Bromham: "Stories Are Very Precious. That’s Why We Choose To Tell Them"

Warmth and community - this is what 13-piece folk collective Bromham are known for creating with their prismatic music and ecstatic live shows.

The group - in essence more a family than a band - is gearing up to release Adulthood, a stunning three-track EP which will officially grace all streaming platforms tomorrow, October 23rd. The upcoming release is at once euphoric and heartbreaking, dissecting challenging themes and finding catharsis through found family and sonic jubilance. On Adulthood, music is truly medicine.

The first two tracks, We’ve Got Friends and the titular Adulthood, were inspired by a particularly challenging time for Bromham “instigator” David Thompson and his wife Hannah. “Within the space of a few months, we were told that we wouldn’t be able to have children biologically and were also completely priced out of the housing market,” he explains, which left the two of them feeling “restless and directionless.” 

They started to find a semblance of comfort through caring for Gus, an old dog they had inherited. “Hannah started calling him our guardian angel, figuring that he must have known what we were about to go through and that we’d need him for comfort. She was right. He became the centre of our little family and helped to heal some of our hurt.”

More healing was to be found through recognition of and appreciation for the community of people they had found themselves in - their own makeshift little family. David paints the picture: “We lived in a little cottage owned by family friends, attached to a bigger house where Bromham’s drummer Bryce, his wife Ebony, and friend Bri lived. We planted trees, made furniture in the shed, had camp-fires out the back and decorated our home to make it ours. This all helped us to notice just how much we loved and appreciated our little home and community.

“One day while playing the piano I started singing the line, We’ve got friends in all the right places. I thought it was cute but didn’t really know what it meant. Then Hannah came in and told me that she’d heard the line I’d been singing and thought it was strange because she’d spent the morning journaling about how thankful she was that in that time we had really great friends. Friends who were living all different kinds of lives, and who were loving, caring, inspiring and creative. So, in a time of frustration and mourning, we found ourselves being thankful for our little dog, our little house and our big-hearted friends.”

Thus We’ve Got Friends and Adulthood were born - two multi-hued tracks that so fully embody this complex journey that David and Hannah have found themselves on.

The EP concludes with For Jess, a touching ode to David’s sister. 

“Jess has had a rough few years in which she has been left essentially operating as a single mother of two young kids. Late last year we had a conversation in which she was telling me about her dreams for the future as her kids grow up. After being thrust into a tough situation that was out of her control it was beautiful to hear her dreaming for the future again.” 

The track functions as a “song of encouragement” for a woman that David is indescribably proud of.

As a whole, the EP sees Bromham leaning into a feeling of triumph in spite of everything. David agrees that his aim has been to “find the beauty” in topics that could easily be solely upsetting, “and choosing to magnify that” while still allowing for genuine, nuanced emotion. “We never want to feel fakely happy,” he specifies. 

Playing in Bromham has allowed David to be healed by an overwhelming sense of community and solidarity. “I guess everyone who’s ended up joining Bromham has added to creating a culture that we have in our little family, and that culture influences the music…It feels right to sing about community and sing about friends and family when you’re doing it with so many other people…because then you’re living it.”

He sums it up simply: “What we experience playing together is the joy of life.”

Tickets have gone on sale for the EP launch that Bromham will be hosting at Jive on October 26th, supported by art-folk outfit Wake In Fright and bubble grunge artist Effie Isobel. The collective have also announced that they will be performing at the Woodford Folk Festival on August 6th. David is “super excited” about the upcoming performances.

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“I definitely find it cathartic,” he says, on performing these extremely personal songs with the group. “I find it really special, you know? Every time we’re playing I feel very lucky. And I think we all do.”

He feels very thankful to have been trusted with the stories of those closest to him, and to be able to engage with his own stories through musical joy and experimentation. “Stories are very precious. That’s why we choose to tell them,” he says. “You want to hold them in the regard that they deserve.”

Adulthood will be streaming everywhere tomorrow, October 23rd.