Traveling Troubadour - The Neil Brophy Interview

Neil Brophy started his career as a mechanical engineer, but soon ditched his "normal" life in exchange from one of travel and adventure (From hitchhiking his way through North America, to playing 10 hour gigs in the Austrian alps). Listen to Neil explain how 2 years of busking on the streets of Perth Australia taught him the life-long lesson of how to captivate an audience. 

Brophy’s Law release their all time live favourite live track ”The Bachelor," a strong traditional and authentic folk punk classic sound with an alternative edge. As the John Peel centre in the UK appropriately describes Brophy’s Law, ”Where the Pogues meet the Clash." 

Brophy says he wrote this at the age of 18 in the shoes of  Shane McGowan heavily influenced by growing up watching the Pogues performing in their glory days on the London scene. They sang about the drinking holes of London and more drinking, a great recipe for this bar room classic ”The Bachelor” a song that paints a picture of a working class guy who’s surrenders his life to the devil in the jar, avoids marriage and drinks himself insane.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V5Q5YG9/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Website: https://brophys-law.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brophys.law/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrophysLaw/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2WPcjiQSY5w6szpBE1cGjk
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHYJPJ8PjFiZS9wPcAZBZUQ

#celticpunk​ #folk​rock​ #Irish

Transcript

Traveling Troubadour - Episode #1 - The Neil Brophy Interview-1

Jason Perno: [00:00:00] welcome to the traveling Troubadour cast that follows the lives of musicians. Who've successfully toured around the world while playing the music. Everyone knows and loves. I'm your host, Jason Pernoe and our next guest is Neil Brophy. Neil, welcome to the show. Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, where you're from and how did you first get into music?

Neil Brophy: [00:00:24] I was I'm from I'm from, uh, born in London, grew up in. Grew up in, uh, North Hampton and, uh, yeah. Spent my teenage years collecting records and, and later teens going to gigs all following live music scene, sort of grew up in the, in the early eighties, um, buying records and then yeah, by 85, 86 going out to sea.

Yeah. Numerous bands all over the country. Just following, following the, yeah. Following the music scene. So 

Jason Perno: [00:00:55] who are your inspirations at that time? 

Neil Brophy: [00:00:58] I was influenced by, I would say Dylan, Billy Bragg, who was probably influenced by Dylan, um, the clash, and then later came new model army and the pokes sort of, um, yeah, sort of the punk punk folk basically.

Jason Perno: [00:01:13] Yeah. I noticed that a lot of the musicians I meet who are from the UK, um, You start to see, there's a huge difference between those who came from the States, uh, in, in their influences, because as an American, I'm always thinking you, of course you think Bob, Dylan and so on. Uh, but then there are these other artists that may have had an influence in the States, but not as big, but they were huge in England, in the UK.

Yeah. 

Neil Brophy: [00:01:41] It's sort of parallel universe, really? That was, you know, there's a hell of a lot going on in, um, in the UK in the say late seventies, early eighties. And, um, I think Dylan was the only one that sort of caught my ear, um, from, from the States as, as, uh, as an early, you know, as a team. But, um, we are later as I traveled around the world, I learned a lot more about the American, um, about yeah.

From rock and roll onwards, basically. Um, 

Jason Perno: [00:02:06] so then you, you, you started playing guitar and, uh, At this point, when did you decide, okay, I want to make a living doing this. I want to make money. Well, my, 

Neil Brophy: [00:02:19] my biggest passion was travel and I, I did, um, I did an apprenticeship or left school at 16. Did, did the engineering apprenticeship, and then, um, went onto college and then left.

I got a job for a year. The age of 21, I just went backpacking. I just wanted to travel. And I hadn't done any gigs 

Jason Perno: [00:02:38] too. Okay. So what did you study in school then? 

Neil Brophy: [00:02:41] Uh, uh, engineering production engineering as in audio engineering? No, no. Oh, mechanical. 

Jason Perno: [00:02:49] Mechanical, like completely different. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean it's yeah.

