Broke
By: Lauren Napier

Broke is an amazingly talented rock band hailing from American Fork, Utah. The band consists of Joel (vocals and guitar) Milo (bass), and The Rob (drums) Brian (guitar). Joel’s raw but melodic vocals set this band apart from the rest. Their live performances are captivating and the sound envelopes the venue and those in attendance. They won’t be an opening band for long…soon they’ll have the headlining set.

Smash Magazine: How did you all get together?
Milo: Personal ads.
Joel: Ha ha...Well basically I wrote some songs and me and Rob did a two-piece thing for a while. And then Milo played for a band in Salt Lake and we stole him. And Bryan and I have been friends since high school and we needed another guitar player so we asked him to do it.

SM: What genre describes your music?
Joel: Pretty much just rock. Wouldn’t you all say?
Brian: Yeah, we’re just rock. Rock ‘n’ Roll music.

SM: Who/What are your major influences?
Unanimously: Prince.
Joel: Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Cure.
Milo: Muse.

SM: What music are you currently listening to?
Milo: The new Nine Inch Nails.
Joel: Muse a lot. Prince. Love Prince - the old stuff. The new stuff is cool, it’s like jazzy, but the old stuff’s way better.

SM: Have you read any books that have changed your perspective on society?
Milo: Everyone looks at me. I’m the only fucking reader. I recently read a book called Bias. It had to do with media biases and things like that. And normally I’m not a very conservative guy but it makes you think about stuff. That was pretty cool.
Joel: I like Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. It’s a self-help book. It’s teaches you not to stress all the little things in life and really they’re all little things because we all stress way too much.

SM: What is your biggest regret?
Joel: Wow. I don’t think I have any. Three out of the four of us have been married and two out of those three have been divorced. Milo and I got divorced this year. I don’t regret getting divorced do you, Milo?
Milo: Not at all.
Brian: If we hadn’t done all the shitty bad stuff that we did, we wouldn’t have gotten to where we are now.
Joel: We wouldn’t have been having so much fun.
Milo: I regret buying the street porn a few minutes ago. That was five dollars out of my pocket.

SM: How do you spend your time besides with music?
Brian: We don’t really spend any time doing anything but music. Well, I spend time with my two little girls.
Milo: I’m a homeless loser that plays music.
Joel: Milo lives in his truck - right there, the Blazer. And then I record and produce local bands in Salt Lake. Hang out with my girlfriend. Bitch about everything.
Rob: Play drums and I live with my sister and brother-in-law. That’s really all I do. Not much more.

SM: What is your favorite venue to play and why?
Joel: The Velvet Room in Salt Lake City. It had really good sound, it’s classy.
Brian: Shit loads of people pack that place all the time. And the people who work there are really good to us - it’s just a good environment.
Joel: People in Utah are good people. They're different from a lot of people. At least growing up a lot of us we kind of resented living in Utah, at least for the first couple years. And then the more places we go, at least for me, the more I liked Utah.
Brian: They’re just kind of chill.
Joel: They have a really nice sound system that you’d find in LA or anywhere, but the people don’t have egos or anything like that.

SM: Could you describe your song-writing process?
Brian: He (Joel) comes up with the basic idea of every song we have. We just kind of go from there.
Joel: Me and Milo will usually stay up late at night and come up with a melody or chord progression or something. Mess with the song structure and the arrangement and everything. Then we’ll record, since I record a lot of Utah bands and stuff I have the recording capabilities to get the basic idea down. Then we show everybody and everybody puts in their two cents. Then voila - there’s your song.
What political issues most concern you?
Joel: The price of gas and whether the liquor store is open in Utah or not. That’s about it. If you can be good to the people around you and be kind of a positive influence that’d be good. But it seems like all of the bands who are about something in two years end up eating their words because they’re just doing something to create some kind of scene.
Brian: We’re just not that political. We just want to play rock ‘n’ roll.