Breed 77

Breed 77
Also known as	Breed
Origin	Gibraltar
Genres	Alternative metal Flamenco metal
Years active	1996 – present
Labels	Albert Productions (UK), Pagana Records (Spain), Flight Records (Japan) LaRocka Records (UK)
Associated acts	Black Sabbath, Ill Nino, Machine Head, Soil, Mägo de Oz
Website	Breed77.net Breed77.com
Members	Paul Isola Danny Felice Ben Edis Pedro Caparros López Andre Joyzi
Past members	Stuart Cavilla Rui Lopez Lawrence Bautista Nick Beeslty Charlie Gomez Dan Wilkinson Peter Chichone Adam Lewis Óscar Preciado Zamora

Breed 77 (pronounced "Breed Seven-Seven") is a British band from the overseas territory of Gibraltar whose music is a fusion of alternative metal and flamenco.

Origin

Breed 77 comes from the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Old Gibraltarian school friends, Paul Isola, Danny Felice, and Stuart Cavilla met up in London and became informally known as the Gibraltarian Mafia. When, in late April 1996, this circle of friends formed a band, they wanted a name to reflect their joint origins and called themselves simply Breed. The band were forced to change their name because it was previously registered by Steve Hewitt (formerly of Placebo) on his vanity record label. Stuart Cavilla, the band's bass player, had previously worked as a motorcycle courier under the call sign of Kilo 77 or K77, and the band became Breed 77.

Awards

In 1998, Kerrang! readers voted Breed 77 the 'Best Unsigned Band'. In 1999, they won both the Metal Hammer and Kerrang! awards for the best new band. Then in 2001 they signed a five album deal with Albert Productions, the legendary Australian publisher of AC/DC.

Music releases

Breed 77's self-titled debut album was first released in November 2001 and due to a high demand was re-released in April 2005. Their second album Cultura was released on 3 May 2004 and went to number 61 in the UK album charts and number 3 in the Rock Album Chart. Cultura produced the singles "La Última Hora", "The River", and "World's on Fire". "The River" managed to secure their first UK Top 40 position, getting to number 39 in the UK Singles Chart. "World's On Fire" just missed out scraping in at number 43, but was number 1 in the Rock Singles Chart. Neither song received any mainstream radio air-time and the videos were featured only on the Scuzz and Kerrang! TV music television channels.

Breed 77 released their third album In My Blood (En Mi Sangre) internationally on 11 September 2006. In My Blood (En Mi Sangre) was produced by Ron Saint-Germain (The Saint) noted for his work with Soundgarden, Tool, Creed and Bad Brains. Two bonus tracks were produced by Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers). The first single from this album, "Alive" was out on 12 June 2006, also known as Download Monday, and reached number 6 on the Rock Singles Chart. The second single was "Blind", released on 4 September 2006. Their last single to date is "Look at Me Now", released on 23 April 2007. The single includes a special cover of the song 'Zombie', by The Cranberries.

In early 2007, the band released the iTunes exclusive album Un Encuentro (to coincide with the launch of "iTunes Latino"). The album featured 11 songs from previous albums but all sung in Spanish. This album was re-released in physical CD format on 7 May 2007.

The band finished their fifth studio album, Insects. The first two tracks were announced as "The Battle of Hattin" (April 2008) and "Wake Up" (July 2008). The album was released on 17 November 2009. The band then toke to the making of the video for 'Zombie' in early 2010.

In March 2013, the band released its sixth studio album "The Evil Inside". through Frostbyte Records The first music video from the album, titled "Bring On The Rain", was released on the band's website on 6 March 2013. To date, The Evil Inside is the last Breed 77 album to feature founding member Paul Isola, who left the band 5 months after its release, consequently ending his 17-year time as their lead vocalist.

On tour

Breed 77 have toured consistently over the years, and have supported bands such as Black Sabbath, Machine Head, Danzig, Ill Niño, One Minute Silence and Napalm Death. Now as a headlining act in their own right they have built up a loyal following.

They headlined a UK tour in September 2006, alongside an appearance at the Download Festival, supporting Guns N' Roses. Breed 77 played at Santa Cruz X 103.9's Jingleballs concert on December 6, 2006, in Santa Cruz, California. It was their second live U.S. performance. Their first performance was at the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) music festival in 2005 in Austin, Texas, at the now defunct Hard Rock Cafe. In 2008 they were invited to open Mago de Oz's concerts in Mexico.

