MUMBAI: We are divided by geography but connected by art and one art form that brings people from different cultures together is music. No matter what the genre or language of music is, it will find a place in different cultures and New Orleans USA, Broken Brass Ensemble, a traditional Dutch brass brand is making the best of it.

Known for creating magic with brass, this euphoric eight member band combines elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop and soul music. Over the last five years, they have performed all over Europe with over 400 live shows. But, the band got together with a shared interest in New Orleans brass music. Their idea was to let the Dutch public and later the European public know, hear and see that the Dutch can play some brass music and that a brass band without vocals can be a festival-hit. Now, they are proving this to a worldwide audience and their next destination is India.

The band will be bringing its success story to India with Johnnie Walker The Journey. They will be performing in Bengaluru on Saturday, 9 June 2018.  “We were asked by Johnnie Walker The Journey to come play in India. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse because we’ve always wanted to come to India and the venue and the setting also looks amazing. We can’t wait to bring the brass party to Bengaluru,” says Pieterklaas de Groot from Broken Brass Ensemble.

Broken Brass Ensemble’s first album Brasshopper was a hit and their second album Astonishing Tales from Beyond the Brass Dimension that released in April last year too turned out to be a huge success. And, the band has managed to write their success story with music, no lyrics. “We want the crowd to have a good time.

We think it doesn’t have to matter if a band has a vocalist or not. DJs do it every night; our method is not different, we perform with live instruments. We’re basically here to let everybody know that brass music is awesome,” exclaims Groot.

The band will be looking forward to bringing in this very energy in India. “We really don’t know what to expect, but we can only say we are going to give everybody a brass party that they will remember.”

The Broken Brass Ensemble definitely knows the party trick as they’ve been making the audience dance. “It has been amazing in every country. Music has no barrier that is what we’ve definitely noticed. If the crowd is willing to go on a brass journey with us, we’ll take them all the way,” Groot emphasizes.

Sharing a special incident Groot says, “The first time we played a festival in the UK (Green Man Festival in Wales) it was mind-blowing. We had travelled 13 hours to get to the festival and were sound checking, the tent was empty. And it was big, with a capacity of 3000 people. When we almost had to play there were about 500 people present, and with every song the tent filled up with more and more people. Halfway through the set there were 3000 people going mental. We’ve never seen anything like this. It was amazing and we still get goosebumps thinking about it.”

Traveling across the globe with 2 trombones, 1 saxophone, 2 trumpets, 1 sousaphone, 1 drumkit, 1 percussion kit, 6 pedal boards and 2 sample pads isn’t easy. The instruments need to be handled with utmost care and the band's manager has a special way of doing this. “For most shows, we travel by crew van, but flying with brass instruments is difficult. The drums can be rented, but the sousaphone can’t and is way too heavy so that that always takes a lot of emails and phone calls to take care of. We haven’t had any incidents thankfully, but a nice story is that our manager always books a separate seat for the trombones, because they can’t travel in the cargo hull. He books the seat like it’s for a normal person and needs to gives people names like T.Bone or Mr. T. Rombone or just Mr. Trombone. And since this day nobody has asked any questions about this,” reveals Groot.

Don’t miss catching them on 9 June 2018 at Ritz Carlton, Bangalore.