Accidentally Brunswick Street

Brisbane pop folksters The Brunswicks are in the middle of a Paddington op shopping session when Scene calls to discuss the finer points of the local music scene and find out what makes them tick.

One minute into the interview and it’s too much for Rebekah – she hands me over to guitarist Matt after being asked whether their name reflected a particular affinity for the wee-and-blood-stained stretch of road that runs through the middle of the Valley.

“We wanted a name that had something to do with Brisbane,” Matt says. “We kinda wanted to craft a local identity. It was the other guitarist’s wife that came up with it – we had a list of names and we all voted on that one. We wanted something familiar and that could be easily associated with Brisbane.

“We all have a very diverse range of interests when it comes to music – we all come from different backgrounds and have a wide variety of influences. I’m from more of a heavy, metal-based background; the drummer’s from more of a hip hop background, and that’s what works really well for us. I’d describe our music as folk rock with a bunch of different influences happening.”

The Brisbane influence on your songwriting – is it undeniable? “You can’t help but draw influence from your surroundings – most of the band were born and raised in Brisbane. If I was going to name my three favourite Brisbane bands of all time, I’d go with Powderfinger, Regurgitator and Custard.”

Three Brisbane classics right there. I read in the bio that The Brunswicks were messing around with illicit time signatures – just how illicit are we talking here, Matt?

“The jazz influence probably comes from Andrew (second guitarist), who is heavily influenced by bands like Wilco. We’re trying to move into new time signatures and experiment, trying to experiment with different patterns and seeing what we can get out of that.”

A run of shows coming up should give Brisbane the perfect chance to check these guys out, including a stripped-back acoustic show at Brisbane’s newest home of original acoustic music, The Set List at Conrad Treasury.

“That’s going to be a very basic acoustic gig. Most of our songs have got an acoustic element to them – we will be stripping everything back for the night.”

Catch The Brunswicks as part of The Set List at Conrad Treasury on January 21.