Breathe Happy Progress

Rip It Up, Issue 219, 1 November 1995, Page 9

Breathe Happy Progress

Pet Johnson, bassist for Wellington band Breathe, is grinning so hard I feel for his cheek muscles. “I haven’t been this happy in a long time,” he says. Keyboardist Steve Gallagher is just as jovial. “I just can’t believe how happy I am.”

Who’s been handing out the happy pills? Well, actually, their high spirits are of the natural kind. Breathe have just released their selffinanced debut EP, Things Like These and it is selling well throughout the country. Their brooding, melodic pop songs are being heard on most campus stations and also, more suprisingly, on some of the more forward thinking commercial stations (The Box in Wellington has had the EP’s closing track, the insanely catchy ‘Divetower’ on high rotation). The real reason for the happy vibe, though, is that as a band, Breathe are currently more focused and unified than they’ve ever been. No wonder they’re smiling.

Breathe have been together for about a year and a half. In that time they have built up quite a following in the capital, partly due to their high profile support slots for bands like

Pavement and Shihad. Last October they went into a studio, and with the help of Phil Knight from Shihad, recorded five of their earlier songs. Because of a lack of money, these songs have only now been released in the form of Things Like These. Consequently, the songs on the EP are a testament to how Breathe sounded last year, and not so much how they are now. “To us, it does sound dated,” says Pet, “but we see it as a stamp of how we were sounding last year. We’ve got more of a driving sound now, and I think we’ve progressed individually on our instruments.”

With something on disc to wave around, Breathe have begun to approach labels in the hope of finding backing for an album. There has been some interest, but as yet, nothing definite. Pet says if a label doesn’t come to the party, they will record the album themselves. Releasing it, however, would mean saving, saving, saving. “Which would mean it could be another five months before we get it out,” says Pet.

DOMINIC WAGHORN