“There was a ghost in my room flickering the lights”: Inside Don Broco’s heaviest, darkest album ever

“This is the first time we’ve had an MO going into a record,” Rob Damiani admits as he reflects on the 11 tracks that make up Nightmare Tripping, Don Broco’s forthcoming fifth album.

“With every other record, we’d see what felt natural and what came to us. This was the first time that we knew we wanted to keep things heavy, having loved how it felt on [2018’s third album] Technology and [2021’s fourth album] Amazing Things.”

Things aren’t nearly as rosy, thematically, this time around. Nightmare Tripping finds the Bedford band – completed by guitarist Simon Delaney, bassist Tom Doyle and drummer Matt Donnelly – examining the things that make us human: fallibility, self-doubt and a diminishing sense of self-worth. This being a Don Broco opus, however, they’re all tackled in their own inimitable way. So, you can expect bombastic tunes, a mad melding of styles and, of course, Chad Kroeger.

Here, Rob takes us on a deep dive track-by-track to discuss netting Nickelback as collaborators, being inspired by a ghostly apparition, and the restorative power of nostalgia…

“We’re leaning into nu-metal references. This song is very proudly wearing the inspiration of bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn and those bands that got us into heavy music in the first place. On our early demos, we ripped off songs by nu-metal bands, then quickly tried to move on from that, because we didn’t want to be regurgitating them.

“Cellophane was the first song on the album where we heard the riff in the intro and it felt great. If people hear this and go, ‘This sounds a little like Bizkit or Korn,’ we don't give a fuck. Those are bands that we love, and as long as we’re adding something, we're okay with that.

“The song is really about figuring who you are as a person, and realising that you’re maybe not as tough as you thought you were. You hit a point when something finally gets the better of you, and you accept you’re not that tough and go, ’I can’t get through this.’ I guess it's the conflict within you, where you're accepting that fact, but you’re also still denying yourself the help you need.

“It’s almost like the start of this journey on an album acknowledging that things maybe aren’t as good as they were. The rest of the album is working through that and how you’re going to live with that new reality, having lived in this almost fake world before. It's a brutal one.”

“It’s one of the rawest songs I’ve ever written, and probably the most personal too. It's looking at yourself through a hypercritical lens. For the first time on this record, rather than jumping around to different themes and every song having its own identity, if there was a feeling that was still there and lingering, I wanted to present it [again] in a different way.

“This one is looking at yourself, owning up to your weaknesses when you're trying to look after someone who's going through something devastating. People go through these moments where there are things that seem insurmountable, and you do your best to support them, though there are points when you realise you’re maybe not cut out for this. You realise that if you continue down this path and try to be in this supportive role, what they’re going through is actually going to drag you down as well and potentially destroy you.

“Then there’s dealing with the guilt of walking away from that situation when it’s someone you really love and care about. It’s something I went through with my partner, and it was a very, very difficult time for us that, thankfully, we overcame. There are links to Cellophane in the idea of accepting that you’re not this saviour person.”

“This song is a look back to sunnier days, those times before shit got real, before life got real and too heavy. For us as a band, we were actually looking back on our childhood and, later, our teenage years spent in Russell Park in Bedford. We’d sit around drinking ciders, playing acoustic guitar, or going to the cinema. A lot of people struggle with things in their youth, but I was very lucky to have a pretty smooth run of it.

“It feels like everything's happening now in my life, as if things are catching up. When I look back on those times – like the first time being drunk as a teenager – you wish those moments could last forever. Obviously, these days, as an adult with a job, or being in a band, you can’t be doing that all the time. But sometimes you need those little moments and releases. And sometimes you can find glimpses of that. Getting a little wavy with your friends might be what you need to remind you what it’s like to feel that way again. I think that’s important.”

“We spoke to Nickelback at the end of our Amazing Things album cycle, when their guitarist Ryan [Peake] came to one of our shows in Canada. Ryan’s brother is a Don Broco fan, we found out, and brought him along to the show. Maybe a week after we finished the tour, we got this amazingly lovely email from Nickelback, saying how Ryan had checked us out at the show, then checked out our back-catalogue, playing our songs to the rest of the Nickelback guys. They wanted to let us know that they’d discovered our band and were fans.