I started out with music and then I ended up doing cybersecurity at the very end. So, I mean, yeah. As you, uh, ended up, uh, like what, what brought you to, to go from an engineering career or, or an education in engineering to suddenly saying, you know what, I want to travel and I want to do music instead.

Autumn. Boredom, 

Neil Brophy: [00:03:17] pure boredom, just the normal, just, I just wanted to travel from the age from an early age, I wanted to go traveling and that was it. And guitar was, um, I, I enjoy playing the guitar, doing the campfire stuff. Um, going into your, of every summer when, in my late teens, um, yeah, around the campfire doing the interracial.

And I just met a lot of travelers and I'm very inspired by people who have been traveling for two or three years and I thought. That's a great idea. So where 

Jason Perno: [00:03:44] did you want to go? Like w like what was on your bucket list? 

Neil Brophy: [00:03:48] Australia was a lot of Australia. Yeah. A lot of people from England went to Australia via Asia.

So it's just took a one way ticket to Australia. Um, went through, went through, um, Uh, went through Asia for about two months. Um, I'd saved a lot of money, but by, by I'd say after four or five months, I ran out of money and I had to start going busking on the street, you know, so that's where my music career started was just by bearskin.

So it was sort of at 

Jason Perno: [00:04:17] a necessity, you were traveling and you were 

Neil Brophy: [00:04:19] broke. Yeah. And I was, um, yeah, and I just started just, I was, I was in Perth, was a little town South of Perth called Fremantle and I'd go there every other day and go bust skin and, um, earn a bit of money and it couldn't have been that much.

Um, the next two years, I basically hitchhiked around Australia and New Zealand, um, busking and picking up the odd bar work, um, uh, worked on a ski resort. Did a little bit of this and a little bit of 

Jason Perno: [00:04:46] that. So, so let me ask you this about busking, because I talked about this a little bit in my book, um, and, and I might have a, I guess, a preconceived impression about busking.

Um, and maybe you can correct me on that, cause I've never done it myself. I've never actually gone out and just started playing on the street for money. How did you find it? Did you make good money busking? First first 

Neil Brophy: [00:05:13] few times, absolutely nothing. Well, I made about five or six. I remember when I was in Perth, I made about five or $6 and I thought, Oh, this is so I've got to eat.

So you learn, you, you find out you'll be playing your. Play 10 songs and one song would people would turn their head around and enjoy it. And then the next songs will be like songs I like. And no one's, um, no, one's bad in bad in an eyelid. So you start playing songs that people knew. And so which would earn money.

And then, um, and then after I'm better at talking to people you get better at, and this is, this is where the entertainment starts. You know, I would give any advice to any, any young person going out to. To, um, to become a one man show is to go busking because you learn, you learn the eye contact, um, with people as they walk by.

If you can catch their eye. That's 50% of the. Um, uh, 50% of the, of the job you've got them. Right? So 

Jason Perno: [00:06:09] this is really, this is really how you cut your teeth as a, as a musician. 

Neil Brophy: [00:06:14] Definitely. Well, it was for me and I did it. I did it for two. I did it for two years. By the time I got to New Zealand, it was, it was an easy, it was a definite wage.

It was definitely weekly wage. I would, I would go out. I knew that if I went out from 11 o'clock, so. Maybe one 30. Um, I would, I would make, in those times we're talking, we're talking early nineties. Those times I'd make about, um, 40, $50 and, uh, an, uh, a bed in a hostel would cost $8. So it gives you an idea of, um, sort of what you could do.

And if there was $1, so you could drink a lot of it, 

Jason Perno: [00:06:52] you are basically able to survive on busking. Yeah. Yeah. And travel. Yeah, I think that's really cool. I was always too scared to do it. I mean, I'm looking at this sort of like, um, The Rocky bow Bola kind of training where you're, you're, you're out in the cold while you're your opponents, or get all the nice, uh, trainers and gear and everything.

And, and you're in a barn somewhere, uh, doing it old style and hardcore. And, and then you had come out on top. Yeah. 

