Canadian pop--country duo Broadtree recently spoke to ai love music about how they came together last year, their musical influences, and about the release of their new album Feeling Bad. Feeling Better. Keep on reading to see how the duo created the album and what did they say about the themes that tie into this recent release.
Who is Broadtree?
Broadtree is a Canadian pop-country duo that features Armand Antony and Nicole McCafferty. Both are theatre performers who have been involved with music and drama for a long time. Being involved with different theatre productions, the two performers’ paths eventually crossed when they met at one of these productions.
Then, in 2020, Armand decided to record some music and invited Nicole to sing on a track. When they performed at a show for the single, the two discovered that they had something. “We knew that there was something special, we knew there was something we wanted to continue,” Armand explained. Because of COVID-19 and being currently unemployed actors, Armand and Nicole created Broadtree to be able to discover something new.
Nicole and Armand first started off doing different covers and a Christmas show. They even released an EP with a couple of covers. Then at the end of December, Broadtree decided that they would release some original material. “And before the [cover] EP came out and while we still working on it, we both thought at the same time; “Maybe we should write some songs together”. And then we just did!” Nicole described how the original EP came to be.
And it was one of the best decisions, the duo said, as each said they worked really well together. They could read each other’s mind and know what the other person was thinking when creating the tunes. They fed off each other ideas like magic.
Broadtree’s musical influences are mostly country, but they are influenced by other musical genres and acts. When Nicole was growing up, she often listened to country, but also musical theatre and big musical acts like Barbra Streisand as that was what her mother listened to. As for Armand, he was mostly a classic rock fan and 80’s rock fan when he was growing up.
When it comes to writing, the duo doesn’t write in a particular way. Instead, you can hear little bits and pieces of every musical genres that influenced the duo in their tracks.
About Their Debut Album Feeling Bad. Feeling Better.
Broadtree recently released their debut album, entitled Feeling Bad. Feeling Better. “It was an unique experience, we all did the demos here,” Armand talked about the process of making the album, “But, we wanted to do something different for the album. We went up to a cottage about two hours north of the city. We were in the woods. We recorded all the songs in this cottage. It was great as there was no stress and we weren’t surrounded by anything that would impact the way we worked. And, it was really great to have a space that was dedicated to the album. It had a impact on how the album sounded, it added something special to it.”
Nicole told ai love music that at first, they were expected the album to just be acoustic. But as they wrote and recorded the music, the songs grew a lot. The album features full string sections, drums, multiple guitars, and other instruments. Armand added that it was interesting to compare the songs now to when they first recorded the demos on an acoustic guitar. They are totally different!
Broadtree also explained to me that the created the album with no one theme or aspect in mind. Instead, the songs just came naturally. “We never said “we wanted the album to be about this”. But, many people have told us “Wow, this could be a musical!” as all the songs tell a similar story,” Nicole explained. However, the album touches on the themes of mental health, relationships, and others. “There is not just one main theme that we tried to tackled, but themes that tie together.”
When asked what do you the audience to listen for in Broadtree’s music, Armand had this to say: “Every time we write a song, there is almost more work in coming up the concepts and characters. These songs start out with our own experiences. In “Remember the Time”, we both had experiences similar to the ones in the song. But, we didn’t write a song about us saying goodbye to our friends. Instead, we thought: “How about we write a song about these two people”. We came up with a lot of details of who they are., where do they work at, where do they go to school, and etc.
In the end, when you listen to any of the songs off the album, listen for the tiny little details. The more and more you listen to the songs, you can hear those tiny little details and relate them to one song to another. It is kind of neat to have one character of a song being feature in another song. It was fun crafting that world. Just look for those little details!”
Make sure to check out Broadtree’s latest album Feeling Bad. Feeling Better. down below and let me know what you think in the comments. What was your favorite track?
Also check out their “Musical Postcard” series. It is where Broadtree contacts songwriters from different countries around the world and do a virtual concert together. It is a cool way to connect with artists! Here is the first one:
Make sure to check out Broadtree at the following:
Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Soundcloud
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Oh I need to check this out! Their stuff sounds great!
Backstories are always so fun to hear about a musical group. It’s so neat that they were just doing covers, then decided to do their own thing. The music is great! Sounds like they made a good decision.
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