“It was probably one of the best days of our lives, waking up to an email like that, completely out of the blue. Fast-forward 18 months, when we had pretty much finished Nightmare Tripping, and we weren't afraid to honour the bands that have inspired us to be the band we are today. The song was giving me real System Of A Down vibes. They’re probably my favourite band of all time. Without System, there would be no Don Broco. I love the twists and turns in their music, the contrast between sections, their sense of fun mixed with powerful emotions.

“I realise I could see Nickelback doing a riff like the one on the song, as people forget how heavy they can be. So we thought we’d just take a punt, even though we hadn’t really thought about how it might work. We debated AI-ing Chad onto the chorus for illustrative purposes, because there is that technology available, but didn’t in the end. After emailing them, their manager came back and said the band were deep into writing their new album, but then, a few days later, they got back to us and said they’d heard the song and loved it. They re-recorded a lot of what we’d written, adding Chad and Ryan doing some amazing harmonies on the chorus, which lifted it even more.

“Plus, we got Ryan to do the solo at the end. Simon’s very militant about not having any second guitar lines on a Broco track, because we’re a one-guitar band. But having a solo from Ryan allowed us to have the rhythm guitar to keep the energy up, while Ryan ripped a solo on top.”

“It’s probably the quickest song we’ve ever written, which was so nice for us, because it can take us months to construct a song, deconstruct it and rewrite it. It was inspired by a specific experience I had, when I think I might have seen a ghost. Basically, I was with my missus, staying at my parents’ house. They had dumped a load of shit in my old bedroom, so we stayed in my brother’s old room, which we’d never stayed in before, so it was kind of unfamiliar.

“We’d been going through a really hard time, and it had been a long, tough day. When we went to bed, I felt something like a presence in the room. The lights were going crazy, flickering like mad. I didn't know there were any electrical issues, so as a joke, but also to test it out, I said, ‘Look, if there's anyone in this room with us, give us a sign.’ And when I clicked my finger, the lights went out instantly. My missus was freaking out, but thought I’d played some sort of trick on her. I love pranks, but I'm not rewiring the lights or anything! So I did it again, and the same thing happened twice in a row.

“I’m a big Interstellar fan, and I love the concept of time not being linear. I was playing with the idea that after everything we’d been through over the past few years it felt like we were turning a corner, and maybe a family member from the future or the past had come back to be a reassuring presence. I felt it wasn't a scary ghost. The next day in the studio, everyone asked how my weekend was, so I told them I’d experienced a ghost, and everyone agreed we had to write a song about it. I think it’s the first time we’ve written the music at the same time as the lyrics.”

“I had the idea to have Sam Carter [Architects] on the track as soon as we’d written the second pre-chorus, which is this kind of tension-building section. I imagined the live show of some mad bastard running onstage, grabbing the mic and letting rip. I could visualise the live show, so I wanted someone who had the aggression and the energy. Knowing what Architects sing about as a band and what Sam stands for, I thought he’d be perfect.

“I sent him a DM, he listened to the track and loved it and said he’d be down for being a part of it. It was just a question, logistically, of finding the time to get him to do it. With Nickelback, there was no way we were going to get them to the UK, or we would go to Canada, but it’s really fun being in the room with someone. Sam managed to make it work. Architects were in Europe at the time supporting Linkin Park, and we had the deadline for the album approaching, so gave Sam a list of dates. There was literally one period when he was flying back from the Linkin Park tour for a mate’s wedding and had one free day, so he came down to the studio.

“We didn’t know what was going to sound good, so in the end we both recorded all of the bits, then I worked it out later, chopping it up, so we had every potential option that could have worked. Sam was such a pro in the studio – he came in and smashed it!”

“This was actually an original idea from our last record. It was one of those ones we wrote right at the end of the session, and never quite worked, and we were like, ‘Fuck, are we gonna short-change this song if we force it through on this album, or do give it the proper attention it deserves?’

“It was probably the first song I think we recorded with Dan [Lancaster], our producer, where we were like, ‘Okay, this is feeling really fresh and exciting.’ It actually almost derailed the entire album, because it’s a bit of a wild card in the sense that it really throws back to those ’80s influences that we dabbled with on our second record, Automatic. It was like stumbling across this look to our past, but also our future, keeping it as heavy as it is.

“It’s one of our favourites on the record, as it’s really nice to have something that’s a little bit lighter. It still has its darker moments, mind, but it’s got a bit more joy to it and a bit pomp and bombast compared to some of the other tracks. Again, this song is about looking back on the past and how those early experiences can be the most powerful. And even if they're not, they’re the ones that stick in your memory. You're always trying to hit those highs that you did the first time you ever did them, whatever they might be. I’m glad we ended up not rushing it and giving it the proper time and moment on this album.”

