Those Made Broken

Glasgow’s Those Made Broken return this September with their sophomore album, ‘A Door You Can Never Close.’

 

Who is in Those Made Broken, how did you meet and what do you play?

Martin ‘Hutch’ Hutchison on drums

Paul Robertson on bass

Scott Wood on guitar

John Murray on vocals

Murray and Scott met many years ago when they were on the same college music course in Glasgow. Murray and Paul were in ‘Dirt’ – a Glasgow-based metal band who gained some notoriety in the past. Hutch was a close friend of our original drummer Ali, and filled in for Ali on a couple of gigs shortly after the release of our debut album, eventually joining full time around 5 years ago.

 

What is your earliest musical memory?

Murray – Listening to the small collection of cassettes my parents used to play I think. There was some absolute dross in there – Cliff Richard and Julio Iglesias spring immediately to mind! There were some gems too like The Carpenters, Bob Dylan, the Everly Brothers and Glenn Campbell in particular. I remember being fascinated with his song ‘Where’s the Playground Susie?”

Hutch – Listening to Queen, Billy Joel, The Beatles,Earth Wind &Fire and Van Halen with my Dad.

Paul – My parents had this big radiogram that was blasted on a Sunday morning with West Sound radio’s Sound of the Sixties. The Searchers, Herman’s Hermits and the like were played loudly. Sometimes when I hear snippets on the radio, I think back to that time. When my sister was gifted AC/DC’s Highway To Hell for Christmas, the music in the house changed for the better.

Scott – There would be music playing in my parents house on a regular basis, whether it was a ‘sing-song’ at a family party, crooners like Frank Sinatra & Matt Monroe, or stuff like ABBA & Doctor Hook. I would be listening to bands like The Police and the various Ska bands who were popular at the time when I was a kid. That all changed when I heard AC/DC for the first time.

When did you begin songwriting?

Murray – Quite late by most standards. I was in my late teens when I started to dabble with songwriting in bands.

Hutch: I always plonked around on the guitar…writing riffs and small parts but only started writing songs about 12 years ago.

Scott – I’ve had musical ideas floating around my head from an early age – around 9 or 10 probably. Even after starting to play guitar when I was about 14, I was never really interested in learning other people’s songs. I was always happier trying to work out ideas for songs.

You have your sophomore album ‘A Door You Can Never Close’ released on Tuesday 1st September 2026. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

Murray – Unlike our debut album we approached the writing as a live band rather than a studio band. We wanted the songs to have an immediacy and vibrancy which mirrors our live

performances. As a result I think we’ve produced a record that’s full of shorter, punchier songs with the emphasis being on hooks and grooves rather than the more introspective elements of our first album Dead History. The album is a mixture of some songs we’ve had for several years and some which have been written very recently.

Scott – With the singles we’ve released in the last couple of years leading up to the release of the album, we’ve tried to incorporate a more ‘expansive’ sound with the use of synths & other sounds. We wanted the choruses to be massive sounding, and I think we’ve achieved that. We record everything but the drums ourselves, so we have total control over the sound of the end product. That has its pros & cons, as you could be trying to chase a sound in your head that you’ll never achieve, but on the flip side we saved a small fortune by not going down the pro study recording route.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

Murray – We recorded it in our own Hawkhead Studio with the exception of the drums which were recorded in Rogue Studions in London with our friend and producer Michael ‘MyKey’ Kew.

The album was produced by our guitarist Scott. I personally think he’s created a huge, expansive , balanced sound and I’m absolutely delighted with how it’s turned out.

 

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

Murray – When I laid down the final vocals on our latest single Echo Chamber I actually had quite a bad cold. Time was ticking on and I had deadlines to meet so I just cracked on. The result is a slightly different vocal take from my usual. There’s a nice raspiness to it which I think compliments the song really well.

Scott – We had booked a date at a local venue for an Album Launch show at the end of April 2026. We were still demoing tracks for the album though as late as February! Echo Chamber was probably the last song we worked on. It was an enormously stressful period trying to meet the deadline, exacerbated by the fact we were also learning the songs to play live as they were being written. It got to the point where we only received the album CD’s two days before the launch show!

 

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

Scott – Like I said above, we record everything except drums ourselves.

We don’t have the luxury of having a space where we can dial amps up to 11, so we made extensive use of digital amp technology for guitar & bass.

For vox, we constructed a makeshift vocal booth for Murray, and tracked the vox with an Antelope Audio large diaphragm condenser mic, which has a ‘modelling’ function, although we didn’t make use of the modelling as the mic sounds great as it is.

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

Murray – Echo Chamber is my current favourite but it changes. I love the double-chorus at the end where the backing vocals come in and the song seems to elevate. Monsters is the most reflective song for me. It’s autobiographical, basically it’s about a hangover but the song goes a bit deeper than that, exploring my own issues around control, alcohol use and self-doubt. Our ex-drummer Al sadly died several years ago, he had his own issues with alcohol and found this song in particular

very relatable. It was never about him but has come to represent a memory of him that I hold very dear.

Scott – ‘Happy’ isn’t a word that would immediately spring to mind when describing our stuff. Murray is a great lyricist, and his anger, ire, frustration, reflection & introspection all come to the fore, but happiness?..not so much!

Paul – Echo Chamber and Have Everything are my favourites. They are great to play live and they get a great reaction from the crowd.

 

Was it a difficult album to write?

Murray – It’s really an album of two halves, with the first being a small group of songs we wrote a couple of years ago and have been playing live since then. The second half is a more recent set of material which actually came together pretty quickly.

Scott – As Murray said, latterly it came together very quickly. The difficulty I guess was in trying to decide what songs to use/work on, as we had loads of ideas, as opposed to finding ideas hard to come by.

