Childhood and first recordings (1969–1983) Broadrick was born on 15 August 1969, in a
council estate of inner
Birmingham. For the first four years of his life, Broadrick was raised by his mother Gabrielle Fern (a.k.a. Lucy Nation) and stepfather Robert Fern (a.k.a. Bob Allcock) in a hippie commune in
Shard End. In the late '70s, Broadrick's mother and stepfather were members of
Anti-Social, a band infamous for live shows involving blood and faecal matter, as well as for soliciting people to commit suicide via guillotine live on stage. Anti-Social were dubbed "the world's most violent rock group" and released one single,
Traffic Lights/Teacher Teacher which is now one of the rarest UK punk record releases. During a period of heroin addiction, Broadrick's biological father was mostly absent from the family home. According to Broadrick, his maternal grandmother from Germany was a practicing
white witch with an interest in the occult. 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. Shortly after seeing them at his first concert, he recorded his first demo tape at the age of 11. "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. In 1982, he started publishing tapes with his friend Andy Swan, who had a synthesizer. The first name they went under was Atrocity Exhibition, named after a
Joy Division track (which, itself, takes its name from
a book by
J. G. Ballard). Their first recording was titled
Live in the Studio and was the first catalogued release on their cassette label Post Mortem Rekordings. Shortly after, the project was named Smear Campaign, after a
Nocturnal Emissions track. This was the name they went under at their first live performance on 7 July 1984 in The Mermaid in Birmingham. Promptly after the show they settled on the name
Final. Final was then inspired lyrically and musically by acts such as Throbbing Gristle and Maurizio Bianchi. "We were pretty heavily into the whole industrial tape culture and fanzines of the very early '80s", Broadrick says. The project developed to embrace the
power electronics subgenre of
industrial music in 1983, releasing material by them and other industrial projects on Post Mortem Rekordings (which was renamed Uprising Productions in 1985) such as Family Patrol Group, Mental Health Act, Ashenden, The Grey Wolves, Con-Dom, Death Magazine 52, Fern and Un-Kommuniti. Final went under numerous lineup changes during its lifetime, including musicians like Philip Timms, Daniel Johnson, Paul Neville, Nicholas Bullen, Graham Robertson and Guy Pearce. "I had about 50 Final releases over about a year and a half", he says. Other project names Broadrick recorded under included Last Exit, Crusade and Dead Pulp. Broadrick also had a short-lived progressive punk band called The Blakk Korridor with
Diarmuid Dalton and Dan.
Fall of Because and Napalm Death (1984–1986) In 1984, Broadrick joined the group
Fall of Because [founded by
G. Christian Green and
Paul Neville in 1982 initially named O.P.D. (Officially Pronounced Dead)] as a drummer and additional vocalist. The group recorded the
Extirpate demo cassette in 1986, which contained a number of songs which were later re-worked as songs for Godflesh (including "Life Is Easy", "Mighty Trust Krusher" and "Merciless"). The group disbanded in 1988. The
Life Is Easy compilation album of demo and live recordings was released in 1999. Broadrick met
Nicholas Bullen in 1985 at the flea market where he met Andy. Broadrick gave Final tapes to Bullen and they recorded some material together. "Then I played him some of the stuff I did with guitar, which he then played to another guy in Napalm Death. Basically, they were impressed with what I was doing with guitar, and so I joined Napalm Death", Broadrick says. Soon
Mick Harris (then member of a
psychobilly band) joined the lineup and they shifted from
anarcho-punk to
grindcore. "Nick and I left Napalm Death after we recorded the first side of
Scum. I'd had enough of Napalm Death very, very quickly", he says.
Lee Dorrian and Jim Whitely joined to replace Bullen and Broadrick. Broadrick gave the first side to
Earache Records founder
Digby Pearson, who then contacted the new Napalm Death that had recorded the second side.
