In Conversation With Colin: Brave Rival’s Lindsey Bonnick

Portsmouth band Brave Rival create cathartic blues rock full of powerful vocals, catchy riffs and bold lyrics. Lindsey Bonnick sings their music alongside Ed Clarke on guitar, Billy Dedman on bass and Donna Peters on drums. 

While their debut album, Life’s Machine, had something of an authentic retro feel, the follow up album Fight Or Flight was approached in a totally different way to their first album. Where they were previously locked down due to the pandemic and only able to write remotely, their second album was written together in the same room and also while touring out on the road. Their shared experiences and influences shone through even more this time around and shows a natural progression, their growing maturity as writers and players allowing them to add more depth and complexities to their sound. 

With the recent release of ‘Poison’, the first single from their forthcoming and as yet untitled EP (their first as a four-piece) singer Lindsey Bonnick chats to Colin Palmer for The Rock Vault.

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Brave Rival won this year’s Blues Band Of The Year in the UK Blues Federation awards, do you consider Brave Rival to be a contemporary blues rock band?

Lindsey: I think we are rock with a hint of blues, I would say that’s where we are right now. When we started out we were sort of folk rock which turned into very much a blues sound which then turned into blues rock and is now transitioning more into the rock element. So there’s definitely blues at the heart of it but not traditional blues in any sense of it. A lot of our starting venues and grassroots venues which we still play now are very blues orientated but we’ve never been a blues band, ever. We’ve been embraced by the beautiful blues community but we are very much a rock band.

There’s an acoustic element to your stage performances including for example a wonderful rendition of Paul Simon’s Sound Of Silence, is this an ongoing part of the set list?

Lindsey: It varies, at the start of the year the line-up changed, so we dropped the acoustic song that was in there but it was very much part of the Fight Or Flight tour, there’s a song called All I Could Think About which starts acoustically and goes into electric half way through. So we dropped that song for a little while and focussed on the more rockier sound, but actually we started putting an acoustic vibe back in because I think it breaks up the set a little bit and adds an extra string to the bow. Our drummer Donna plays acoustic guitar as well as our guitarist Ed, she plays guitar from behind her kit and it’s a good visual. Our new EP has an acoustic element so it’s definitely part of our show for sure.

What strategy did the band adopt going forward after Chloe announced she was leaving the band earlier this year?

Lindsey: It was definitely a (long pause)…it made everybody stop and think about what we actually wanted to do, it was unexpected and we had to get through the rest of the tour the best we could knowing that we were going to have to change but not really knowing what was going to happen. I think Brave Rival is so known for the dual vocals and we tried really, really hard to keep that element, but there was only so much we could do. We had gigs booked throughout the first half of this year so we had to try and make them work the best we could, it was either make them work or cancel them all, and we weren’t going to do that.

Did the band consider finding a replacement for Chloe?

Lindsey: We could carry on as a four, meanwhile trying to get another female vocalist in, which we did try and do, but replacing somebody like Chloe was just impossible. If we were going to do that we would have needed a complete re-design but we didn’t have time, we went straight into gigs first week of January after Chloe left at the end of December. The more gigs we did as a four the more it was settling in to be just a four, and the more auditions we were having the more it wasn’t working so we just decided to stay as a four and actually it’s worked in our favour, I think it cemented us more in the rock genre than even before.

What was behind the decision to re-issue the ‘Fight Or Flight’ album with three extra tracks so soon after it’s original release?

Lindsey:  There’s no fancy answer, we were coming to the end of the stock of the first release and it was time to order some more and Donna said why don’t we re-release it as a de-luxe version instead. It’s the same price it just has more on it, the artwork is the same by Alice Armstrong and it’s also got the lyric booklet. The three bonus tracks were available digitally but we wanted to release them physically.

The song-writing credits on the album states simply ‘Brave Rival’ there are no individuals named, is the writing a collective effort?

Lindsey: It’s very much a collective effort, it’s always been that way. It comes from all corners, Ed might write a riff and then we’ll add to it, or I might write a melody line and I’ve got some harmonies in my head I’ll take it to the group and then we’ll put music to it and it just builds and builds until we’re happy with what we’ve got and it becomes whatever it becomes, so it’s all a massive collaborative effort.

Do you feel your background in cabaret has helped you communicate onstage with the audience and build an instant rapport?

Lindsey: I was brought up in the theatre and I was a singer in showbands and a dancer for a while, then I played a residency in a band and I ran big bands, and I played with the Royal Marines, I literally have done everything. I think that’s all put me in good stead to be an entertainer, I don’t just stand there and sing I like to get to know people and have laughs with people and make them feel part of the show. I think that’s why our following is quite eclectic and very loyal because people feel part of Brave Rival, its all of us together. Rock music has always been at the heart, I was brought up in a very rocky household, my dad was a drummer and classic rock has always been a massive part of my upbringing and I always wanted to do what I’m doing now.

Does it feel as if the circle is complete now that you’re the front person in a rock band?

Lindsey: I feel I’ve done all these things and it’s given me this beautiful grounding and now I’ve actually come full circle and I’m exactly where I should be

How are the next few months shaping up for Brave Rival?

Lindsey: There’s an eight track EP coming and I’m busy designing the vinyl, it’s five tracks plus three bonus tracks but they are all brand new songs as a four piece band. The first single is called ‘Poison’ and the other singles will be ‘Control’ and ‘Wild Child’. The EP launch is on the 15^th October at the 100 Club in London with Demi Marriner and her band, she’s going to be supporting us and it’s going to be a really epic night.

Brave Rival and FM are playing Cardiff’s The Globe on Friday, September 12^th and both bands are special guests on The Rock Vault, Tuesday September 9^th.

Colin Palmer