Bricknasty Are in Love with the Process

“Just keep flipping it and flipping it and flipping it”

Committing the journey over the destination is essential for any artist. Irish jazz punk band Bricknasty knows that better than anyone. A couple of weeks ago they released their 2nd EP BLACKS LAW, a cacophonous,  ever-morphing journey through multiple genres and pained deliveries from masked frontman Fatboy. The new release signals a rebirth for the group both creatively and literally, with founders Fatboy and producer Cillian McCauley now being joined by bassist Sam Healy and keyboard/saxophonist Chris LaMotte.

Left to right: Cillian McCauley, Fatboy, and Korey Thomas

Between BLACKS LAW and their previous mixtape XONGZ, the two also underwent a breakup where things “cosmically exploded” only to return in recognition of their shared potential. This new EP pulls the group’s signature jazz grooves and stacked vocals into darker, more formally ambitious vision as they muse over faith, resentment, and reconciliation. Their most personal project to date, you can see actual blood stains from the two friends on the cover. We got to talk with Fatboy and McCauley over video chat ahead of what’s now become a must-see tour. 

Before the six month period where most of the project was made, the two founding members had spent their time developing music individually. “Cillian and I work the best when we work really, really hard in isolation,” says Fatboy on how the two bring their own idiosyncrasies into the work. “We’re just different fellas… But when we put the two things together, you just get a real full finished sound every time.”

The band shares an impulse to create regardless of circumstance which has forged their DIY attitude towards recording. Fatboy jokes, “We just are very poor so we have to record in people's nanny’s toilets and underneath the sink… We have to get in the bin together with a microphone.  It's just the way it works. We don't be having loads of money for studio time. So we use Cillian 's laptop and my phone for everything, you know what I mean?” McCauley also adds, “[We use] Garage band and then Ableton. Mixing both of those and just making stuff wherever we can, we're making stuff a lot on tour as well. We went on two tours, over the duration of making the yoke.”

Much of what makes Bricknasty special comes from the dynamic between members. Fatboy's writing and recording functions as a sort of stream of consciousness while Cillian works to capture and channel that energy. “I’ll be performing for Cillian until two in the morning and then he'll take a note on a very particular section that needs to be laid in a particular way. So then he'll grill me on that,” Laments Fatboy, “I wanna keep riffing.” On the other hand, McCauley says, "The main thing is space. Where is that sitting and what part of the performance do you want to use?”

McCauley also applies this method to the other musicians who contributed to the recording. A notable example was saxophonist Denis Scully, who the boys described as a “shiny Rayquaza” when talking about his talents. The majority of the sax you hear on the project was actually recorded in one long take. Fatboy recalls, “he pretty much did all of his parts on BLACKS LAW hearing it for the first time from the front to the back sitting in Cillian’s sitting room.” Scully also plays piano throughout many of the songs and helped the band break through on one of the seminal tracks, “eternity in grace.”

One of their rawest songs yet, “eternity in grace” sees them switching off their usually stacked vocals in favour of a single track. The song had actually been with the band long before BLACKS LAW came together. Halfway through making XONGZ, Fatboy was walking to work when he found a leather bag on the street, “I opened it up and [there was a] guitar with only three strings on the bottom that worked. But the three strings were perfect, so I took it on the bus with me.” A couple hours later, the riff you now hear on the song was written.

 “We didn’t really want to use it for XONGZ because it felt like a special job… We had a feeling that it was going to be the thing that anchors the third project,” explains McCauley when talking about why this loop has laid dormant for so long. “We weren’t the right men to be messing with that music,” adds Fatboy, “it (was) above our pay grade.” 

Bricknasty are committed to growing as artists and it bleeds into their creative process. The unpredictable, obtuse song structures found on BLACKS LAW don’t arise from a cynical desire to be different, but rather from a need to find their own way to make the type of songs that we all know. “Everyone uses ABC songwriting. Not everyone has the special sauce. Do you know what I mean? Certain people have a special way to go versus-chorus-verse-chorus in a way that you can see coming and it bangs. People like Andre 3000, CeeLo Green, or Amy Winehouse…. Everyone else copies them but no one gets it the same way,” Fatboy elaborates when discussing how they construct each track. “We're only 24 and still learning. Me and Cillian are going to write ABC songs again… but like I think you need to really get your skills up to really have a go at that and then if you don't want to do that, well, then just keep flipping it and flipping it and flipping it.”

BLACKS LAW brings a fervour and creative ambition not before seen in Bricknasty’s work. There is an innate tension within the DNA of each track, they rarely follow recognizable structures and switch tempos if not genres throughout. Much of the subject matter is drawn straight from the tumult Fatboy has gone through, “I say the conflict is natural. Especially when all you see every day is just conflict. Like, it's gonna sound like that, you know what I mean?” Elaborating on this intention to throw the listener off-balance, McCauley explains, “We love when things transition, you pay attention to the music.”

In the EP’s structure, however, you can see a deliberate track listing where the sonic palette strips back one moment after the other.  “It’s (about) technology versus the natural world.” The record kicks off with the shiny bounce of “I hope you’re ready” featuring F3mii, a pristine alternative R&B track and one of the truly catchy moments in BLACKS LAW. Track after track, however, the production strips back. Even in more hectic moments like the energetic “Go get that blade”, “there's bits of nature gasping out underneath,” explains Fatboy. By the final track “eleanor plunkett” even the vocals are gone and the band sings off with a harp-centric instrumental. 

Once their touring commitments end, Bricknasty feel like another EP is due. “We love pop music,” exclaims Fatboy, “it’s actually really really hard to make… If we took the skills we learned on Black's Law and we found a way to tackle some of our favourite songs from when we were three or four years old I think that we'd have a little like mini-Thriller or something.”

You can see if Bricknasty is playing near you here and check out BLACKS LAW here!