Brace play the Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay on Thursday, the Arena on Friday, the Sands Tavern, Maroochydore on Saturday and the Troccadero, Surfers Paradise on Sunday.

A considerable void was left in Australia’s heavy musical landscape after Henry’s Anger called it a day a couple of years back. From the proverbial ashes of the band three of Henry’s original members are back together with a new moniker and an impressive debut recording entitled Before You Begin.

“After Henry’s split we all kind of went our separate ways,” explains bassist Rod Yates. “In the end we kind of decided, well Paddy (guitars) and myself decided we still really enjoyed working with each other, and writing and stuff like that. We wanted to see if we could do something with Jamie again, who was the original singer in Henry’s. We kind of say down around April last year and had a talk about what we wanted to do. Patched up things that needed to be patched up from the Henry’s days, and we’ve been rehearsing for a bit under a year.”

As well as the three aforementioned members, Brace is completed by…

“Tim, our drummer, we’ve known for a long time from back in Canberra, and Lachlan, our keyboardist, actually produced Personality Test for Henry’s Anger. After we spoke to them, they were all into it, and off we went.”

While Before You Begin is a fairly unique slice of guitar driven crunch, there’s an undeniable trace of the member’s history, much from the haunting translucent vocal delivery of Jamie Thomas.

“I guess by virtue of the people involved we’re going to sound like we do. One of the main reasons to get a keyboardist in was to add extra elements into the music. We wanted to write better songs, things people would remember rather than trying to cram as many riffs as possible into a couple of minutes. We did want to step away from what we had done, and that’s a process that we’ve only just begun.”

“We all came from really different backgrounds. Some of us were really into metal, and others into hardcore punk or something like that. Basically this is just a melting pot for everyone’s influences.”

As well as the obvious advantages in the studio, does having someone that works as a producer in the band really play into your songwriting?

“It really does. Lachlan’s done quite a lot of stuff, and he was really good with writing. Me and Paddy would often come in with riffs to jam on, but he’s really good at arrangements and things like that which come from his production background. It’s all rubbed off on everyone as well.”

As have other lessons of the past.

“I think one thing we’ve really learned from the Henry’s thing is not to let little personal things get in the way. This has been a really enjoyable experience.”