Neil Brophy: [00:07:25] But I mean, at time, time was on the hands, you know? So it didn't matter, you know, there was no, I was not in a hurry to do anything. So I was just traveling. Day by day. 

Jason Perno: [00:07:36] So, so you, you did, uh, Asia, you did Australia, New Zealand, and I S I think you said something about going to the States at some point you were there.

Neil Brophy: [00:07:47] Well, yeah, and then I went to on the way back from Australia flew via the States and I was in, I didn't do much bearskin in the state, so, but I, I flew into San Fran and hitchhike all the way up to Oregon. And then across, down to through Colorado and back down and down to LA, um, just hitchhiking. Yes. Yeah.

Thank 

Jason Perno: [00:08:09] you. So, after, after all this, how did, how did you end up in, in, uh, transitioning from busking to doing contract gigs with the agents and so on? 

Neil Brophy: [00:08:25] Well, I was, um, I was. I got back to the UK in, in, um, in November, I've been away for two years and thought I'd get a odd, um, try and get a job. Then after a week of like, not looking too hard, I'd got a top tip that if you go down to Austria and you want it to work a ski season, because I'd done a ski season in, um, in Mount Buller in Australia, uh, where I did a couple of gigs in a bar there, but just for fun.

But, um, they said, if you want to get, go to, um, go to. Um, Austria, uh, there's a place called St. Anton go there and go, go and see a woman called Joan and she'll give you a job. So I got on a train, went to Austria and went down. Joan, did she get, she gave me a job as a glass collector and, um, I could play the headline music there constantly for 10 hours a night and I could play in their breaks.

But then after, after about two months, I got a, I was playing three 45 every night. 

Jason Perno: [00:09:24] And so, so you started out basically working with the, the dishes and then she was like, wow. But that takes tenacity to, to, you know, cause I know there's some premadonnas on the circuit that they come in and they expect.

That things are just gonna be handed in their lap and you actually 

Neil Brophy: [00:09:43] worked your way. I was only 23. 

Jason Perno: [00:09:46] Right, right. And I 

Neil Brophy: [00:09:48] guess it didn't really matter. She was free beer as well. Wow. Right, right. That wasn't on the contract, but it was a lot of free beer, but the, um, But the, but then I did that for, I did that for, so by January I was sort of working full-time as a musician.

And then that season ended in March. I went back to no ended in may or April, I think. Yeah. Mid April went back to England for about five months and I got the, got the phone call to come and play in Denmark. In the Scottish pub. So that's where the Danish, that's where the Danish stuff started. And that's where I got my first full, um, contract.

Jason Perno: [00:10:31] And did you make these connections through other musicians or. How did, how did you find these gigs in Scandinavia? Was it through friends or 

Neil Brophy: [00:10:42] through, um, this place Stan in Austria is where Tom Dykers came down. He was down there for, um, yeah, he was down there for a two week stint because this place where we worked had had sometimes up to 16 musicians working out at the same time, upstairs and downstairs with light, you know, that, um, 10 hours upstairs of live music and about eight hours.

Live music, downstairs, solos and duos. So there's a lot of musicians came through and we all were a lot talking and yeah. Swapping numbers. And so 

Jason Perno: [00:11:14] it's like, I, I've never actually been to St. Anton. I've heard a lot about it. I've met and I'm friends with musicians who've played there. What was your impression of playing?

It was like opera ski. It was on the price thing. 

Neil Brophy: [00:11:28] Yeah. Yeah. And what was that 

Jason Perno: [00:11:30] like playing there? 

Neil Brophy: [00:11:31] Um, great playing. You're playing to, you're playing to, um, yeah, Bret Scandinavians, Germans, Northern Europeans, mainly. So you're, you're learning, it's a great learning curve for the covering, you know, learning your repertoire and covering, um, covering all sorts of yeah.

Covering all genres and covering all, um, you know, yourself, people from Sweden, um, favorites. Top five songs is maybe different from the top five songs in Germany. So you get some, you get to know your soon learn, which, you know, Which songs work, what work. Yeah. And then if you've got a table of Germans, you know what to play them, you've got table Swedes, you know what to play them.

