Neu Broods: “It’s About Learning As You Go”

Brother-sister duo Broods are one of pop’s most talked about new prospects, but they’re winging it, by the sounds of things. Struck with a lucky charm that’s affecting both Caleb and Georgia Nott, their recent ascent to stardom can be explained in simple terms: Good old fashioned fortune. Or at least it seems that way.

For instance: Caleb doesn’t even know the words to Broods’s songs half the time. “It’s shocking,” he admits, head bowed, guilt catching up on him. “Ask me now and I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”



Then there’s the fact that a few years back, Georgia featured in the top twenty of a worldwide songwriting competition with a track that wasn’t even finished. “I always do these things on whims and they go really well,” she smiles, blissfully unaware that this happens to nobody else, ever.

In January, they jointly decided to put their debut self-titled EP up online without a second thought. For free. And just like that the thing spread like bacteria that’s actually good for you. Containing ‘Bridges’ - a song co-produced with Joel Little, best known for collaborating with Lorde - the EP showcases future-leaning, heady pop. Production is glossy but there’s a nagging darkness to it all.



To begin with, Georgia was responsible for most of that lurking despair. She’d write all the lyrics while Caleb (who’s spent years penning instrumentals) worked on the arrangements. “I like to submerge myself in this depressing state of mind whereas Caleb’s like ‘This sounds cool,’’ the sister-half sums up. Nowadays the roles are less clear-cut. One writes “emotionally” while the other writes “metaphorically,” but production falls on both sides and they’re both speaking from the same page.



Most recently the pair penned ‘Coattails’, which documents their heady rise towards the top. Written right after they got signed, it captures the excitement of seeing a bright future right ahead. In turn, it’s musically a step-up. Choruses are sharper, the words leap out instead of swimming around in fancy production tricks. It’s the sound of a band fully realising just how far they can go.



So far it’s all bright skies. Maybe a little luck, but mostly a raising of the bar. Since putting out the EP, the pair have had nothing but positive comments. Haters are “gonna hit us in the face like a brick wall,” Georgia jokes. “[But] it’s about learning as you go, making mistakes.”



There’s clearly a kinship between the two - as they sip matching fruit smoothies on a grey, chilly day in London - but this isn’t the conventional brother-sister musical relationship. They’ve been writing together on and off for a year, but before then music wasn’t a great, running conversation. They only discuss writing when in the studio. “It must sound like we’re together all the time - we kind of are,” says Georgia. “We don’t even notice it anymore because we’ve grown up together,” Caleb backs up. “It’s been 24/7. We try to keep a brother-sister relationship as well as a working together relationship. In the studio we’re more focused on what we want to do.”



If there’s anything the pair do share, apart from jealousy-inducingly ice cold drinks, it’s modesty. Luck doesn’t come into it, despite claims that debut track ‘Bridges’ gained its name because Broods can’t actually write musical bridges. “We were compensating for all the bridges that we weren’t going to be able to make in the future,” says Georgia, with Caleb in firm agreement. “Yeah, we really struggle with those.”