Young Guns fire on all cylinders

15 December 2008

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Young Guns are one of those bands that I feel are going to sneak up behind you, hardly noticed, and then just become incredibly well-known overnight. A bit like Fall Out Boy. But with good songs.

With a super fit single lined up for release in February I caught up with single Gustav Wood to find out a little more about our new favourite band, going on tour with some super hot bands and having sex with a stranger for �10,000.

How are you boys?

Good cheers! Though I�m suffering from a pretty serious case of man flu at the moment so feel free to direct sympathy my way.

What have you been getting up to recently?

We�ve just recently finished up mixing and mastering sessions for our debut release and now we�re just rehearsing and writing for our upcoming shows/tours in the new year. We�ve also played handful of shows over the past few weeks that have been really rad as well, I can�t tell you how good it feels to be playing this new material live. Basically we�re just getting ready for hopefully a pretty busy �09.

So to anyone who hasn�t heard of you yet, how would you sum up your band in five words?

I�d say� Loud, Low, Heavy, Catchy and if we�re on tour then probably dirty.

Tell me about your forthcoming EP?

It�s called �Mirrors� and it�ll be out before next summer. We recorded it with Dan Weller and Justin Hill from Sikth which was an honour � Sikth were such a good band, and they are f**king wicked guys so it was a real pleasure. They�re professional but chilled and I think they really got the best out of us and really helped us to find our sound a little better than we have done before.

I felt like I learnt a lot from those guys over the month or so we were with them aswell� It�s definitely an accurate representation of our band and where we�re at now � we�re all really proud of it.

Even though we�ve been together a little while already I feel like this EP marks the actual beginning of our life as a band. Plus it�s got artwork by Paul Jackson from Johnny Truant so we�ve had some proper English metal pedigree helping us out on this one.

What are the inspirations behind your song writing?

I don�t set out to write about any set subject in particular at first, I just try to write and write until something emerges on it�s own that inspires me� our songs are about everything from growing up and how your perspective changes as you do, to partying too hard, going too far and the reasons that happens. I guess I only write about things that are relevant to me personally� so pretty much just being a cynical bastard.

What bands would you compare yourself to?

Damn� I hate getting asked this question! I�d definitely say we take influences from a lot of the stuff we grew up listening to but I�d like to think that we don�t actually sound like an awful lot of other bands around at the moment to be honest. We certainly don�t fit in with what�s fashionable right now, I THINK that�s a good thing� Haha...

I guess It�s hard to talk about your own music without sounding like a bit of a c***, but we�re all into pretty heavy music generally and I feel that we mix the vibe of stuff like Cancer Bats and more riff based stuff with a catchy pop sensibility, but in an earnest way.

But at the same time, what makes you stand out from the crowd?

I think as I said above, the fact that there aren�t actually that many bands around writing straight up heavy rock right now, it�s almost got a negative connotation you know? But that�s the stuff that really lasts, we just write solid catchy songs that aren�t concerned with any particular trend. We aren�t retro, we aren�t screamo metalcore pop punk haircut music or whatever, we just write what we want to hear.

You�re set to release In The Night on February 2nd, what made you choose that particular single for release?

We chose In the Night because It�s a good summary of the different aspects of our sound, it combines our heavier riff based side with the pop sensibility that we all love, but has a dark edge to it. It�s a party song but (hopefully) goes a little bit deeper than that.

More Young Guns fire on all cylinders on page 2