Breaking Point

Sydney alternative metal outfit Breaking Point have just unveiled their new EP, 'Separated'. Hitting the road for their first interstate shows, in support of the release, this month, the local lads hope 2016 is a significant year. Killyourstereo.com recently caught up with the band to discuss the new EP, the upcoming shows and important experiences so far in the early career.

It’s your first time playing interstate. What are the expectations for this part of the tour?

Well, as it is our first time playing interstate, we are keeping our hopes high that the local bands on each night will bring a crowd. The main goal for the tour is to further promote our band to the local crowds in Melbourne and Brisbane as well as network with new bands and promoters. We have heard good things about Melbourne so we shall see if it lives up to the hype. We know the Sydney shows will be great with our dedicated fans that come to multiple shows and really get the crowd hyped up.

In a press release, accompanying the EP announcement, it said you’ve spent the past few years “developing and refining” your sound. What have been some of the biggest lessons and insights you have gathered over this period?

When we started our influences were all different. Our lead guitarist John, bass player James and drummer Nick were all into metal. Dennis (our singer and rhythm guitarist) was more into rock but would listen to certain metal bands. We found a fine line between the two styles when we first [started] to write. This eventually progressed to just writing metal as we felt the rock stuff did not fit the vibe of the band. The biggest lesson I would say was to keep writing as the more songs we wrote, the better we got. John’s fast playing style really helped push the band and encouraged all members to practice. So pushing yourself as a songwriter can definitely benefit your band. We spent a good year practicing and refining our sound before our first live show in October 2014. This enabled us to become an extremely tight band and receive a great audience reaction from our first show.

What’s the main thing you hope listeners take away after listening to ‘Separated’?

Well first of all, we hope they enjoy the record and that they feel like replaying it multiple times. We want our listeners to feel motivated enough to come to one of our live shows or support us in any way they can, such as buying merch online or spreading our EP to their friends and family. I hope any musicians that listen to the EP feel inspired by the songs and that ‘Separated’ will motivate them to create great material of their own. The biggest thing would be that listeners of all genres could learn to appreciate metal, as our band does not have any screaming. This could bridge the gap and hopefully allow metal to be accepted by the general public.

Now that you’re performing more, how are you finding balancing band commitments with work and/or study obligations?

Performing more has not really been a challenge yet, after all we are only doing our first tour. We all took Thursday and Friday off from work as leave for the Melbourne and Brisbane shows. I am sure that if we were to be on constant tours that went for months, we would most likely have to quit our jobs. Our jobs are our main source of funding for the band; so quitting work anytime soon is not really an option.

Being in a band requires hard work and sacrifice, what have been some of the more challenging things about growing the band since its inception?

Definitely sacrificing going out with family and friends for birthdays, events or just casual hangs out. It can cause a bit of conflict sometimes but we are extremely committed to making this band work and our goal is to turn Breaking Point into an international touring act. We constantly practice both individually as many times as we can per week, and as a band once a week. So the majority of our spare time goes to the band. The financial sacrifices are very high as well. Consider all our musical gear, recording, printing EP’s and t-shirts, tour van rental and accommodation. It all adds up, but we are very motivated and believe we are one of the best new live acts to watch in Australia.

For a local band like Breaking Point, what would you like to see improved to help younger bands get a foot in the door nowadays?

We would like to see a lot more people coming to watch bands every week. It is mostly a case of inviting friends and family to shows. Would be great if people could go out and watch new musicians on the weekend every now and then. It would be great if record labels, booking agents and promoters could go out and watch new bands. There are plenty of great bands out there, especially in Australia and it is just a matter of them being discovered by the right people to take them to the next level.

What were some influential albums that got the ball rolling in terms of making you want to pick up an instrument and start a band?

Well for John it would have been a mixture of Killswitch Engage and Bullet for my Valentine. For Nick, it was Sevendust, for Dennis it was Alterbridge and for James it was Eye Empire and many [other] modern metal bands. There was no specific album from these bands but we enjoyed the style of music overall and this motivated us to start Breaking Point.

What’s planned for the rest of 2016 after these shows?

We will be planning a NSW tour and our second Australian tour. We have applied to support international bands in Sydney such as Bullet for my Valentine, so hopefully we actually get given a chance to [support]. We will be trying to get on any festivals we can and spread Breaking Point’s music to as many people as possible. We have some song’s written that we will be working on later on in the year.

'Separated' is out now and available via all main digital retailers. Further information is available from: https://www.facebook.com/breakingpointaus.

You can catch Breaking Point on their EP tour: