Tiscali Showcase - Brakes

They went to Mokinbird studios, a rehearsal/recording space in Kemptown, Brighton run by Marc Beatty, and convinced him to play bass. After half an hour, they looked at each other and said "this sounds freshmode." Between now and then, they played wherever and whenever they could, but they mostly played at the Freebutt, Brighton's 200 capacity sweat box where bands like Lift To Experience, American Analogue Set, Fuck You Planet Earth and Yeah Yeah Yeahs played. Eamon did a few more acoustic Brakes shows.

Georg and Orri from Sigur Ros played as his backing band in Reykjavik. He supported Lach. "I like your anti-folk" said Lach. "I thought it was country-punk" said Eamon. Lach looked away. Tugboat Records offered to put out a single, so the band went to Mokinbird studios on 20th July 2004 and nailed Pick Up, Stand to Stand and Cheney in half a day. It was to be one of the final sessions at Mokinbird, which sadly closed that December. Sea Power's bassist Hamilton (no relation) directed Brakes' first video, the 30 second long Pick Up The Phone.

It was filmed in the basement of the house he rents along with Eamon and Marc, which they named 'The Princess' after a painting of a girl collecting wheat which hangs on one of the basement walls.

"Holy shit, I've just seen our video on MTV" texted Tom to Marc one night in September. "Lush,"said Brakes and went on tour around the UK later that month. Rough Trade offered to release an album, so Brakes booked Metropolis studio 1 for a week in late January 2005, and put Iain Gore in control. The album was recorded in five days, all live on to 2" tape, and mixed in two days.

Not a single computer screen was used in the whole process. They left it for a couple of weeks and then mastered it on the day after Valentines'. Give Blood is the sound of four friends playing music in a room, recorded on to tape.