Um, but it's generally the same, or, you know, as you know, it's the same old bloody songs. Yeah. 

Jason Perno: [00:12:17] Yeah. It's, it's about making people happy though. That's that's the thing that, uh, entertainment. Yeah. And it took me a while to learn that as well. Um, when I first started out, I, I just played my heart out and, you know, that got a certain kind of attention for a small audience that was very appreciative.

But if you want to survive in this industry, uh, and you're getting hired. To entertain people. You're not there to amuse yourself. And that's, that's a hard thing for a lot of the musicians coming into to finally realize. Yeah. 

Neil Brophy: [00:12:51] Yeah, it is. Yeah. People learn. Yeah. It depends on what the musicians into, if they're into, into singing or if they're into playing licks on the guitar or they're into entertaining.

It's um, this job, our jobs being an entertainer, that's the number one thing. It's a beer we're beer salesman. Yeah. 

Jason Perno: [00:13:09] Yeah, that's right. It's keeping the bar's full. Yeah, that's it. So, um, what, what did you enjoy most, or I should say, what do you enjoy most about the lifestyle of the traveling wandering Troubadour?

Neil Brophy: [00:13:27] Um, as I said before, you know, I was a traveler before I was a musician or Troubadour. Um, I love traveling. Um, I love traveling. I love meeting people. And, um, you know, when I, in my early days, when I was a busking, I would be hitchhiking, um, playing on the street and sleeping in the debt shore in a tent, you know, but now I'm doing the same thing, but.

I take the train or drive and stay in a hotel and play in and play indoors. So it's, you know, it's um, 

Jason Perno: [00:13:59] yeah, the drawbacks, uh, about this lifestyle and this career, what is, what is it that you just, you, you didn't know if I'm going to do this. This is just something I have to accept. 

Neil Brophy: [00:14:11] I dunno. Are there any drawbacks playing, maybe, maybe playing the, um, you know, you, you know, your job is to win just saying your jobs saying, and, um, I don't know.

I can't really think, um, yeah, I could be, I could be really negative, but, um, I, 

Jason Perno: [00:14:29] I don't know. I can tell you from my own experience that, um, one of the things that I had a really hard time doing the hanging out on the road, 

Neil Brophy: [00:14:38] sorry,

Jason Perno: [00:14:42] you couldn't even deal with that. But it's the a and those get worse as you get older too. But, um, no, for me, it was maintaining a relationship of any kind. It was, it was never possible. You would meet somebody you'd be in one country and you would be. Uh, there for a couple of weeks or sometimes a couple of months and you would strike up a, uh, a conversation one night with somebody.

Interesting. And then you would end up dating them for a little while. And then before you know, it, you are off to another place. And then, uh, you knew that it wasn't gonna work out. I mean, every single relationship I was ever in, it just never lasted more than maybe 10 months or a year. Um, you know, I, now of course, there's always those, uh, repeats that you have when it's like, Oh, when I'm in this city, then.

Uh, you know, there's this woman when I'm back in that city, there's that one and so on. And it's a very common thing.

Neil Brophy: [00:15:38] You just, you were just writing songs. So you were just like, I need a verse for a song. I need, how many songs did he get out of that? 

Jason Perno: [00:15:49] Yeah. I wrote quite a, quite a few love songs over the years, but, uh, but that was definitely a drawback, at least for me, me, um, to the lifestyle. Uh, but, and, and the other thing that I, I thought a lot about this is that it, it can get tough as you get older.

It there, you know, there's no pensions and health insurance and all that kind of stuff, and you have to play your cards. Right. Um, and plan ahead. Cause it's, you know, it can work out fine for some of us, uh, and others. I I've seen that. It doesn't work out as well, but I guess you can say that for anything in life.

You can 

Neil Brophy: [00:16:26] say that for anything. Yeah. It's just, it just got to be a bit, little bit of savvy, you know, just gotta be. Yeah. Um, just on it, you know, a lot of the time you're only, you're only working Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so it may maybe use one day to do something different, you know? Yeah. To do your book work, but, um, yeah.

