Photo: Danny Payne
It's 2017 and Cabbage are the new band on the block that's got the country excited about music in a big way. They're the voice of a youth disillusioned by the deceitful and self-serving political class - unafraid to speak out against injustice in an age of increasing censorship and control.
Gigwise's Harley Cassidy caught up for a conversation with singer Lee Broadbent, who in addition to being a phenomenal frontman, is a highly thoughtful, intellectual young man (Billy Bragg's got his back). He's intent on using his platform in the band to call out the most cancerous ideologies in our society and will walk through fire to get his point across. You can't suppress Cabbage's uncensored outlook and you can't deny their power as a live band. 2017 needs Cabbage it we're to help heal the poison of 2016.
Firstly, I want you to tell me a little about your club night, Brassica, that you’ve started.
After the recent increase in fanbase we've managed in Manchester, it’s our attempt to develop and contribute to a counterculture of art and music in the city. Its rich history seems to have created an individualist attitude for bands to go at it alone and any powerful social movement through art requires its scene, just look at acid house in the 80s. We want to take artists from around the country we love and local artists and do our best to create a melting pot that revolves around their politics, social behaviour and inspiration that affects our generation. The first one worked perfectly so we're going to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Also, with Brassica being the family name for Cabbage, it already inflicts the idea that we want to create a family and be the poster boys for Manchester - that way we can link up with other cities and create a nationwide counterculture that will hopefully be remembered as a time when music and art was at a stronghold.
Manchester has always been associated with great night life in the UK, like you mentioned acid house and the hacienda etc. It only seems natural that you would want to infuse nightclubs and events with your music and what represents young people now. What kind of music do you play at Brassica. Is it a free for all? I would like to think it is.
I was always fascinated in what inspired the bands I loved growing up; a writer called Austin Kleon wrote a theory that you create a family tree from inspiration, you love one artist, then you find out who they loved and so forth and so forth… it’s pretty much everything that we have on our playlists so we can be exposed as what makes Cabbage. We were thinking of running the nights as themes ranging from all forms of music: jazz nights, surf nights, 80s female solo singer nights… of course, this naturally turns into fancy dress. The club night is definitely a free for all; we’ve partnered with a great venue called The White Hotel whose own ethos falls perfectly into ours. So far we've had infamous buskers The Piccadilly Rats play and next we have Ben Wallers from The Country Teasers coming up from London. The one rule is there will always be one local artist playing. We've only just started though and have a years worth of ideas lined up.
I agree with Kleon’s theory, it's interesting to know what your favourite bands are inspired by because it might also appeal to you too - it's a new form of discovery. Also, I noticed on one of the posters you have Bunny Boy from Gummo on it. Do films, actors or directors directly influence the music Cabbage makes?
Ah yeah, Gummo really affected me as it’s one of the most tender films ever made. There’s a huge connection in that films with music can produce some of the most emotional moments you can experience. There’s elements to the music that project imagery as though suited to particular directors, David Lynch for instance - you know when you have written a piece of music that would fall graciously into his work. The soundtrack to American Beauty is something of soundscape genius, I’ve always been a sucker for the big moments on screen with music, the opening credits to True Romance being the best example I can deliver. It’d be great to have songs that have that form of power as a soundtrack but I can’t see Hans Zimmer starting a punk band so there’s work to be done.
It's interesting you mention the musical side of Gummo because I had it in my head that you would have used the dystopian/dysfunctional setting of the film to compare it to Mossley or something, haha.
There are many characters you can find parallels with in Mossley to the folk of Gummo; I could create my own Gummo just with half an hour in a few pubs round my way. Mossley represents being the outcast for me, we've always been odd ones, the strange, the ones to avoid, I imagine we don’t do much to better that profile but we thrive off it really. I think the band is a fair example of my generation from Mossley; we’re practically a race or that’s how it’s always felt. People don’t give a flying fuck about what others think of them and that’s the real beauty and charm about the place. It definitely bleeds into our art but of course it will, to be truly natural you write about what you know and have experienced. I went to a Catholic school in Ashton and it had pockets of people from Mossley, Ashton, Droylsden, Oldham, and Bezwick. We didn’t get much bother off others as people were scared we would voodoo the fuck out of them.