“Every year it feels like the world is going to shit even more. And you’re given this feeling that you don't have a voice, and you should not be voicing your opinions, and you have to keep them to yourself. It’s becoming more dangerous the more people don’t talk about things and keep the conversation going and stand up for themselves and stand up for other people.

“This song was a real journey for us in the studio. It started from this hyperpop loop that forms the verse. And the very first idea was these dog barks that form the first verse. For ages the demo was literally just dog barking, not actual dogs, but me barking. There are actually some hidden dog barks in the record as well, though, from when Tom’s dog was there, yapping around.

“There’s this real contrast between the heavy, weird verse and a super-emotional chorus. For me, the challenge was: what story am I telling? The verses are so brutal vocally compared to the emotion I’m feeling from the music and the chorus. So it made sense to me that the verses are this almost authoritarian voice, commanding you and telling you you've got to keep your mouth shut, while the chorus is in earnest plea to try not to keep your mouth shut.

“That’s really the heart of this song – not turning a blind eye to the injustices. That’s tough these days, because we’ve got our phones in front of us, and it’s easy to be bombarded 24/7 with all the horrific things that are happening around the world. Everyone’s different, and everyone needs, for their own mental health, to be able to monitor that and what to let in. But I think the one thing you can’t do is just turn a blind eye to it and shut it out. You need to try to find any small ways you can to face that reality and stand up for yourself and others.”

“This song is about the little white lies, or big white lies, that you or your friends tell to get you through moments when you're having doubts, and you need someone to say something to keep you going. It’s acknowledging that it's fine if someone makes something up now and then, or tells you something that you need to hear, even if they don't necessarily believe it, because that’s what you need to hear right then and there.

“The actual idea of digging swimming pools was an in-joke that we had with our friend Jason Perry from ‘A‘, who produced our last record. If we were butting heads and someone had some doubts about a certain part of the song, which we often do in the studio, when Jason backed an idea and believed in it, he’d say: ‘Get out there and listen to this riff. This is the song that is going to turn you into rock stars!’ He was like, ’Start digging the swimming pools.’”

“This came from seeing some interviews with solo artists and singer-songwriters talking about the highs and lows of being a musician. I remember identifying with that, but also feeling grateful that I'm in a band rather than a solo artist. In this industry, you do hit some crazy highs when things are going well and you’re playing huge, sold-out shows. But you can also feel absolutely terrible when things aren’t going well – or sometimes, even when they are!

“You can really get in your own head about it. And that’s the experience of being a band, but it's also something everyone can experience to different levels. I think one of the best things about being in a band is having friends around you. If you’re friends with your band members – and not everyone is lucky enough to be in that position – and you see your friends crumbling, you need to give them that energy and that little push to lift your spirits and get you through that next day. You need your friends, you need your family, you need that support network.

“The lyrics are, ‘I need a hype man,’ and it's about it being fine to ask for help. Everyone needs it at some point. And when you do need it, you need to be comfortable with the fact. You should feel like you can ask your friends when you need to, and when you see other people in that position, be the hype man to them. Giving them that little boost could be the thing that stops someone spiralling. That one thing can change someone’s trajectory on that day, that week or month. It’s really about looking out for yourself and looking out for other people.”

“This was one of the only songs we actually debated not having on the record, because it went against our one rule of writing the heaviest Broco record yet. But we thought this song had a place and felt special. Leaving where we do with Hype Man, there’s such a nice flow into this one. It plays on themes of feeling you’re not worthy in a situation, whether that’s in a relationship, or the job you are in, or the place you’re at in your life.

“It’s also about that light when someone you or someone you trust and love actually acknowledges that you do deserve to be here. You need to shed that doubt and that’s a turning point, which is where The Corner comes in, as you’re turning that corner. There’s a lot of doubt within the song and questioning of how you feel about it, but it was a nice place to finish the record that’s less hopeful than our previous ones. It felt nice to leave with that little bit of hope at the end, as I truly believe it’s there, but sometimes it’s harder to find.”

Nightmare Tripping is released on March 27 via Fearless. Get your exclusive Kerrang! x Don Broco album bundle now on vinyl or CD.

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