But, um, It's yeah. There's Domino's drawbacks. Yeah. As you get older, I think anything gets harder when you, when you get older, you know, 

Jason Perno: [00:16:54] when some things don't get harder, 

Neil Brophy: [00:16:57] I just, I just love traveling, you know? 

Jason Perno: [00:16:59] Yeah. That's 

Neil Brophy: [00:17:00] great. Yeah. So part of the cause 

Jason Perno: [00:17:04] now I know you play out in a band, um, but. Do you play out mostly in your band or you play solo duo?

What do you do most of the time? Many, many 

Neil Brophy: [00:17:17] years. I did. I think in my twenties, definitely. I was solo all the time. Um, and then the third is, um, I was, I was with a band, um, maybe about, say that same a third. It was, I was doing, I don't know, 130, 150 gigs a year. And then maybe. About 30 to 40 of those would be with my band.

Do 

Jason Perno: [00:17:41] you have a preference between solo or with the band 

Neil Brophy: [00:17:45] now? Actually, no. I would say, um, I liked, I liked doing both. I loved, I love doing both. It's two different. It's completely two different you can't. I don't, I can't even compare, you know, it's like, yeah. Yeah. So I w it's like driving, it's like driving your favorite car and driving your favorite motorbike.

You know, it's, um, you know, it's four people in the car, only one on a motorbike. It's great. It's just great. Um, both, both are great, you know? 

Jason Perno: [00:18:13] Yeah. I, I think, you know, when you're, when you're playing by yourself, of course, you're only responsible for you and you're, you're in complete control of the repertoire and how the night goes.

And, and of course the money. Depending on the types of gigs, but more often than not that you make a little bit more money as a solo artist than you do in a band, unless you're playing those bigger corporate type of events. Yeah. Um, but I mean, there's that energy that you get from a band that you, you feed off of each other.

And so that was great to do that. We're having 

Neil Brophy: [00:18:45] a lowers. Yeah. Currently with having a lot of good time with the band in this, in this, um, in this climate, you know, 

Jason Perno: [00:18:53] So, so aside from, uh, Denmark and, and, uh, St. Anton, what are the countries have you played in? 

Neil Brophy: [00:19:02] Um, well, being in Denmark, we're quite with, as you know, we're close to, uh, Norway and Sweden and Finland.

So yeah, I've played a lot in, played a lot in Norway and, um, getting to play in Finland a lot at the moment. Haven't played that much in Sweden, quite a bit, but play in Germany. Um, played in, uh, I've revisited New Zealand and played down there for about three or four months. We played with a band. We tour the UK, maybe two times a year, two, three times a year.

Um, Holland and Belgium. Um, yeah, so there's a couple of 

Jason Perno: [00:19:37] places. There's a couple places you mentioned there that I've never been to. And I've always been curious for example, um, what it's like to play in the UK. Um, Is it, what is the, um, the, I guess you could say the, the money situation there that some people have told me that, uh, we can only play on the weekends.

There's no such thing as six, seven days a week over there. Is that true? Or. I 

Neil Brophy: [00:20:04] don't really know. We, we go over there as a band. Um, I've never played, never really played in the UK. I've played a little bit in the UK, so, um, but when I do play with a band or solo, we're not, we're not doing, um, it's not for the money, um, because we're doing original materials.

And when you start off with the original two, you just forget about the money. It's not, it's not about the money. Yeah. It's 

Jason Perno: [00:20:24] about all, 

Neil Brophy: [00:20:25] about the passion. Yeah. The passion and getting, and getting your, um, getting your music out there and getting in the places that you do, play people that come to see you play.

There are people that want to listen to music. It's not, it's not, you're not there to play princess stuff. So, and 

Jason Perno: [00:20:38] that's a very different strategy and mindset as well. When you, when you're booking venues for the original stuff, right? 