I find Cabbage to actually be a walking form of art. There are a lot of bands around now who are careerists first and foremost, they want to make money and have that idyllic, Mick Jagger type lifestyle. I respect that Cabbage somewhat don't really care too much, you just care enough about the right things. By calling yourselves "the odd ones out" does that make appearing on something as prestigious as the BBC Sound of 2017 long list seem even more surreal?
Fucking God knows how we ended up in that list… I mean we've got real strong management and have been pushed a lot this year which has made it all the stranger for us because we just planned to be this shocking pub rock band with songs about Necrophiles and Tony Blair but almost immediately we were thrusted around and it hasn’t affected us in the slightest. I play music as a lot more of a sacrificial purpose; it’s protest art. My body is on the line which it has to be in today’s fucked-up backward world. I'd rather listen to Graham Hancock over a gimp like Mick Jagger who only caters for himself. Not to take away his talent but he's just a 60s Harry Styles. We fancy ourselves as messenger boys for ''the odd ones out'' rather than craving adoration with meaningless lyrics.
Are you familiar or a fan of any of the acts on the list?
I believe there are some grime artists on that list and I’ll promote that art form till the cows come home. It’s punk music and culturally aware to young black lives, not that it’s a one race genre, but it speaks up on them subjects which would make most bands cower to think even writing lyrics about. Bar that, not anyone.
A moment ago you mentioned how being in Cabbage is sacrificial for you - is that just when you're performing? When you are on stage do you feel like you take on a persona? Or is the Lee Broadbent we see on stage the Lee Broadbent we know in person?
It’s sacrificial lyrically and performance-wise. The challenge is to get so lost in delivering that I put myself in danger quite regularly; no injuries yet, touch wood, but all I have to do is sing so as long as I don’t puncture a lung. There's many different Lee Broadbent’s affected by whatever substance I've been spiked with.
You seem to tour incessantly now, what are the highs and lows of being on tour and how do you cope with being around each other all the time?
Highs are the obvious ones; performing to the best of your ability or truly losing yourself Eminem style for half an hour to an hour. The lows are the small spaces you have to reside with best friends in and tensions rise; it’s natural when you spend that much time with anybody, especially when there's alcohol flowing. We tend to cope by getting stoned, that way everything is fine, plus we have a loud room and a quiet room in the hotels and judging by how you’re doing that day you choose your room wisely.
Some of the shows you have lined up, such as The Courteeners one, are massive. How do you think Cabbage are going to translate onto a big stage?
We plan to develop it as a fully mustered circus by that point, there'll be no choreographed dancing but we'll have more space to spread our pigeon chests
You and Joe share centre stage, it’s interesting watching you both because you’re both not battling to be at the front, you’re quite courteous of each other. When do you decide to have dual frontmen? Or did it just happen?
It actually just happened, which is odd thinking about it. I was shitting myself at first because I had to learn guitar just to play live, it works well as we have different styles. I feel like the ADHD kid trying to break stuff and sweat on audience members and he's like the slippery Julian Cope one.
You seem to have a very clear vision about some of your songs, like ‘Grim Up North Korea’, even though they are based on fictional happenings. How much have you imagined and thought about the bizarre settings in which some of your songs happen?
I used to ride my bike to work over the tops of the hills and all I could imagine was a Pyongyang style monument to Paul Gascoigne as a supreme leader and that fascinating, mass scale cover-up where the ''Everything Is OK'' image North Korea has. There’s a classist undertone that seeps through Northern bands sometimes and it was a dreamt up revenge tactic that we'd have enough one day and we would go to war. Of course, North Korea is the policy we would take, clandestine oppression just above Nottingham.
