Broadtree celebrates their 1st year anniversary
The duo formed by Nicole McCafferty (@musicandlyricsbystewiegriffin) and Armand Antony (@armandonstage) have been on the wildest roller coaster ride for the past year.
Since hitting the scene with their first release on November 26, 2020, they have been creating and crafting a new brand of country at lightning speed in a year that has included a full length album, 2 EPs, and 5 additional singles, complimented by a 25 date tour, a merch line, music videos, and a strong stance on several social issues that have made waves in their community and beyond.
The pair, who met through theatre productions, began performing music together to fill the void of a lack of stage productions. They soon began writing and recording their own songs, writing feverishly with a mind-twin partnership that allowed the duo to produce non-stop singles and releases throughout the year.
Interview
How and when did this all start?
Nicole: It’s actually been almost exactly one year to the day of when we released our very first single – which was actually supposed to be the only song! Originally, that was the plan at first.
Armand: We’ve worked together on a number of theatre productions over the last six years or so. Recording a song together was just a way of staying creative during the ‘plague’, as we like to call it. But it turned into so much more.
We realized really quickly how much we enjoyed it, and one cover turned into another, which turned into a live stream, which turned into an EP – and before that EP was finished we were writing our own songs. A few weeks later we had an album. It’s insane to see how quickly things turned into more.
How did you become with the name ‘Broadtree’?
Armand: When we started out – again, thinking this was only going to be a one-time, one song thing, we just started out under our names. When we released our first single, it went under Armand Antony and Nicole McCafferty.
Nicole: As things progressed, we realized literally right before we released our debut album that we probably ought to have a name that was a little easier to find, a name for our duo. So often, our music is described as ‘musical theatre over a bed of country music’, which makes sense given our theatrical roots.
Armand: In fact, the first time that we did an interview with Artezza, that’s where that description came from! ‘The love child of musical theatre and country’.
Nicole: Funnily enough, most people think Broadtree is symbolic and organic and natural and grounded, which it is and I love that about it, but secretly it’s actually just Broadway + Country = Broadtree.
Armand: People are either really excited and think it’s a super clever idea or completely underwhelmed. So those of you that are underwhelmed – sorry – and to those of you that are excited – thank you!
Nicole: It’s the ‘Brangelina’ (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie) of band names.
Photo Credits: @coreycp
What has been the best and the worst moments this last year?
Armand: I think the best part has been how unexpected everything has been. We never thought things would grow to be what they are today, and they continue to grow, which is absolutely amazing.
I think from the very get-go, we said that if we could somehow touch even one person in some way with what we’re doing, we’d feel we accomplished everything that we wanted with our music – and that’s been tenfold. Whether it’s mental health, or LGBTQ+ rights, or anything in between, it’s been pretty amazing to see just how much our music has expanded and done more than we could ever imagine for others. We knew what it was going to do for us as a means of therapy and coping with things we were both dealing with, which is kind of why we started, but it’s pretty great to see just how far reaching it’s become.
Nicole: The most unexpected things have happened and have been really meaningful – that has definitely been a highlight, along with how we’ve been embraced by the country community here in Canada. When we first set out we didn’t really have a specific genre in mind, but now that we sort of landed in the lap of country music, and everyone has been so supportive and kind and lovely. We all just help each other out and he feels like a family
Armand: With things moving so fast in the Broadtree world, being embraced is an amazing thing. At the same time things moving so quickly has been something that we have had to learn to adjust to. It wasn’t until recently that we both sat down and realized that we’ve been working at a pace that has been lightning fast.
We’ve been setting all these deadlines that we didn’t necessarily have to set, but we set them because we wanted to get things done quickly to move onto the next step. Because things haven’t really stopped since we really kicked off, I think there have been times where we haven’t been able to fully just sit back and enjoy the ride, which is something that we have started to do now.
We know that in the early days we were just go go go go and I don’t know if we necessarily missed things along the way, but I think there are definitely moments that we we didn’t get to live at 100% because we were so focused on what came next and going forward. I think we’ve learned our lessons on making sure that we really truly enjoy this ride for what it’s for what it is.
Nicole: I also think that given the frenetic speed at which everything is moving, and because I know at least for me personally this is my first time pursuing something like this in music, things have been a challenge. I mean, as an actor I sort of know how I might need to market myself in a way, but this is such a new and different world for me that, at times, I definitely think it’s been pretty overwhelming, especially given the sort of differences that this industry presents.
