A Broken Camarilla are the Manchester based four piece breaking convention and telling the music industry that it needs to change the way it works. Made up of four individual acts that merge together to make the ethereal sound that is ABC, the band have managed to totally redefine what it means to make a tune.

Their new song “The New Continental” is a weird and wonderful creation from the foursome that sounds like a heady mix of tribal chants and old school R&B beats. It manages to convey a unexpectedly floating vibe – like a pretty girl you know could punch you in the face – and feels like the type of music you could listen to both in the middle of a party at 1am, as well as the next day on the comedown at 3 in the afternoon when you need something to sooth your soul.

We talked to the band about their inspiration for the track, and how it feels to make music in Manchester; the greatest city on the planet.

Album artwork by Zoe Kayser

Talk to me about your inspiration for “The New Continental”?

When we wrote the song we were all in a space of quite deep upset. A few of our mates, particularly of Eva Bee’s as she’d grown up with them, had given up their creative careers because the money wasn’t right. Hearing them totally lose love for their art was heartbreaking. It’s the realest shit for an artist to have their down days and you’re bullshitting if you say you never questioned your path in a creative industry, but it’s graft and for them to give up everything and lose the commitment was hard for us to hear… so yeah, we wrote it for them. Often we’ll write songs as if we’re speaking to one person, but really the person is an amalgamation of several different people, or even loads of people, that we know the song will relate to.

Where do you feel the most creative?

I don’t know if there is a specific space, although we wrote a lot of our songs in Joey Brick’s uni house after everybody had moved out, but when we’re together it really seems to come together every time. It’s like we all work as solo artists and love the music we make, but when we write together and create together it reaches a different level. We play around with a lot of styles and sounds because we have four different sets of influences, but as for a specific place I’d say we feel creative anywhere all four of us occupy the same space at the same time.

What’s the most interesting aspect of working together as a four?

Obviously we’re four people who have previously all made our own music and had unique journeys that have developed our tastes and talents. Naturally the fact that we have four completely different opinions on the music we make comes through quite strongly. Obviously we’re all friends so our tastes do cross over, but really we do all bring a different twist to the mix. The most interesting thing is embracing and working with each other’s styles to create something that’s a perfect representation of what all four of us are feeling in that moment.

Seeing as you’re all four separate acts coming together to make ABC, how do you think that influences your music?

I think if you listen to our music you can hear an exact and perfect blend of all four of our tastes, its dope because everything we do seems to happen so naturally. From day one when we made some of our first tracks like the “Broken Cypher” and “Chelsea Smile” you can just hear everyone’s influence balanced perfectly together. The broken sound is an eclectic one and will continue to diversify and prosper because of this.

What is your writing process like?

It tends to work out that Eva Bee and Ceeow write a lot of the lyrics whereas Tommy and Joe work on a lot of the instrumentals and production, but this isn’t exclusive at all. We always work on songs as a whole and nobody is scared to call someone out if they hear something they don’t like. As a whole it’s very inclusive, we always write songs with some form of video or visual in mind and we’re always adamant we write with a story or purpose. We’re not about that wishy-washy shit.

Seeing as you’re based in Manchester, how do you think the city has influenced your music?

Manchester is the shit, the best city in the world. I literally can’t speak highly enough of the scene in Manchester, it has so much love and in that respect it shits all over London. The best thing about Manchester is that other Manchester artists don’t see you as a threat. They’re all about bringing through other Manchester artists like a family. It’s like if an artist comes through everyone will support them for the sake of Manchester, it’s not about who’s in with who and who thinks who is cool, it’s a family love. It’s a shame London has so much power in the UK industry because really, Manchester is where it’s at!

You’re a team of one girl and three boys, what’s that like for Eva?

I don’t see it as a boy/girl thing its more about personalities and talent. As much as these boys are my brothers, when we’re in a musical mind-set it’s so organic and unified that all that gender difference bollocks goes out the window. Knowing them over the years they’ve always treated me like their sister and having that rock solid foundation and respect with them gives me a massive sense of empowerment and trust, and they even help me pick my outfits for stage so hey, we alright.

What is the most important thing to you when writing a new song?

Like we said before, we always make sure we have a strong message in our songs. We’re not about writing songs just for the sake of writing songs which sounds a bit cliché but really a lot of people do it. Everything we do always has a storyline to it. We also always write with a video in mind too, and thinking visually as well as in terms of audio is really important to us. We also always keep in mind how we’d perform it. We want to shell down every gig we play and the way music is consumed nowadays making sure our live shows are on point is really important.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Obviously we all have different tastes in music but collectively I think the man who’s doing it for us right now is Anderson Paak. The guy is an absolute machine, a natural born entertainer and the full package when it comes to an artist. Seriously can’t rate this guy highly enough and we all think he’s going to reach the levels. Also loving Jordan Rakei and Tom Misch, they’re absolutely top drawer. I really think Tom Misch could go on and reach them Ed Sheeran levels in the future, he’s such a talented guy. Lastly I’d say for now we’re all really digging Fatima and her work with Floating Points. She really has that sound that gets us, and her voice is second to none.

Describe what it’s like to play live…

When we play live we’re really keen to make sure we put on a live show, not just a performance. Recently we’ve been working a lot on putting in interludes and skits that build a better story with the songs we’re performing. We don’t wanna just turn up, lay down our tracks then duck. We’re keen to make sure the whole thing is an experience that can translate the messages of the songs to the audience. Oh yeah, and we also want to look better than everyone else on the bill.

Keep up with A Broken Camarilla here.