There’s a list of people being reeled off on 'Terrorist Synthesizer' throughout the song, what is this based on?
It was off the back of David Cameron’s statement to the nation about the people who voted against air strikes on Syria saying they were “terrorist sympathisers”. By far one of the most odious statements made by a posh cunt in power. The people in the song represent the variety of opinion you hear in Britain, some young and left and free thinking, some brainwashed by tabloid xenophobia.
Would you say you’re proponents of class war?
I think anyone who involves themselves in line of social injustice puts themselves in a position of class war. For us, there's just no way we could be satisfied artists when things like, man of the people but actually an elitist cunt, Nigel Farage, promises 350 million leave voters then has the cheek to detract his statement on national TV the morning after the elections. It’s a fucking joke how much we are shit on as a nation. For us, that’s fighting talk and being representatives of young working class that’s a talking point we feel natural to attack. Again, going back to the question about money if we were in different financial position the product of art would be different but right now we naturally propose a class war as it’s where we live.
Are you trying to educate people with your music or make them laugh?
I mean educating is a weird thing because I’ve always thrived on being an autodidact so I expect people to have the same thirst for knowledge as me, which isn’t a great deal, but still. Laughter plays in without a shadow of a doubt; black humour is the best way to spread a message, take Stewart Lee, Frankie Boyle or Joe Rogan for example, I’ve learnt so much from them three individuals.
When I read some of your other interviews I noticed that you hold mainly degenerates in reverence, people like Shane McGowan or GG Allin - do you have an affinity with people with mental health issues or maybe certain levels of self-destructiveness?
They are true characters; mental health is a knife-edge and I think to be immersed in what I do, you’re pretty much living on a see-saw and being exposed to so much information and seeking it and fighting it. It can only lead to self-destruction in some form and mental health again in some form. It’s like that famous Charles Bukowski quote: “some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must lead”. It’s not something I want or seek but it’s more often than not a package with the sacrifice.
As a working class man, what keeps you hopeful?
Counterculture, the rise of rebellion, promoting DIY ethics to music and inspiring others to follow suit.
Is that also what makes you passionate?
Yeah, the thought of not needing anyone to make art but yourself. You don't need expensive equipment, just the fucking get up and go and don’t blame anyone else for your downfalls. The thought of Rupert Murdoch’s empire crumbling gets me fired. Also, James Skelly's constant, producer boss-type attitude makes me passionate. He’s always demanding a new demo and that’s the way it should be.
How has Skelly affected the band? I know you've worked with him for quite a while now but the rate of EPs you have been releasing is impressive, it puts other bands to shame.
We have a 12-inch vinyl of the collection of EPs we released coming out, and we're working in the studio with him now to get an album ready for Autumn. It’s a topical process where we can document each year of our career with a record. Other bands are ‘’waiting'', fuck knows what for. Could be dead tomorrow.
I guess that's what I meant by careerist, everyone seems to be a bit too self-conscious, thinking too much into things, scared of making mistakes.
They've never listened to The Fall and they're serving false prophecies and will be found out on judgement day. Ozzy Osbourne will crush them.
Okay, I'm going to ask a theoretical question now. You're making a video for ‘Necroflat in the Palace’. Your budget allows you to anything you want, any fictional character, dead or alive - how would the video play out?
Jimmy Savile hosting Top of the Pops and us playing as the Royal Family or possibly The Glitter Band.
You've already envisioned this haven't you?
Haha, yes. See great ideas, but no money to do it.
Finally, what kind of milestone would you like to reach as a band?
A milestone would be the ability to branch out and explore different forms of art with different set ups; release as much as I can and have a catalogue of music I can be immensely proud of. I think I speak for the band as well saying that we would rather that than two bollocks pop albums that took eight years of craft.... that’s fucking shit. I want 20 years with 30 different albums with different bands and projects.
