Chris Bromage, who made the permanent move to Osoyoos last year along with his wife, is thrilled to be back writing, performing and recording music. Bromage, who performs under the moniker End of Empire, is very pleased with the reaction to his self-titled debut CD. Bromage grew up playing music, but quit when his best friend was killed in a plane crash. Thinking about that same friend and how he hadn’t properly dealt with his tragic death, was the trigger which pulled him back to music recently. (Keith Lacey photo)
Chris Bromage quit a promising music career at age 23 after his best friend was killed in the largest plane disaster in history and the fond memories of that friend are the reason he’s returned to music and is looking forward to some very big things following the release of his acclaimed first CD.
“I was just 23 years old and losing my best friend in that plane crash just devastated me,” said Bromage, who now calls Osoyoos home. “My best friend (Kim Mathews) and I were living together and playing in the same band in Japan … he was one of the 520 passengers killed in the Japanese air disaster Flight 123 on Aug. 12, 1985. After he died, I just gave up on music and didn’t play a note for more than 20 years. Ironically, his death is the reason I quit music and he’s the reason I returned to music.”
Bromage, who was born and raised in Leeds, England, was driving his daughter from Vancouver to Harvard University in Boston two years ago when a life-changing incident took place.
After he dropped his daughter off and was on the return trip to Canada, Bromage’s vehicle blew a tire. It was while waiting for assistance to replace the tire that he suddenly felt overwhelmed thinking about his long lost best friend for the first time in a long time.
“It was at that moment waiting for help in my car that I suddenly realized I had never, ever dealt properly with Kim’s death,” he said. “What I had done was ignore the sadness and I realized I wanted something much more positive to come out of his death. I felt I owed it to him to start playing music again.
“I decided I would start playing and writing again and in a matter of days, I was writing two or three songs a day … a couple of months later, I ended up with 200 to 300 songs.”
Bromage took the best of those songs and recorded them in the spring of 2015 under the moniker End of Empire.
Reaction to Bromage’s heartfelt, thoughtful songs has been fantastic and well-known American producer David Wright ended up signing Bromage to his record label.
His self-titled End of Empire album was recorded in Surrey last March and April with some additional backing vocals and percussion added at his home studio in Osoyoos last August. The title track was partially recorded in White Rock last January.
Bromage is thrilled with how the album turned out and is hoping to return to the studio sometime in the next two months to record a second album.
Songs from the first CD focus on “serious issues” like homelessness, corporate greed, poverty and how so few possess so much in today’s modern world, said Bromage.
“I wanted to create an album that reflected upon the political and social issues I felt were pressing and important in 2015,” he said. “The album is a commentary upon these important societal issues, not the smaller personal issues of day to day life. The record should be viewed as a concept album with a loose narrative, not simply a collection of individuals songs.”
He took the name End of Empire because of what he considers to be the rapid and continual “decline of the British Empire, which used to proudly be considered perhaps the greatest empire in recorded history,” said Bromage.
“The album reflects my belief there is a direct line from past historical event and actions that are inextricably linked to present events and that they all shape what is happening in the world today,” he said. “I strongly believe no act sits in splendid isolation, no matter how far back we trace our historical steps.
“Everything that happens on a micro or macro level can be traced back to another event, another point in time. The songs of the past vibrate into the social ills of today.”
Bromage spent several years travelling and studying the history of former British Empire countries, including Canada, Belize, Fiji, Samoa, Jamaica. St. Kitts, Barbados and Australia “and from those experiences and people I met along the way, End of Empire the album was born.”
His songs include the voices of protagonists from the pro and anti-imperialist wings of the British Empire – including Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela – interspersed with the voices of American protestors taking to the streets in Ferguson, Missouri after a black teenager was gunned down by a police officer.
“The record is dedicated to those who love above hate and for every kind act or gesture that reverberates down through time,” he said. “I do believe no good deed is ever wasted and it spreads out like the ripples on a lake sending a message of hope and possibilities to all who come into its path … and good deeds do reverberate down through time.
“Although the record is dark in subject matter, it is a message of hope and possibility. It is dedicated to my best friend Kim and the music we never got to complete.”
Bromage didn’t grow up in a musical family, but fell in love with David Bowie’s music as a teenager.
“I used to fiddle around on the piano and organ, but I wasn’t very good,” he said.
He attended a “teenage disco camp” that was popular in Britain at the time and heard Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album “and that changed my life.”
He learned how to play guitar and eventually joined a punk band.
“Punk came along and that was it for me,” he said. “I loved the punk ethos that you could do whatever you wanted and could just go for it without being an accomplished musician.”
He played in bands in England and that’s where he met Matthews and they decided to move to Japan as a life adventure and had formed their own band there, when tragedy struck.
Bromage has had an amazing life outside of music. He has worked as a real estate developer and sports agent for many years.
He had read about the Okanagan for many years and decided to make his first trip to Osoyoos back in 2004 “and simply fell in love with the place,” he said.
He and his wife Janine have returned every year since.
In 2007, he and his wife built the Club Sierra subdivision near Osoyoos Golf Course and moved into one of the units last year.
“We made the quite historic decision to leave Vancouver, take the three kids and two dogs and move to Osoyoos,” he said. “It has long been my belief that the Okanagan Valley is the most beautiful part of this amazing country and we happen to believe Osoyoos is the most beautiful part of the valley. We just love this town.”
Bromage said his second album that is about to begin recording will be much lighter in tone.
“I got all the heavy stuff out on the first one … this one’s going to feature a lot of poppier, fun tunes … in other words the complete opposite of End of Empire,” he said.
End of Empire is available on iTunes and Amazon. Several videos of his songs are also available on YouTube.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