 

Who designed the album artwork?

Hutch – The album art was designed by @obscuralumiere

One of the tracks is the single ‘Echo Chamber’ out now. What was the story/inspiration behind the track?

Murray – Echo Chamber is about feeling hopeless in the face of global issues – the rise of the far right in UK politics, global warming and it’s deniers, western sponsored aggression and genocide….the list goes on. We can all wear a t-shirt, post online or attend a demonstration but what difference can we really make as individuals? The line “I’m screaming at the tide, to never come to shore…” sums this up I think.

Scott – While I can appreciate that Murray has approached the writing of Echo Chamber from a particular political stance, as someone who is a little more apolitical in their views, I see this kind of ‘Echo Chamber’ mentality exhibited across the entirety of the political spectrum, and it’s very, very depressing to witness. You only have to see the way terms like ‘Nazi’ have been weaponized by segments of the political left to describe people who may have slightly differing views on subjects such as immigration, for example. It’s very easy to get locked into a ‘bubble’ if you’re only hearing one side of the argument all the time, and this is how Echo Chamber comes across to me personally.

 

The single is accompanied by an official music video. What was the thought process behind it and who directed it?

Murray – Again this was directed by our very own Scott Wood – he’s one talented boy and wears many metaphorical hats in this band! The video represents being tied up and beaten by world events out with your control with the masked aggressor being the benevolent force. I think the performance element also speaks to that, we’re behind a veil, trapped and trying to get out.

Scott – We tend to take a very DIY approach when it comes to videos and this particular video, and the main video for Little Keeper Of Light, were both shot entirely using mobile phone cameras. A significant portion of the Monsters video was too. Similar to the album production, this gives us enormous scope for experimentation without incurring the significant costs usually associated with video production. Modern video production software makes it so easy to get close-to professional results if you know what you’re trying to achieve, and the rest of the guys have been great in giving me the space and time to try things out in the hope that something good comes out of it. I think we’ve all been fairly happy with the results thus far.

 

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Murray – Glasgow – Bold, Funny, Honest, Beautiful, Mine.

Hutch – Glasgow – Funny, Wet, Honest, Cool, Wet.

Scott – Glasgow – Heart-warming, Depressing, Exasperating, Wonderful and Characterful.

Paul – Dumbarton – Desperate, Neglected, Violent, Neighbourly, Honest.

 

How do you look after your voices?

Murray – I have a daily vocal exercise routine which I’ve done for years, whether I’m going to be singing or not. I’m a bit more thorough on rehearsal, performance/recording days with it of course. I also like to warm up by singing Seasons by Chris Cornell and Nutshell by Alice in Chains.

Scott – During recording, Murray does all of the main and backing vocal parts. Live though, Paul and I both sing backing vocals but I’d be lying if I said we look after our voices or do exercises similar to the kind Murray does.

Paul – For the amount of backing vocals we do, we can get away without any routine.

 

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2026?

Scott – As it stands at the moment, the only remaining live date we have in our calendar is on Friday 20th November in Pickering, Yorkshire – which is part of a series of three gigs dubbed the ‘Homecoming Weekender’, organised by our very good friends This House We Built.

 

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

Murray – To have impressed the audience with our performance/musicianship and with our songs. If we do that we’ll be remembered and regardless of whether the audience particularly likes what they’ve heard, which is very subjective, they’ll respect what we do.

 

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Murray – I’m a huge fan of the SM58 mic. Classic, bombproof and totally reliable.

Hutch – I use an array of different gear but staples in my set up are Pearl Drums and Los Cabos Drumsticks.

Scott – I only use Ibanez guitars out of preference, and I’ve been using Kemper Profiler products for onstage sounds.

Paul – I have been using Yamaha Basses for nearly 30 years. No other brand comes close in my opinion. I have just purchased a GR Bass Dual 1400 amp head. It’s incredible.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

Scott – Blindsight by Peter Watts immediately springs to mind and would be amazing to do. I think it’s actually being made into a film by the guy who directed District 9.

 

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

Hutch – Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pantera, Deftones.

Scott – AC/DC, Metallica & Soundgarden were the game-changing influences for me, in terms of rock & metal. Tori Amos is probably my favourite musical artist though. More recently, my current favourite band is Vola.

Paul – AC/DC have been my favourite since I was 9. Through the years, styles have changed though. It was Thrash in the late 80’s with Metallica and Anthrax. Dio was a big influence when it came to melodic metal at the time . When it came to the 90’s, Alice in Chains dominated my cd player. They still do to this day. ‘

 

What makes Those Made Broken happy and what makes you unhappy?

Scott – Seeing the fruits of your labour, no matter what you do in life, should always give you a sense of pride and satisfaction, and inspiration for the future. I think we’re at that point at the moment. Knowing we can produce albums and videos ourselves, from scratch, and be competitive at the same time, vindicates the work we’ve put into this. The flip side to that is that the sheer work load involved is enormous, and can seem overwhelming at times, especially so when, like the four of us, there are day jobs and many other factors to work around. There’s also the fact that, as a largely unknown band, the chances are that even after putting in all that effort, we’ll probably be pretty much ignored by the vast majority of listeners. There are literally a million bands out there vying for attention and we’re simply not all going to be heard or recognised for our work, which is a sobering thought.

Feature Image Photo Credit: Dave McAleavy Photography 

Those Made Broken’s new album ‘A Door You Can Never Close’ is released Tuesday 1st September 2026.

Connect with Those Made Broken:

Official Website: https://www.thosemadebroken.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thosemadebroken.music
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thosemadebroken/
X: https://x.com/thosemadebroken
Bandcamp: https://thosemadebroken.bandcamp.com/