So understanding the business side of things and figuring out what that marketing side is and everything that goes with it has been a big learning experience.
What is the best part of working together?
Nicole: I think one of the most exciting and cool things of working together is this sort of mind twin connection that we have when it comes to songwriting. When we write songs, we’re able to do it so fast because we just sort of understand each other‘s minds without really having to explain very much.
One of us might be struggling with one word what lyric, or the tone of a song, but we immediately are able to figure each other out and be in each other’s heads. It’s a pretty great creative relationship that has allowed us to work so well and efficiently together.
Armand: To that point, I don’t know if we’d be where we are today if we weren’t so comfortable with each other. If we weren’t on the same page most of the time in almost anything we do whether it comes from songwriting to managing our social media to how we approach live shows, we rarely disagree when it comes to what want to do and how we want to approach things, and I think that’s one of the best things about working together.
It’s amazing to pursue something if you’re super passionate about, but it’s also even more special and pretty incredible when you can pursue it with somebody that knows you, that you have a pretty great bond with, and an amazing connection with both in and out of this whole world. That’s made it a lot easier and that’s probably been one of the best parts of this entire project.
Broadtree – Spotify List
How do you see yourselves in 5 years?
Nicole: One of the things we’ve learned during this plague is that it’s hard to have secure or certain expectations, let alone long term goals. But I think we’ve both sort of learned that we need to value what we have right now and really appreciate that. From the beginning everything developed so organically and fairly quickly, that we didn’t know what to expect or what came next.
Now, we have some ideas for the next month or the next few months but we’re just kind of enjoying this crazy ride and appreciating everything. Mostly, I think we want more of the same for the future – more releases, more songs, more songwriting, more places to play, always striving to be better and do better. We do have some plans for the next year of certain releases that are coming up, some adventures that we would like to take when it comes to our development together, and maybe some collaborations with the other musicians as well, but I guess we just need to see where time takes us.
Armand: I think if there’s anything we’ve learned in the last year is to expect the unexpected and everything this year that we’ve gone through together has been a whirlwind. If you had asked us six months ago if we’d be on a tour, we would’ve told you that you were nuts. If you had told us a year ago that we would have an album and multiple singles and an fairly strong Instagram following and we’d be touring and all these other amazing things that have happened along the way, again, we wouldn’t have believed you just because it it sounds just so so great, but also just something that people take so long to achieve.
It feels really special and it feels like a privilege to be able to doing a lot of things that we are doing right now, so it’s hard to say where we’ll be in five years, or hard to say we will be in five months for that matter. Like Nicole said, we can plan and plan and plan all we want.
We can have a tremendous an idea of where we want things to go, but this past year has been full of surprises and going with the flow is going to be something that I think we’re we’ve learned we need to do and that we we want to do a little bit more of. So at this point we’re focussing on the next five hours, and then the next five days and then the next five weeks, then next five months and eventually I’m sure will get to the next five years where we’ll look back on things now and have the exact same amount of surprise.
Do you have new projects coming?
Nicole: We’re really excited to get back into writing now that of the tour is starting to wind down a little bit up performing. But we’re really excited to get back into writing. We’re looking to find ways to collaborate with other artists. We’ve got a song that we’re really excited about that we’ll be working on releasing as a single at some point next year. We’re planning an ambitious little trip down to Nashville hopefully for some point next year, if all goes well.
Armand: As things start to open up, I think one of the things that we’re both equally excited about, and that we’re so supportive of each other on, is we also both get to explore and get back to our performing life outside of Broadtree.
Whether it’s Nicole‘s and my acting careers or either of us pursuing other things when it comes to just anything on or off stage, be it a film Nicole is in or whether it’s magic or mentalism for me, or whatever the case may be, Broadtree is always going to be kind of at the forefront of all that, and that’s really exciting to know that if something takes us away for couple weeks, we always have a home in this band.
It is one of the first places and only places that we’re able to really truly find an outlet for the things that we’re going through on such a deep personal level. I think that I think going to the future we get to express ourselves artistically in so many different ways by continuing to write music, perform, plan trips, do more tours and release more albums. It’s naturally going to come with the territory and it’s so exciting and I can’t wait. We can’t wait.
Projects
Do you want to know more about Broadtree? You can find some projects below.