A Nicaraguan Writing Camp Lead Broods To Their Latest Album

New Zealand synth-popsters Broods are rebelling with their third album, Don't Feed The Pop Monster – kind of. The sleeve depicts the elaborately costumed brother-sister duo of Caleb and Georgia Nott lounging before a giant vampire's mouth. 

This kitsch playfulness is seemingly new for the atmospheric hitmakers. In fact, Nott reveals, the siblings became enamoured with "a shitty little polaroid" snapped prior to a proper photo shoot and decided to use it. "It tied in with the [album] title – you know, don't do things because you think that's what you're meant to do or that's what other people want you to do," he states. "Make what you wanna make because you wanna make it and then people will like it – because people can sniff out authenticity and when it's not authentic."

Broods have touted Don't Feed The Pop Monster as their most instinctive outing. But, though experimental, it's still musical and, crucially, poppy – cue the lead single Peach, which modernises piano house. Nott's fave song is the choral epic To Belong.

The Notts hail from Nelson, their parents performers in an ABBA tribute act. Georgia would front an indie band, The Peasants, meeting producer Joel Little at a competition. She began collaborating with him independently, bringing in the older Caleb. They devised Broods – with Georgia on lead vocals and Caleb instrumentalist, but their roles otherwise fluid. Meanwhile, Little recorded with an obscure Lorde. Broods generated blog fever with 2014's Bridges, culminating in label deals. They presented an emo debut, Evergreen, in 2014. In 2016, Broods followed with Conscious – the anthemic Heartlines a buzz Lorde co-write (iZombie's Rose McIver cameoed in the video). And, as with Little, Broods relocated from Auckland to Los Angeles. "It's very much become like home to us, in a way that we feel like we can be more ourselves there than we can be anywhere else," Nott notes.

"Make what you wanna make because you wanna make it and then people will like it."

Broods have had their trials – Don't Feed The Pop Monster is about lessons learned. "We've definitely been pressured into doing things and making decisions that we maybe didn't wanna make at the time," he reflects. "There's definitely a couple of regrets in letting people push us around and do things like that. So I guess, this time, we didn't have any outside influence when we wrote this record. And it feels the most 'us' that we've ever made."

After Conscious, both Notts aired solo music. Last year, Georgia unveiled an alt-rock album with all-female creatives as The Venus Project. Caleb premiered Fizzy Milk, dropping the single Make Me Feel with Jarryd James. "We just wanted to go off and see what we did pass onto each other and kinda hone in on our skills and work on what we did separately. Then, when we came back, it was like we started again a little bit – because, up until then, all the stuff that we'd ever made, what people knew us for, was stuff that we made together. Especially me: I was like, 'I wonder if I can do this with other people or do it on my own?' I knew [Georgia] could do it on her own. But I wasn't too sure if I could do it on my own. So I was pretty interested to see what happened. It was hard for both of us, I think. We found it both pretty hard to get things happening and working, because we'd relied on each other for so many years. But I think it made us appreciate our relationship with each other so much more – personally and professionally."

Ahead of Don't Feed The Pop Monster, Broods attended a writing camp in "magical" Nicaragua, the Central American country a booming tourist hub. Nott bonded with Elliphant, "a very spontaneous spirit", whose Love Me Badder he once remixed. Back in California, they penned The B-52's-esque Old Dog together at a barbecue. 

Broods did reunite with Little. However, he's less involved in Don't Feed The Pop Monster, now being an in-demand producer for the likes of Khalid. "Our personal styles have all changed a little bit, but we still work the same together. We're still as comfortable as family. He's like our big brother; he's been there since we started. He'll always be part of our lives, whether it's professionally or not."

Broods were only here in October as special guests on Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour. "We met her quite a few years ago as well as before the tour. She's come to a couple of shows and met us at our shows and then asked us to come along to her show. It was pretty crazy. I mean, it's a Taylor Swift show! There's a lot going on. It's very big and very intimidating at first, but [she has] a very welcoming team and [they] made us feel very much at home and made it very easy for us to do it. So it was very awesome."