When talking about The Floyd Family Breakdown's sound, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Paula Hackney doesn't stutter. "Acoustic roots alt meets old county, pre-Elvis," says Hackney, before adding, "no Eagles," with conviction that would surely do The Dude proud.
Formed in 2014, TFFB grew from the chance meeting of Hackney and co-founder Andrew Palmer at a gig and their "shared love of Western swing and hillbilly". While that core writing nucleus has been solid ever since, there have been a few different line-ups leading to the band's current incarnation, with Tony Moore on double bass and Chris Gillespie taking on fiddle duties. With the team completely in place, TFFB recently squirrelled away to create their debut LP Country Perk, which will be released at the end of April.
"The aim of the recording was to capture the power of a Floyd's performance."
"The aim of the recording was to capture the power of a Floyd's performance," says Hackney. Easier said than done — many bands with a distinctive sound suffer from the recording process, never managing to bottle the lightning from their live performances. TFFB worked around this by making sure each track was gig tested and woodshed to iron out any wrinkles before committing to a live recording — achieving an authentic representation of their act. "We recorded the album at Valiant Music in Brunswick Heads," Hackney reveals. "Diego [Zaragoza], our engineer, recorded Country Perk using '50s ribbon and condenser microphones. The recording process and timber room enhanced the band's sound and captured the feel of a live performance."
Of course they also took the time to "take a break, have a drink and a laugh and a listen back", and to "browse through the racks of Diego's vinyl records — a truly inspiring day to have country and roots legends watching over you as you record."
