Returning with the raucous 'Come All You Madmen', The Briggs are heading your way next month. Just don't mention Boston...
The way The Briggs has toured over the years, it seems like they are well known by everyone within the punk scene and have earned their respect. Past tours with Dropkick Murphys, Bad Religion and Flogging Molly have placed them in front of rabid kids that later were converted into believers of the band. They even got mistaken for being a Boston band, even though no one figured out that they were from the other coast.
“What’s funny is that no one ever knows we’re from Los Angeles,” says lead vocalist and guitarist Joey LaRocca. “Everyone asks ‘you’re from Boston, right?’ Always - every single time. We’ve had write ups in papers. We’ve had magazines…’The Briggs Straight From Boston’…what are you talking about? They just make it up. It’s funny.”
The So Cal punk kids kicked off their touring with a slot on the Vans Warped Tour this summer. They have played on the side stages on previous years of the tour, and this time they were invited to do the entire tour. “We’ve done it three other years,” said guitarist and vocalist Jason LaRocca: “We did it a couple of weeks. We did a month once but it’s our first time doing the whole shebang.”
'Come All You Madmen' continues where the band left off on their previous release, 2006’s 'Back To Higher Ground'. Musically, they focused their energies on writing a strong record without losing anything along the way. “There were fewer tricks on this record. I think that was part of the recipe in making the record,” explained Joey: “I think we were mostly looking at writing the most honest songs we could and making them very approachable and performable live. That was the main trick – was to make it sounding intimate live.”
They brought back Joe Gittleman, the long time Mighty Mighty Bosstones bassist to produce their latest record. The Briggs retained his services to help take them to the next level and create more chaotic noise. “Gittleman has become a part of our recording process,” say Joey: “Because he’s done several records with us, when we starting to formulate plans to do a new record, we were thinking about [working with Gittleman]. We decided that it made sense to work with him again, just because we feel really comfortable with him. He’s very much like another member than a producer who just tells you what to do. He comes in and feels out the songs with us. He jams the songs and we figure it all out together. Since we haven’t really worked with too many other producers, we’ve gotten in a groove that we feel is comfortable.”
this record, they brought in several guests to perform on various songs. Bosstones vocalist Dicky Barrett and Bad Religion guitarist Brian Baker appear on ‘Charge Into The Sun.’ Baker, as well as the Bosstones’ horn section of Tim “Johnny Vegas” Burton, Kevin Lenear and Chris Rhodes appear on ‘Bloody Minds.’ Plus the Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey contributes his vocals on ‘Mad Men.’
“That was just a fun thing,” explains Joey: “They all originated wanting to be a part of the project. It was a real treat for us just because it wasn’t like we were searching out who can we find to do this. It was natural because we had just toured with all of these bands and they’re friends. These are bands that we had looked up to since we were teenagers listening to punk rock. And here they are on our record singing with us.”
Casey and Baker were connections The Briggs made after touring with their respective bands. They both became fans and wanted to play on the record. “We did three tours with Dropkick in the last year. We did their St. Pattys Day tour last March and a winter tour in the States and Canada, and were in Ireland, Scotland and England for three weeks [with them]. We became really good friends.”
“We hung out [with Bad Religion] all the time. We were on tour together for six weeks. With Brian, we were playing a show at the House of Blues in San Diego and he approached us. He’s like ‘I don’t care what you want me to do, but let me do something. Even if it’s hand clapping, I don’t give a shit.’ He gets a kick out of doing stuff like that. Obviously we used him to the best…not for his hand clapping abilities, but for his guitar solos.”
The Briggs with be returning to the UK at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August. “We’re very excited about it. This will be our first time,” said Joey. “It’s a good follow up to a great tour with Dropkick Murphys earlier this year. We’re really happy to go back!”
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