Broken Bones Matilda is an alternative group comprising of childhood friends turned husband-and-wife-duo Sam Gotley and Sarah McGrigor. While many artists have been at home trying to figure out their next moves, Broken Bones Matilda never stopped performing live. They just do it over the internet now.

The economy has been hit hard by COVID-19, but no group has been hit as hard as artists, and especially live venues. In response to this, Broken Bones Matilda put together a virtual tour, #saveourvenues, where they performed over Instagram Live to raise money for all their favorite venues. To learn more about this amazing group and their tour, please read our exclusive interview below.

Where are the two of you based?
London

Bath England is known for its culturally rich history in the arts due to its unique architecture, museums, theatres, and galleries. Did the arts play a huge role during your youth? What was life like growing up in Bath and as childhood friends?
Sam: It is beautiful for sure! It was a great place to grow up, loads of pubs and parks, and a nice, small town vibe where everyone knows everyone. Live music is such a huge part of what makes Bath such a wonderful place. The streets are lined with buskers and every year there is a month-long festival celebrating the arts. Nowadays, the opening night is a wonderful opportunity for local venues to showcase local musicians, but when we were teenagers it was chaos! Every teenager in Bath gathered in the park to listen to loud music and drink whatever they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, they shut that part of the festival down, but it made for some great memories!

When was the moment that you both decided to seriously pursue music? Was there an event, person, or feeling that acted as a stimulus?
Sarah: We both loved music from a young age. Growing up, I had a little tape recorder that I would record my voice singing over my favorite songs, but I struggled with nerves and the idea of performing terrified me. Sam has been in bands since forever. He was touring in the US with a band he was in back then and I joined him on stage for a few songs. That was the moment for me that changed everything. I just wanted to perform all the time and figured the best way to do that was to start a band. Not long after that, we started Broken Bones Matilda.

How did your duo/band form? Did you know you would want to make music together from the beginning?
Sarah: Sam and Dom Sky (with whom we started the band) had written a load of songs that they felt needed a female voice, so we just started working on them together and building the band. Although we started the project as a five piece band, it naturally progressed into a duo over the years, making it easier for us to play every show. We have an amazing band that we play with on big stages and when we do a more intimate set, it’s just the two of us.

Your new single "Everafter" plays on nostalgia, adolescent relationships, and romance. What effect did those relationships have on your music, creativity, and evolution as artists and humans? What inspired this song?
Sam: Your teenage years are rough, hormones flying all over the place and you never really know where you stand. It’s such a maze of new experiences and mistakes, but we all have to go through it. I loved reliving that awkwardness while I was writing this song because I felt it was something so relatable and almost like a rite of passage that every teenager has to go through. I don’t often write about personal experience in my music, so for me it was fun to revisit that angsty teenager and think about what I’d say to him now. ‘Everafter’ is all about plucking up the courage to go after what you want, so it’s nostalgic, but it can also be relevant in any moment.

Since COVID put an indefinite end to live performances and festivals, many artists rely on streaming, downloads and other digital outlets to generate income. How has COVID impacted your life -- both in regards to music and otherwise?
Sarah: I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t had a negative impact on our lives, but we have also managed to pull a lot of positives from it. Until now, we had focused so much of our efforts on being a live band. Festivals and shows are what we love most, so not being able to do that has definitely taken some getting used to. Having said that, it has given us the opportunity to really focus on our online presence and try and get a bit more creative with how we connect with our online fanbase. I love being able to reach people far and wide and actually get to know the people who are listening to our music.

Your band recently did a virtual tour of UK breweries, raising money for #saveourvenues. Can you talk about this experience? What made you decide to do this?
Sarah: About a month into the lockdown, we were talking about how much we had missed playing live. We had done a few live streams which was good for staying in touch with our fans, but we wanted to take it a step further. We loved the idea of working alongside craft beer breweries as they all have such distinct styles and are very much advocates of creativity and fun. We contacted a load of independent breweries across the country and the response was really wonderful. The thing we really loved about the tour was the sense of community and togetherness, independent musicians working with independent breweries to raise money for independent venues.

How are the venues you performed for doing now?
Sam: The breweries are all doing really well, as far as we know. A lot of them said how blown away they were by the number of people who supported them during this time. I think a lot of people turned to smaller independent local brands when shopping in a supermarket was tricky. The venues, however, are still very much up in the air. The support they have been given has, of course, helped, but it’s still so hard to know how well they will recover from this.

There is a lot of talk about what is an artist, if there isn’t a place to show their art. With COVID, so many venues are going under. What are your thoughts on this sentiment?
Sam: I think it is a vulnerable time to be an artist of any kind, just as it is for people in most lines of work, at the moment. But what makes it hard for artists is keeping the dream alive and staying confident while this is all going on. So many people I speak to are sitting on albums or unable to exhibit work and that is really hard to get your head around; but I do think most artists are thick skinned enough from years of grinding away, trying to get their work out there, and working in such a fickle business, that they hopefully know their own worth and can see a light at the end of the tunnel! One thing I definitely know is that everyone is writing and creating A LOT so I think we can expect to see some incredible art of all kinds in the next decade.

How can others work to help keep these venues from not going under?
By donating to crowdfunding pages like Save Our Venues, putting pressure on the government to give more money to the arts and by going out to these venues as much as possible when they open up again. It might be a while before you can jump in the mosh pit again, but in whatever capacity you can go and see live music, do it as soon as you possibly can! Also, buy a lot of drinks when you get there so the bar does well ;)

What is your prediction on the current state of live musical performances?
It’s going to be slow and people are going to have to get a bit creative, but it is such a crucial part of our culture I think we will find a way to make it good again. On the smaller scale, there are lots of places opening their doors now, but the larger venues are the ones who will have to put in place some pretty drastic measures to be able to reopen. Hopefully, in the grand scheme of things, this will just be a little blip in the history of live music and we will come back bigger and better than ever, but I guess only time will tell.

Do you have any shows, virtual or in person, coming up?
We are taking some time, at the moment, to work on some new songs, but as soon as possible we want to be back out doing shows!

Are you working on any new creative projects?
We recorded an album last year and are working on compiling songs for another one, so stay tuned. There will be lots to come in the next year or so!

How are you staying positive during shelter in place?
Doing the virtual tour definitely helped; it gave us something to plan for and kept us busy in lockdown. It was hard at times to keep positive. We usually play about 70 shows a year and not knowing when that will be a reality again is really hard, but at least, in the mean time, we’re getting pretty good at Scrabble.

To learn more about Broken Bones Matilda, please follow them via the below platforms:
http://www.brokenbonesmatilda.com/
Facebook: @brokenbonesmatilda
Instagram: @brokenbonesmatildaband

Photography credit LPR Agency.

Broken Bones Matilda In Quarantine