Broadside Hacks

Name, where are you from?
Sam Grassie: Biggar, Scotland.
Campbell Baum: I grew up in a village called Kennington between Oxford and Abingdon. Now situated in Streatham, South West London.
Naima Bock: I grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil before moving to South East London when I was seven.
Frank Wright: Collectively we’re Broadside Hacks, based in London.

Describe your style in three words?
F: Songs Without Authors.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
S: Christy Moore had an Edinburgh crowd singing. Kept mentioning the previous evening in Glasgow though.
C: Junior Brother + The Mary Wallopers at Wheelan’s, Dublin was an eye-opener in terms of seeing how affecting folk music can be to an audience. Definitely an experience I’d been starved of without knowing!
F: Shirley Collins at The Barbican.
N: Girl Band [now Gilla Band] in Dublin was hands down the best gig I’ve ever been to. Folk wise I would have to say seeing Shovel Dance Collective on Hilly Fields for the summer solstice.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands or artists in history?
S: '60s Bert Jansch to watch the master. Fela Kuti to Dance.
C: The Watersons. Duke Ellington and his big band.
F: Pentangle. Anne Briggs.
N: Michael Hurley and Shirley Collins.

Which Subcultures have influenced you?
F: Folk revivalist movements, especially the work of song collectors, are incredibly important to us. People like Cecil Sharp, who travelled around Britain at the turn of the 20th century transcribing local folk songs. The music doesn’t come from a written tradition at all, but it has meant that we are able to explore songs that otherwise would have been long forgotten. The '60s folk revivals in the US and Britain are also very important for us - they clearly show that traditional music lives on through alternative interpretations and in present-day contexts. We are not too concerned with historical/cultural accuracy or traditionalism - we want to contribute to the evolution of these songs.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
S: I'd meet with my 25-year-old dad to see what the craic was.
C: Maybe a Dulcimer lesson with Jean Ritchie? I wonder what she’d charge for the hour.
F: Alan Lomax and his tape recordings.
N: Karen Dalton, I’d like to hear her story from her.

Of all the venues you’ve been to, which is your favourite?
F: In September we toured the UK to promote the release of 'Songs Without Authors Vol.1', playing some fantastic rooms. Favourite venue - I’m going to say The Cube in Bristol. However, highlights that don’t count as a venue include the Walled Garden Stage at Green Man festival in Wales, and Hilly Fields Stone Circle in London where we played a midnight Summer Solstice with the amazing Shovel Dance Collective.
C: Abbeydale Picturehouse in Sheffield had a side room that we played in, in September. The tables were laid out like we were performing to knights at a feast or something. We were basically Coldplay at the Red Wedding, but with less chainmail.
S: Sub Club Glasgow, perfect sound.
N: I couldn’t believe how beautiful Old St Pancras Church was, I’d have to say that one.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
S: Hamish Imlach, nurtured the best guitarists of the '60s folk scene.
C: I guess folk has the most unsung heroes/heroines of maybe any genre, because the majority of songs have been kept alive by ordinary people for hundreds of years. Although the authorship of a folk singer’s repertoire may largely be unknown, the traditional singers from whom they were collected are the reason we know they exist in the first place. As traditional singers go, Margaret Barry is, I think, one of the best.

London-based folk collective Broadside Hacks is the brainchild of Campbell Baum (Sorry) who has brought together a group of like-minded musicians with a curiosity for traditional, radical folk heritage to breathe new life into traditional folk songs.

Broadside Hacks' album 'Songs Without Authors Vol.1' is out now. Listen, purchase or stream it via linktr.ee/broadsidehacks.