Justin Broadrick | |
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Justin Broadrick performing with Jesu at Primavera Sound in 2009
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Background information | |
Birth name | Justin Karl Michael Broadrick |
Also known as | Justin K. Broadrick, JKB, JK Flesh |
Born | 15 August 1969 |
Origin | Birmingham, England |
Genres | Industrial metal, post-metal, drone metal, shoegazing, grindcore, experimental, electronica, ambient, noise |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer |
Instruments | Vocals, guitar, programming, bass guitar, drums |
Years active | 1982–present |
Labels | Avalanche Recordings, Hydra Head, Ghostly International |
Associated acts | Godflesh, Jesu, Fall of Because, Final, GOD, Napalm Death, Pale Sketcher, Techno Animal, Greymachine, Council Estate Electronics, Scorn, Valley of Fear, Head of David |
Website | avalancheinc |
Notable instruments | |
Schecter C-7 + Diamond series Schecter Damien Elite-8 Blakhart BTK 7 Shadow Blakhart BTK QM Blakhart BTK 8JB Westone Thunder Ibanez S470 BK Ibanez RG550 |
Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969 in Birmingham, England) is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist and drummer. He was briefly in the English grindcore band Napalm Death when he was a teenager in the mid-1980s, writing and recording guitar for Side One of the Napalm Death's debut album, Scum. He is best known as a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and industrial music. Broadrick has also maintained a parallel career as a producer, producing records and remixes for groups such as Pantera, Isis, Mogwai, and Hydra Head labelmates Pelican. Broadrick has set up record labels such as HeadDirt, Avalanche Recordings, Post Mortem Productions (briefly renamed Uprising Productions), Lo Fibre and Heartache.
Broadrick was born on 15 August 1969, in the council estates of inner Birmingham. His mother is of German descent and was born in Bielefeld, to a British father who was a soldier in World War II and a native German mother. Her family moved to England in 1953. For the first four years of his life, Broadrick was raised by his mother and stepfather in a hippie commune in Shard End. During a period of heroin addiction, Justin's biological father was mostly absent from the family home. By the age of ten, Broadrick was surrounded by the punk-rock that his parents listened to. "There was Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, but it was always the stuff that wasn't so standard that grabbed me. I was always playing things like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music when I was about eight! Stuff like Can, the weirdest parts of Pink Floyd, Hendrix", says Broadrick. "The first thing I probably heard out of the house, when I was about 11 years old, was Crass", says Broadrick. "By the age of 12 I fell into early industrial music, stuff like Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse". Broadrick began to play with his stepfather's guitar, who was then into Roxy Music and Brian Eno.