The Broken – 'GRAVITAS'

The Broken is a five piece band from Aotearoa New Zealand that fuses 80s inspired electronica, slide guitar and laid back vocals to create a sound that is very different, yet familiar.

THE BACK STORY

Planets form from the debris and particles within the space they inhabit. As they combine, their new gravity grows, pulling more matter around them into this new orbit. The same can be said for The Broken. Previously a three-piece band of Pearl Runga, Justin Maclaren and Simon Finnel, their music and focus on their sound pulled in Gavin Downie on guitar and Ben Phillips on drums. With this new line-up cemented in 2019, they undertook the rehearsing and writing of a new album, only to be stopped in their initial steps by New Zealand’s first Covid lockdown. However, the band was nimble and pivoted to set up home studios where they continued to write and record, eventually releasing what is the band's greatest work to date, 'GRAVITAS'. All of this achieved from their individual isolated bubbles, unable to work together in the same room for months on end.

As New Zealand was plunged back into its third lockdown the album dropped unceremoniously and quietly at 10:30pm on a Friday night, without the possibility of a release party, concert, or even a listening party. The Broken is now setting its sights on the next stage一 getting out onto the live circuit in their home country of Aotearoa promoting the album and new line-up. First focussing on New Zealand, while looking to expand across the Tasman and the possibility of Australian dates.

THE BROKEN’S ‘GRAVITAS’ is a journey across ten cuts of thick analogue/digital electronica synthwave. It is an open and frank interpretation of the world surrounding THE BROKEN, exploring love, lies and that which lurks in the darkest emotional recesses of us all. You could say it is the soundtrack to a film yet to be written, with nostalgic 80s electronica underscoring film noir imagery, and then clashing with cyberpunk aesthetics. 

No great album is solely in a band’s hands alone一so legendary sound engineer Chris Tate was also pulled in to produce the album, while UK mastering icon Streaky gave the tracks their final polish.