On 12 June 2010, Breed 77 headlined the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage at Download Festival. Breed 77 were on stage in Lithuania's rock/metal festival RockNights'10 on 6–7 August 2010 (Zarasai).

The band headlined a UK tour in September 2010, joined by The Defiled and Transgression. The tour was called 'Infesting Britain'. and was cut short, missing Brighton and Birmingham due to drummer Oscar breaking his foot. This happened whilst carrying rental equipment after they had their van raided of all equipment in London .

Nov 2011 saw the band supporting Devildriver and 36 Crazyfists in Europe. Another European tour followed in March 2012, and to support the release of 'The Evil Inside' Breed were the permanent support act for the co-headline Soil and Fozzy tour in March 2013. August of the same year saw the band touring Germany with Devildriver (and Rui Lopez covering for Paul Isola ). After a very successful performance at Bloodstock 2013 they once again toured the UK supporting Fozzy.

On Wednesday 28 August, lead vocalist Paul Isola announced his departure from the band due to personal circumstances, detailing that he would not be participating in the band's short summer tour. He revealed that his replacement would be Rui Lopez, who would be completing the lineup for the four dates and joining the band thereafter. Paul played a single farewell gig at the Gibraltar National Day concert on 10th Sept 2013.

Rui Lopez's performance on the tour was generally well regarded by fans, although it has been noted that he favours scream style vocals over attempting to match Paul Isola's extensive vocal range.

On 18 January 2014, it was announced via the band's Facebook page that Paul Isola would be participating in a one off UK tour to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the band's most successful album; Cultura. In March 2014, it was announced that Paul would be returning to front the band full-time.

Current members

• Paul Isola (Gibraltar) lead vocals, (1996-2013, 2014-)
• Danny Felice (Gibraltar) – guitars, backing vocals (1996–)
• Ben Edis (Nottingham) – bass guitar (2014-)
• Pedro Caparros López (Barcelona, Spain) – guitars, backing vocals (2002–)
• Andre Joyzi (Lisbon, Portugal) – drums and percussion (2010–)

Former members

• Lawrence Bautista – drums (1996–1997)
• Nick Beesley – drums (1997–1998)
• Charlie Gomez – bass guitar (1999–2000)
• Dan Wilkinson – bass guitar (2000)
• Peter Chichone – drums and other percussion (1998–2006)
• Adam Lewis – drums and other percussion (2006–2007)
• Óscar Preciado Zamora – drums and other percussion (2007–2010)
• Rui Lopez (Lisbon, Portugal) – lead vocals (2013-2014)
• Stuart Cavilla- bass guitar (1996-2000/2001-2014)

Discography

Albums

Cultura, 2004

• Breed 77 (aka Karma (UK) (2001, Re-released 2005)
• Cultura (2004) No. 61 UK
• In My Blood (En Mi Sangre) (2006) No. 112 UK
• Un Encuentro (2007)
• Insects (2009)
• The Evil Inside (2013)
• Acoustic Rarities (2015)

Singles

• "La Ultima Hora" (2003) No. 88 UK
• "The River" (2004) No. 39 UK
• "World's on Fire" (2004) No. 43 UK
• "Shadows" (2005) No. 42 UK
• "Alive" (2006) No. 91 UK
• "Blind" (2006)
• "Look at Me Now" (2007)
• "El Mundo en Llamas" (2008)
• "El Rio" (2008)
• "Wake Up" (2009)
• "Zombie" (2010)
• "Drown" (2013)
• "Bring on the Rain" (2013)

EPs

• The Message (1998)
• Vol. 1 (1999)
• La Ultima Hora (2003)
• Shadows (2005)
• Under The Skin (2012)

Music Videos

• "Karma" (2001)
• "La Última Hora" (2003)
• "The River" (2004)
• "World's on Fire" (2005)
• "Shadows" (2005)
• "Blind" (2006)
• "El Mundo en Llamas" (2008)
• "El Rio" (2008)
• "Wake Up" (2009)
• "Zombie" (2010)
• "Bring On the Rain" (2013)
• "Fear" (2013)

External links

• Breed 77 Official website
• Breed 77 Facebook Page

Paul Isola