Neil Brophy: [00:20:44] Yeah. Yeah. You go there with a budget and try and stick to the budget of what you're going to lose.

You gonna lose that much, but, um, but some, no, you get, you get, you can get some festivals that pay. All right. And then if, if it goes, well, you can still sell, you can sell a lot of much. We've we've done a few festivals where we've, we've sold a lot of much, you know? 

Jason Perno: [00:21:06] And so that's where you, you recoup a lot of your yeah.

Costs. Yeah. Yeah. It's the merchandising. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to sell CVS these days. 

Neil Brophy: [00:21:16] Yeah. Yeah. You just got to get them, if you do. I find, if you do a fantastic show, um, even people that don't have a CD player or a record player, they'll buy it anyway. It's a souvenir, you know, 

Jason Perno: [00:21:27] to show 

Neil Brophy: [00:21:27] support. Yeah. Support.

Yeah. Yeah. Token gesture. 

Jason Perno: [00:21:32] Yeah. Right. Yeah. So out of all the places that you've played over the years, do you have a specific place that. You you like playing more than anywhere else? 

Neil Brophy: [00:21:43] Oh, I forgot to mention one place. We went last year with a band and that was India. Goa India where yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. We played in go.

We did 10 days. We did 10 days, um, 10 gigs in go. And I would say that has to be the, um, one of the highlights, because again, really, again, it's, it's the, um, the traveling that I, I love, you know, and, and where we, where we playing Goa is full of travelers are on the same wavelengths, it international. You know, it's Europeans where it's international travelers from all over and it's this sort of, um, hippy vibe and, um, yeah, I think that's the best place to play.

And that's zero money, you know, you might, you might get a Curry, you might get a Curry in a pint, you know, 

Jason Perno: [00:22:26] you know, it's, it's funny that you mentioned that because there's another Troubadour. I dunno if you know him, his name is Shannon. Uh, yeah. He's, he's Irish. I, and he spent a lot of time in Goa in India and he spent, he's told me, he said, you have to go to Goa and get in touch with your inner hippie is what he said.

Neil Brophy: [00:22:46] I know Shauna and I met Sean and yeah. You met him 

Jason Perno: [00:22:49] in Goa. 

Neil Brophy: [00:22:50] Yeah. He plays with the tantric monkeys. Good friends of mine. 

Jason Perno: [00:22:54] Yeah. That, that's the coolest thing about this job, right? Yeah. It's that you'll meet people. In another part of the world that you should, you normally wouldn't have expected to meet them.

You know, uh, I have one story where, uh, there was a guy named Duncan. I don't know if you remember him was also from the UK and he recently passed away, um, peacefully in his sleep, fortunately. And, uh, you know, I was playing a gig in New York and, uh, in, in, uh, a small. A bar in upstate New York in the middle of nowhere, out in the woods and in walks Duncan.

And we just look at each other and we're like, What the hell are you doing? You know, so, so, but these are the kinds of things that happen. And I guess it's because there is a sort of a network, a circuit that all the musicians eventually kinda cross and get, uh, get on the same path and then go on different paths and then meet up somewhere else.

Down the road. 

Neil Brophy: [00:23:59] I was on a plane. I was on a plane going out of Copenhagen. I hadn't seen Duncan for 10 years and he, um, It comes, it comes and sits next to me. And it was his last plane out of Denmark when he left, when he stopped playing that in Denmark. Um, he, um, yeah, he was on the way it's back home to Scotland flying via live and, and we, um, we, yeah, it was, it's a, that's it never again it's, you know, it finally left Denmark and we had a, we had a couple of pints in a Stansted airport.

He went out to London, he went to Glasgow or something like that. Yeah. It gets Duncan. 

Jason Perno: [00:24:33] Yeah. Yeah. What a really nice guy too. He was the sweetest guy. Yeah. Yeah. Um, do you have any tips for other musicians, uh, who are, who are thinking about doing the traveling busking thing or, uh, just getting out to see the world through their music.

