the branco heist
London, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
This Is A Heist ep (featuring Tease, Half Cut, Northern Soul, Yesterday's Girl)
Ghost/England single release
All tracks available on iTunes
Photos
Bio
the branco heist
Monkey say, monkey do. One is from Liverpool, the others south, Stevenage & Essex. One plays guitar & brings a classic line of British rock to the table – Beatles, Kinks, Small Faces, The Jam, The Smiths, The Stone Roses. One is bass so, suitably, brings the more contemporary grooves of the clubs into the equation, whilst the other plays drums with the power and speed of Travis Barker.
Yet you cannot hear the join. This band do something most bands take years to achieve – they escape their influences.
It is some feat.
First though, the name.
Guitarist Stan Slawinski, the man from the North, is one day on a train when a group of scallies get on board. Stan grabs a book left on the seat beside him and hides from their eyes. The first words he sees italicised on that page are ‘the heist’. A great band could easily be called that, he thinks to himself. Meanwhile, Al McHardy celebrates his birthday. He has an interest in wildlife, so his knowing girl sponsors him a monkey from London Zoo. It is called Branco and Al wants to liberate it. If he does, it will be the Branco…
Al is the bass player, the sturdy support and Ross Hampton is the drummer man, wild and kinetic.
Stan met Al in student days where the boys hung out and then went their separate ways. Stan takes his Spanish to Valencia, lives there for a year, playing his guitar in a bar to covers for the locals – Oasis, Beatles, Dylan. Good line up. It inspires him to write his own songs. On his return to London,he plays the 100 Club and Al pops in. Afterwards, Al says, your songs are really good, but they need a band……
Stan spots Ross battering the skins in another line-up, promptly poaching him – the jigsaw is complete. The boys hide away and practice, practice practice.
All Branco’s songs carry a strong element of pop.
‘We like pop,’ Stan says, ‘We always want to keep an element of it in our music…’
And that is a music which is destined to grow and grow and grow.
Paolo Hewitt
Pride & Joy Management +44 7734 716983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p06lshEaAs BALCONY TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFlQ3GmxKmc GHOST
www.thebrancoheist.com THE BRANCO HEIST WEBSITE
Links