Head of David and the forming of Godflesh (1987–1990) in New York City on 11 November 1996 The industrial metal band
Head of David had played live with Napalm Death before their drummer left and Broadrick was invited to take his place. "I was in Head of David literally six weeks, and we did a
John Peel Session for
Radio One. That was the first highlight of my life", Broadrick says. He had been writing more brutal songs for the band, but due to artistic differences, he was kicked out in 1988. "When I first got exposed in '89 to the early
acid house movement, I was an instant convert. The first time I heard early
Aphex Twin, when
Digeridoo first came out, I knew that this was where I wanted to go", Broadrick says. He formed
Godflesh with his friend B. C. Green. They started with working on existing Fall of Because songs and Broadrick was influenced by the
hip-hop sound at the time – artists like
Public Enemy,
Beastie Boys,
Run-DMC. Godflesh released their debut
self-titled EP on Swordfish Records and in 1989
Earache Records put out their first album
Streetcleaner. Broadrick met
Kevin Martin of the band GOD. Martin had a club in
Brixton and he promoted the first Godflesh show in London. Godflesh was met with derision on their first tour. However, Godflesh was well received in the United States. "To this day, I still sell the majority of my records in America. Of any music I make, it mostly goes to America", Broadrick says. Broadrick also played guitar for Sweet Tooth with Scott Kiehl (of GOD) and
Dave Cochrane (of
Head of David), who released the album
Soft White Underbelly on Earache Records in 1990. He is credited as co-writer for all songs. The band also contributed "Fat City" to the compilation
Grindcrusher – The Ultimate Earache, which was also on Earache Records.
Side projects (1991–1993) In 1991, Broadrick and Martin recorded their debut album
Ghosts as
Techno Animal and it was released on Martin's label Pathological Records. In the end of 1991 Godflesh recorded the experimental
Slavestate EP. In 1992, Godflesh released their second studio album
Pure. Broadrick and Martin created a new project called
Ice in 1993, where they experimented with industrial and dub music as well as hip-hop beat patterns. Broadrick also revived his
Final project along with his ambient guitar experiments in 1993. During this period, Broadrick produced records for
Pram,
Terminal Power Company,
Lull and
Cable Regime.
Kevin Martin collaborations and electronic music (1994–1999) in Tilburg, Netherlands on 12 April 2012 In 1994, Godflesh released their album
Selfless on
Columbia Records and sold approximately 180,000 copies. Broadrick joined Kevin Martin's band
GOD as a guitarist for their second and final album
The Anatomy of Addiction. The duo recorded the second Techno Animal album,
Re-Entry, which was released as a two-disc CD through
Virgin Records in 1995. Broadrick was more influenced by hip-hop and
dub music when Godflesh recorded the fourth album,
Songs of Love and Hate, with live drummer
Bryan Mantia. Broadrick also recorded the second Final full-length that was released on
Rawkus Records. In 1997, Godflesh released the electronic remix record
Love and Hate in Dub. "What Kevin and I were doing with Techno Animal then began to rub off on Godflesh, and vice versa", Broadrick says. From 1997 to 1999, Martin and Broadrick released two Techno Animal compilations,
Versus Reality and
Radio Hades, a split album with Porter Ricks. They also start a new project titled
Curse of the Golden Vampire with
Alec Empire. Broadrick also had recorded tracks as JK Flesh during this time but they were released in 2009 in the compilation album
From Hell. He turned down offers to join both
Faith No More and
Danzig. Broadrick released
drum and bass music under numerous pseudonyms such as Cylon, Tech Level 2 and Youpho. He also recorded such music with Kevin Martin under the names White Viper and Eraser. At that time, they were influenced by acts like
Ed Rush and
Dillinja, and labels like No U-Turn and Renegade Hardware. After the album was released, G. C. Green left due to not wanting to tour any longer. Godflesh was booked for a European tour to open for
Fear Factory, so Broadrick invited
Paul Raven to replace Ben. A week into the tour Broadrick said "Raven is a fantastic bass player, but it just wasn't Benny, who I had been playing with for 13 years and was a whole part of what Godflesh was". A North American tour was also planned without Broadrick's input. Soon after, Broadrick and his girlfriend of thirteen years broke up. Broadrick slipped into a mental breakdown, fled back to Birmingham and hid at a friend's house just as he was supposed to board a plane to begin the North American tour. Bands, equipment companies and promoters moved to recoup the lost money and Broadrick lost his house and other valuable assets in his name. Kevin Martin moved on to record alone as
The Bug and Techno Animal was ended.
