um, we sound a lot like Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart...along those lines. No. I describe our sound as (cough) "punk-based heavy melodic alternative."

Virus: Are there any similarities between you and another band people may recognize?
Richard: Barkmarket, Blinker the Star, DSK, um...thinking...Bush maybe??? Face to Face, Goldfiner - a bit. Okay, we've also been told that we do, in the melodic sense, that we sound like The Deftones...but I don't have the lungs Chino has. I don't scream, actually I can't scream, I prefer to sing.

Virus: How do you feel about the constant comparisons between you and early Nirvana? Like, almost every review I've read.
Richard: Hmmm, someone does their research. I don't mind to be honest, but I don't really hear how we sound like them. I mean Nirvana was a great band, great songwriting...and that to me is key. Songwriting. I just don't like being called a 'grunge' band, cause we're not, and I definitely do NOT hear the Nirvana influence. Maybe that's me just being unable to hear it, cause of the position that I'm in. But I guess I must, since everyone keeps saying so. Nonetheless, it's water off a ducks back.

Virus: When's the new album coming out?
Richard: Well, that's an interesting thing. The album WAS supposed to be released on my birthday, February 5th, but then in early January we got a few distribution offers, from a few lables. So we figured we'd wait to see what the labels wanted to offer us. So it's been on the shelf waiting. It's fully mixed, mastered, ready to go, and it sounds amazing. But we're here with our hands tied right now. I didn't want to wait till fucking March to release it, but it might even be April now. It pisses me off, cause we've had many people e-mailing us wanting to know what's up, and we've had to just sort of explain the situation over and over again. It's just frustrating when you know you have something good, but can't do anything with it until a later date. Right now, we've been sending out a 6 song sampler to industry, and to some mailing list contest winners. We're not sending out the whole album, just cause we don't want to until it's actually ready.


Virus: How long did it take to make the album?
Richard: A long time. If you read through the band history, I've been the only constant factor in the band. In the studio, I had Kenny from Edwin (he was the 'at the time' touring bass player) play on a few tracks, and the 'at the time' drummer play some tracks. I played drums and bass, all instruments on half the album. It took me a while, just cause of financial problems, and time issues, but I got it done. I knew what I wanted, and I knew exactly what I wanted it to sound like, and I wouldn't settle for anything less. I completely scrapped two songs from the sessions cause they didn't turn up to 'par' with the rest, and was very fussy in the studio by means of making sure I gave the absolute best performance that I could. Fuck, I was really, really hard on myself. I'm my own worst critic.

Virus: Where did you come up with Watching the Girls Go Bi? I love that.
Richard: Thanks, um, well truthfully, I have always had great respect for diversity, and people doing their own thing as long as they're not hurting anyone or themselves, and I've met a lot of gay people up here in Toronto, and have a lot of respect for their courage and belief in themselves. Also, I really love bi women. Sorry, but it's like 99% of the male populations fantasies, and I do like them. I also like the play on words.


Virus: Anything else coming up?
Richard: Well, we're going onto a compilations CD with Shuteye Records, that'll be hitting 450 CMJ reporting stations, we've been accepted and confirmed to play the International Pop Overthrow Festival in Los Angeles. It's happening July 20 to August 3. We're not sure which exact date we're playing, but that info will be posted on our site as we get the info. We're currently planning a cross-Canada and US tour to support the album. There are no confirmed dates yet, but people can check our site for tour and show postings.
Virus: That's a great gig for you!
Richard: Yeah, we're really happy with it, it's our biggest gig since The Warped Tour '00.

Virus: How did you get hooked up with The Warped Tour?
Richard: We entered a contest, and submitted a song for the Ernie Ball contest, we entered our song, Old But New, and we were 1 out of 8 bands in all of Ontario that won a playing spot on the Barrie, Ontario show. It was awesome. The first thing we did when we got in and received our passes, was leave the grounds and hit the beer store for a case, and then the grocery store for food and case of water. Everything there is ALWAYS expensive.

BROOMFILLER's success is secured through Richard's determination and long-term commitment to the band. Even when the odds were against him (such as in not having a band) he still persevered and was able to take every opportunity that came to him. By blending traditional elements with a fresh sound and a positive take on things, it seems BROOMFILLER is on the road to becoming a well-known and well-respected band.