Tuscon, Arizona rockers Broken Romeo have been a long time favorite band of mine for what seems like an eternity now. In reality, it's only been four or five years of their existence that I've been a fan, but it's the band itself that makes you feel like you've been listening to them for far longer.
When my personal blog was up and running, I was waiting for the right time to feature them. It took reading one somewhat scathing review of their album Desperation Daze to really get me going with my support for them, and there has been no turning back since then!
2013 was the starting off point for the band and their every evolving album Side One, which they are still churning out single after single for. Now eight singles in, their latest song, Something Good, is slated for a late May 2016 release. I recently had the chance to ask lead singer and founding member James Turpin a few questions about the band and the new single:
Introduce us to the band and give us some insight into how Broken Romeo came to be.
I am James. I’m the singer and 2nd guitarist in BR. My brother Steve Turpin is our lead guitarist and sings a little as well. Ari Sloane is our bass player, and Matt Ringnell is our drummer.
Steve, Ari and I are founding members of Broken Romeo. We met while we all worked at “The Wherehouse” Music store when we were all in college back in the late 80’s. Ari was in a U2 cover band, and I was a huge U2 fan so we hit it off. We decided to start a rock band and enlisted the help of my brother Steve. Matt is our newest member. He joined in December of 2009.
Speaking of Broken Romeo, how did you come up with the name?
Like I said, Ari, Steve and I worked together at a record store when we were in college called “The Wherehouse”. Once we decided to form a band we needed a name. None of us could agree on a name. At the front of the store there was a GIANT book of every song published dating back to the 1940s. It was HUGE!
We started to flip through that book and came across an old R&B song from the 50s called “Broken Romeo”. We all loved it, so that’s been our name ever since.
How would you best describe the BR sound and who are/were your influences?
I would say our sound is a combination of all of our collective musical influences. There are some Classic rock, modern rock and alternative rock influences for sure. We all come from different musical backgrounds and all have different musical tastes.
Steve and I were huge Queen fans when we were younger (still are). We also listened to bands like Pink Floyd, ELO and Led Zeppelin. Later it were bands like The Cult and STP. When I was in High School I was really into U2. They are still one of my favorite bands. Steve was really into Guns’N’Roses and Alice in Chains. Ari tends to like Classic Hard Rock/Metal bands like Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Matt also tends to like the heavier stuff. They all find their way into our music. If you listen, you can hear them!
Take us thru the songwriting process for "Something Good". Did you approach this song any differently from some of your most recent work?
This song came together very quickly. I think most of the song was written in one practice. This song was very much a complete band effort. The song started with the drum beat. Matt was playing something very interesting and I think I started playing a few chords..something quite simple in fact. Ari jumped in and Steve played down a melodic guitar part and the song just came together.
The lyrics also came very quickly. We were all complaining about all the bad news (Planes disappearing, Ebola, Paris attacks, and political mudslinging) that we just asked is there ever any good news out there!?
We wanted them to give us something good!
How did you feel when you heard the final version of Something Good?
I haven’t heard the final version but it’s really turning out to be a great song! Something really special for BR!
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