Jesu and Final (2004–2009) In August 2004, Broadrick's new project,
Jesu, released the
Heart Ache EP. In December, the
self-titled debut LP was released. This release featured Ted Parsons on drums, Diarmuid Dalton on bass and a guest appearance from Paul Neville. The album was more melodic than his previous work. "I was still making low-tuned, heavy,
guttural music, at the heart of this there was something quite pretty and beautiful, just being construed in an almost ugly fashion", said Broadrick. In November 2005 Broadrick played live as Final for the first time in 20 years and supported
Jarboe. Final's two-disc release
3 had been in making for nearly five years and was put out in 2006. Broadrick toured Europe as Final in March 2006. In April 2006 the
Silver EP was released through
Hydra Head Records. The second full-length album,
Conqueror, was released in February 2007. Jesu toured with
Sunn O))) and
Isis and Broadrick played as a guest with both bands. On 30 April 2007 Jesu released a 12" called
Sun Down/Sun Rise. Broadrick began to release limited runs of material on his
Avalanche Recordings label, including new material by Final and a Jesu full-length compilation of electronic tracks titled
Pale Sketches. In 2008, Broadrick collaborated with former
Swans vocalist
Jarboe for an album titled
J². In May 2008, Broadrick released the first download-only final full-length,
Fade Away, and the second,
Afar, in October. In 2009, Broadrick released the album
Disconnected with his new band,
Greymachine. In January 2009, he released two new digital releases via his label
Avalanche Recordings: the Krackhead album and
Kitsland.
Kitsland was a recording as
Council Estate Recordings with Diarmuid Dalton. The project was influenced by Broadrick's old 1980s cassette material. "It's more 4/4-based – shoegazy dream-pop that's almost techno, somewhat in the area of
Gas and some of the early
Kompakt stuff like
Dettinger". On 24 August 2010, he released
Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed on
Ghostly International. Broadrick contributed guitar soundscapes to
Alan Moore's audiobook
Unearthing. Broadrick released the album
Posthuman under the JK Flesh project name on 30 April 2012. Although many of Broadrick's projects feature him performing all instrumentation anyway, the album is considered to be Broadrick's first solo album. In April 2012,
Valley of Fear, a new project of Broadrick,
Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies, released an album of
noise rock and
black metal experiments on Legion Blotan Records. On 11 December, a split release between JK Flesh and
Prurient called
Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination was released on
Hydra Head Records. On 17 June 2013, he released the free digital single
Warm Sunday / Mogadon as Pale Sketcher on his new record label Heartache Records. In August 2022, Broadrick announced the release of never before heard Pale Sketcher material.
Golden Skin, written and recorded primarily between 2009 and 2013 was originally slated for release on Richard D. James' (
Aphex Twin)
Rephlex Records prior to it shuttering. The album was unearthed and completed by Broadrick specifically for its unveiling on Give/Take on September 23, 2022.
Signature guitar and Jesu/Sun Kil Moon collaboration (2014–present) In 2002, since the inception of Jesu, Broadrick used a
Schecter C-7 Diamond Series guitar tuned to drop A. In 2014, Blakhart Guitars released a Broadrick signature edition 8-string guitar. The guitar features a six-bolt Mono-blok neck to body mount, dual expanding truss rods and a string through body fixed bridge and was played by Broadrick for a short time before he switched to another company. In January 2016, Broadrick's Jesu project collaborated with
Mark Kozelek's folk rock project,
Sun Kil Moon to record an album titled
Jesu/Sun Kil Moon and the collaborative act toured in support of the album. Jesu and Sun Kil Moon collaborated once again to record a cover of "Condor Ave" for an
Elliott Smith tribute album titled
Say Yes!, released in October 2016. A second album by Jesu and Sun Kil Moon, titled
30 Seconds to the Decline of Planet Earth, was released in May 2017. In June 2022, Broadrick produced a remix of the
Hercules and Love Affair song "
Poisonous Storytelling", which also featured the singer
Anohni. ==Personal life==