"When I’m up there with the band and singing the lyrics, it’s a complete release and I tend to do it like my life depends on it. I’ve always treated it like that"

Quotes like that one just don’t seem to roll off the tongue of too many bands any more, certainly not with the same deliberation of that particular statement from Melbourne guitarist and singer/songwriter Dan Brodie. That’s why the world needs more bands like Dan Brodie and The Broken Arrows. Call it alternative country, call it country punk or simply quality music with a lap steel and fiddle, but to hear the band’s album ‘Big Black Guitar’ or to see them perform live on stage, there is no doubt you’re witnessing music played with heart and soul.

It’s that passion that EMI Records recognised in Dan’s self-funded recording "I’m Floatin’ Mamma", an EP he peddled not only locally but also in some small hip venues in New York City.

Brodie’s interest in music stemmed from his musician father who played with a myriad of bands in Melbourne in the 60s. "Nobody you’d really know, just weddings and things like that" said Dan of his musical heritage. "He reached a point where he could have gone on with it, but decided to have us kids instead."

Another significant part of Dan’s musical upbringing included the Klezma, the joyous gypsy-like music of the Jewish community. The energy of which Dan still absorbs and retains in his current musical concoction. Brodie elaborates "I like the rhythm of it. I like the ‘kitzchinish’ of it and I still sit at the piano and play it. I like the energy, the way it starts off slow and builds up. The beat is not that different to country or funk … the 2/4 aspect of it"

The family music thread stretches further than his music playing father too, his brother Chris plays lap steel as a permanent member of The Black Arrows. It’s situation Dan is very comfortable with.

" We’ve been through a lot of things together, Chris and I. Both good and bad. When you play together there is a lot more going on than just creating fancy tunes. And there’s a lot more going on than just having fun. I mean we can have fun but it’s not necessarily about that. We spend an incredible amount of time together regardless of playing music."

While Dan is happy to trade licks with his brother, it’s the solitary exercise of writing songs that he finds most rewarding.

"I get a lot of joy out of song writing." said Brodie " It’s the thing I like the most, more than playing live and more than being in the studio. It’s just that feeling you get after writing a good song. It’s always going to be a solitary pursuit. Like any writer it comes down to you, a pen and a piece of paper. The recording aspect is documenting it , playing live is like maybe releasing it and the rest is promoting it but nothing beats the writing of the song."

With the intense lyrics of Brodie’s song ‘The Player" embedded in my mind, I pointed out that many of the great songs in contemporary music have emanated from negative rather than positive life experiences and wondered if the case was the same with the music of the Broken Arrows… If I had more guns I’d burn you with cigarettes Eat out your eyes Play upon castanets (The Player) " [Laughs] Yeh. I don’t quite believe that as much as I used to. I mean if that’s really the case, and you hold by that one hundred percent, it’s very easy to slip into ‘I’m going to create hell and trauma in my life for the sake of writing a good song, but I don’t really want to live like that. But having said that, things like relationship break ups etc can be great song material. But it’s such an extreme emotion you’re feeling that I think the challenge is to try to focus on joy. But when you’re feeling joyous the last thing you want to do is sit down with a pen and guitar and write a song. Although Bob Marley managed to express joy really well I thought."

Big Black Guitar features little if any studio trickery, just a band doing what they do best, recorded in a very traditional manner. While Dan recognises the use of technology in the recording process, it’s not something that sits comfortably with him.

"I’ve had some experience with Pro Tools recently which I think is awesome. But what happened was that I was recording, and spent a good two or 3 hours placing parts of songs here and there and at the end of it all it was like … what the hell was that all about. I think that ‘passion’ in any generation, in any talent and in good songs, and good art is the thing that is going to come through. I’m not adverse to technology at all but it’s got to be used in consideration to what the original idea is all about."

Dan Brodie and The Broken Arrows album "Big Black Guitar" is available now through EMI Music. www.danbrodie.com.au