Why They're Done Trying To Prove Themselves

12 February 2015 | 8:55 pm | Daniel Cribb

"We just want to release a record that we never got to finish."

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When an event surfaced on hardcore outfit Break Even’s Facebook page last year with no explanation, it incited a wealth of excitement for fans – the only problem was it wasn’t actually a reunion for the Perth quintet. “There was an app that [syncs] everything, and there is a promotional company called Break Even and they do dance clubs and boat tours or something. They are actually called Break Even Promotions, and for some reason it kind of tapped into our account and said that we were playing a show,” frontman Bawden laughs.

What fans didn’t know was that a reunion was in the works behind the scenes. In September they announced their return to the stage would be at hardcore gathering UNIFY, unleashing new single, Young & Bright, in December.

The track maintains their trademark sound and gives way to an album they’re working on, and a fairly extensive Australian tour. “Basically, we are kind of doing the tour to make a bit of money to actually record the album because we kind of want to do it all ourselves and show that we are a hard-working band. We’re not a band that just comes back and gets offered all these tours. We have been getting approached a lot lately, and we’ve had to decline everything, well not decline, but say ‘no’ to everything because we have a way that we want to do it and show that it’s all for the right reasons.”

"We kind of want to do it all ourselves and show that we are a hard-working band"

The band’s abrupt end in 2012 was caused by tour after tour, leaving no time to rest. “To become a bigger band, you have to keep touring, keep going to places. We went to Europe twice and we were going to go a third time but we never really made any money from it. It was a hard thing to really do, with everyone having their own jobs and personal lives, it all built up. We had always done it for the passion, but when you take it on full-time, it does tear you down, and I think it got to all of us in the end, really.”

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Burning out in 2012 left an unfinished record in the rubble, which was the catalyst for a reunion that Bawden says isn’t permanent. “We are putting everything into it. I feel like we have a record that’s almost finished but we haven’t finished it yet. For us personally, this is a record to give back to our fans and friends. There is only going to be the one.

“Basically we’ve got a fair few songs from when we were still writing in 2013, and we are just jamming all together as of this year… We’ll do a few tours, but really, we’ll just release the record that we never got to release. We don’t need to prove anything to anyone; we just want to release a record that we never got to finish and really rekindle the friendship we had as a band. That’s pretty much it.”