Neil Brophy: [00:24:54] Just, yeah. Follow your, follow your passion and understand from the start that it's entertainment that, um, people are looking for. And the soon, as soon as you can grasp that, you're there to be an entertainer and talk to the crowd and engage with the crowd. That's when you that's when you start, um, yeah, let's say making more money.

Cause you can get better gigs. Do you? Or you can get booked again. Um, yeah, if you go in there to be a singer or a guitar player or something would say, maybe just stay in the bedroom and record your music into your microphone, you know, it's, it's, it's not what it's about. It's about entertainment. And if, and if you're lucky enough to write a few songs that everybody likes, then that's a bonus.

Jason Perno: [00:25:37] Yeah. I had a friend that, that once said to me, and he was an entertainer as well, really, really charismatic entertainer. And they used to do covers and he would dress up like the, the Indian from the village people and everything. And he would come out dancing half naked and he would dress up as Elvis for other, and it was great.

It was a really, really great show. And he told me this a long time ago, he says, you know, if you want to be an original. Artists, who you know, is crying their heart out and singing these melancholic colic songs. There's plenty of time for you to do that in your parents' basement, but if you want to make a living and you want to make good money in this industry, you can do that.

Playing other people's music. Yeah. I mean that, and that's really where the money is. Um, of course there are those who can break through and they can do it on their own, uh, steam with original material. But this, this, uh, you know, cover songs becomes the bread and butter of how we survive in this business.

Neil Brophy: [00:26:36] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the job for the, for the, for the bar, for the bar musician, basically. 

Jason Perno: [00:26:43] Yeah. Yeah. So, um, When you're on the road. Uh, do you have any special tips about the type of gear that you might bring with you that you say, you know, this, this, uh, this is something that everybody should have.

I mean, one of the things that I was, uh, thinking that everybody should bring with them when they're traveling is a small portable mixer or one of those, uh, Stomp boxes where you can give a little bit of rhythm. I use 

Neil Brophy: [00:27:14] this, I use a stone box. Stone box is very, it's very good. Um, I I'm into, uh, my show is over at people.

Haven't seen my show. My show is generally upbeat. Um, it's to lift people, uh, it's a one, two rhythm all the way through. I don't do any slow stuff generally for do slow stuff. I'll play at twice. The speed. And, um, just to get lift people cause I'm there to make a pie. Um, I'm a party starter stomp box, definitely.

Um, a Looper. No, I wouldn't bother cause, um, you're there to entertain not to show off cause you can. Yeah. 

Jason Perno: [00:27:47] And plus it takes a while to get it going, right? Yeah. 

Neil Brophy: [00:27:51] What verse and a chorus, maybe second verse on, on 60, 70% of the S of the sing alongs of course, classics that need to be played from the start to the end, but yeah, uh, I pads forget about it.

Learn your lyrics. You're not there. You're not there to be a student show. Everyone. You can read an iPad. You can read, you know, you're there to entertain. That's what I 

Jason Perno: [00:28:13] would say. Have you ever used the backing tracks or anything like that or are you just pretty much straightforward microphone and guitar?

I 

Neil Brophy: [00:28:20] tried them once. I had to, because to get a gig in Switzerland, I generally always beat them to the end of the song by about half a minute. You know,

I'm not technical. I'm not, it's not, yeah. It's nothing it's. Yeah. Again, it's like why you're there with one guitar. You're a one man band. Um, yeah, the, basically the stomp box just enhances your stamping, your thought. Um, and the having people say people with backing tracks of this, where it sounds like the, you know, you get the band sound, but you're not a band.

You're a one man show. So it's, um, Yeah, forget about it, but that's just me personally. Everyone's different, you know? Um, I'm uh, um, yeah, I just, like, I grew up listening to Bob Dylan. So, 

Jason Perno: [00:29:08] yeah. You know, I've seen people make it work where they're using loop stations and stomp, but I could never work, make it work myself.

And for me, it's not worth the hassle, especially if you're traveling by yourself, you know, you got to fit all that stuff in your suitcase and everything. It's just always been so much easier. And then you can set everything up. Yeah. Then like five minutes when it's just your guitar and your microphone and maybe once pedal or a stomp box or something like that.

