No Plain Janes

Over the last year, Belfast five-piece The Jane Bradfords have gone airborne after having a number of their songs picked up for a series of high-profile promo campaigns (Grey’s Anatomy, and a well-known brand of lager) but, as front-man and chief songwriter Deci Gallen explains, it’s something of a mixed blessing.

“We’re involved with a company in England called Sentric who work towards syncing our music with ads and TV shows, and they’ve been great. The one crap thing about ads, though, is that even though you’re exposed to hundreds of thousands of people, none of them know it’s you. We had massive exposure earlier this year when our song ‘Ninety Nine’ was used in an advert, but the frustration of not being able to capitalise on it was agonising.”
As you would expect of a man who was helping to rig lighting for the Beta Band a month after contracting viral meningitis (“It was their last tour, what could I say?”), Deci possesses a phlegmatic attitude towards the nitty-gritty of band survival. So, any suggestion that musicians should steer well clear of PR coin is forcefully dismissed.
“I think it used to be looked upon as selling out,” he shrugs, “but for us it’s the thing that allows us to keep on making music – without syncing there would be no money for bands like us. Besides, beer has fuelled many of my recordings/gigs so it would be more hypocritical to turn them down” he reasons with bulletproof logic.
Two years ago, The Jane Bradfords self-released a sparkling self-titled debut album that, in common with the records of many bands of their ilk, never reached the audience it deserved. But instead of slinking back into the indie shadows, scared off by the wintry contemporary prospects, Deci and co decided to push on with a more pragmatic mindset.
“I think the one thing that helps us is realism,” he says. “I’ve seen the music industry from a few different perspectives (as a promoter, journalist, broadcaster) and I know what to expect, so with that comes less expectation and disappointment. We’re happy to just try and keep building on what we have. I’m really excited about the album we’ve just made, so it doesn’t feel like perseverance. Besides, what job is actually secure right now?”
The new album will be released in the winter. If lead-off single ‘Judicial Fruits’, is anything to go by, The Jane Bradfords will return in fighting form. Driving, melancholic and lovingly detailed – it’s a very clear leap forward from their previous material.
“I kinda find myself looking back as a songwriter and producer on our earlier stuff and finding so many things I would change,” Deci admits. “I don’t think I spent enough time developing the songs, nor do I think we actually knew what we wanted the JBs to be. I guess that looking back at the first album has shaped what this new album is. I think the main difference now for me as a songwriter is that when I write, I’m trying to interest myself. As a result the second album has more dynamics – there’s a lot more variation in sounds and arrangements, yet it’s probably more cohesive than the first.”
So, following a hairy couple of years, there’s a straight-backed certainty to The Jane Bradfords at the moment.
“We’re incredibly ambitious in terms of knowing that this is what we want to do,” Deci states. “We’re more focused on our sound now and are working our asses off to make the band sustainable. Even though we haven’t been gigging much in the past year, we have been practicing solidly and working very much behind the scenes to get the music right. But for all our ambition, we’re still pretty grounded in our expectations. Fame and massive fortune isn’t the goal, we just hope we’re still around to make some more albums.”