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.