Neil Brophy: [00:29:33] I use a harmonica as well. That's all right. Yeah. It's very fast. If you're busking, it's a very, very effective, um, if you're out there busking, get a harmonica, uh, view busking without an amp. A lot of people breasts with MCs day. So I never used to bus with an amp, but I'm use, I use a harmonica try and put a harmonic on almost every song because it really turns people's gets people's attention.

Jason Perno: [00:29:57] I've never, I've never tried it though. I'll have to. Yeah. Yeah, I've bought harmonicas, I've never used the 

Neil Brophy: [00:30:04] Bob Dylan thing. That's just my, you know, everyone's different, you know, that's my, you know, take it or leave it. 

Jason Perno: [00:30:09] So, so what are you doing with yourself these days? I, I mean, uh, I heard that you have a.

A song that you've just released the bachelor. Why don't you talk a little bit about that? 

Neil Brophy: [00:30:22] Bachelor is a song. Um, I wrote this song 30 years ago and I'd been playing it, play it almost every pub gig. So like a traditional song. Um, and it's, um, Yeah. It's, it's upbeat. It's I'm happy. Well, the lyrics aren't that happy, but it's very, yeah.

You know, beer drinking song. Yeah. Yeah. It fits, see, it fits. See if you look at, uh, if you're, you know, going to create an atmosphere, a beer drinking, um, yeah. Party, you know, the good old, you know, Swinging the bears and dancing around foot and museum foot stomping music. That's it? Yeah, it's a Stomper. It's a drink alone.

It's a drink along song. Um, yeah, that came out last Friday. And, um, we also released an album that it's time to plug. Two stories. A lot of my stories from traveling around the world are on this vinyl no less. I know. And it's on beer colored vinyl, you know, that's a Pilsner, that's a check pills. Now you get that on my website, briefest law.com Shopify.

But, um, that we, that was released last, uh, September, and we just got gotta, we just got a publishing deal in the, in the States, um, a couple of weeks ago. And it's been played on. The, the Stevens garage underground garage at the moment. So we're, we're getting airplane America, Canada. Very cool. That's great.

Cool. But the new song, the bachelor it's um, yeah. You'll you'll hear it. You'll hear it. I'm sure everybody will hear at 

Jason Perno: [00:31:58] one. Yeah, I, I heard it and uh, I gotta say I'm really impressed with the production quality. It's it's really right up there. Uh, Uh, obviously you, you went to a proper studio when we did, we did this.

Neil Brophy: [00:32:10] Uh, we went, so we went to media sound, Peter Brown. Ah, yeah. Great. 

Jason Perno: [00:32:16] Yeah. Fantastic. Well that about wraps it up for this week's podcast. I want to thank once again, Neil Brophy for coming on the show to share his journey with us today. If you like what you heard and you want to learn more, please pick up a copy of Troubadour.

A musician's guide to touring Europe as a cover artist. Now available on Amazon. We're going to take you out with Brophy's law and Neal's latest single the bachelor. Thanks again for joining and see you next time. Thank you, Jason.

Neil Brophy: [00:32:58] I left school at 16 to work in a factory farm. I worked onsite on nine 11. Been there since a wall, they told me I have a thing in you. They taught me right from wrong. They part of the beer, right? Talmudic consent me there or song

My education was plays at drinking nights and drinking days.

Set 

Jason Perno: [00:34:07] my 

Neil Brophy: [00:34:07] life on the drinking chair by the bar, by the, um, by the barrel go I'm drunk at night by the name of Bonnie metallic. She took me, she tried to chase me something 

Jason Perno: [00:34:27] my way 

Neil Brophy: [00:34:27] up, like my drinking ways. I wasn't like.

Yes, you are so pretty. You'd make a lovely wife, but I'd rather be drinking life. Yes, you are so pretty applied marriage game.

I'd rather be.

Jason Perno: [00:35:35] My 

Neil Brophy: [00:35:37] side.