Young Guns fire on all cylinders

11 months ago 15th Dec 11:06

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.

So what has been the proudest moment of your musical career so far?

Well we’ve done some pretty cool shit in terms of gigs, we’ve played with some pretty cool bands like Funeral for a Friend, Ghost of a Thousand and stuff, but I’d actually say it was getting our arses into gear to get this EP together, working with people like Dan and Justin, and Paul with the art… People I really respect, and having them get involved with us and our music has been pretty f**king cool. Playing in venues like the Astoria 2 has been great too, I’d love to play even bigger venues, so hopefully our music will take us to them.

You have been on the road with some super sexy bands haven’t you; who has been the best?

I have no idea what this question actually means? But I’ll go on record and say Outcry Collective are a sexy bunch, and they’re one of the best bands around in the UK at the moment too, so... them. I’m jealous of Steve’s facial hair.

And given the chance, who would you choose to go on tour with?

We’re all pretty huge fans of Thrice so that would be amazing, though I think I’d probably be a complete fan boy and ruin it. Someone like Cancer Bats would be rad.

Everyone seems to be dead poor at the moment, so why should people fork out and come to one of your shows?

‘Cos we do something a bit different, we put on a good show and really give a shit about what we’re doing, whether its to five or five hundred people. If you come and don’t like it, come find me and I’ll buy you a beer. Maybe.

Who do you think is the best artist around at the moment?

Wow, another tough one. I love music that is completely foreign to the way we write… The Dillinger Escape Plan push boundaries so well, even those of their own fans which is pretty cool if you ask me… I love everything they’ve done from Under the Running Board to Ire works… Also, Justin Timberlake is pretty much the best pop artist in the world right now I’d say.

Okay, so to ask a couple of random questions;

If someone told you that you only had 9 minutes to live, what would you do in those 9 minutes?

Honestly? Man that’s hard... well, I’d like to spend it with my mum and brother as un-rock n roll as that sounds. Also I’d like to get as drunk as humanly possible, though maybe not both at the same time, that could be tricky. I guess that doesn’t really answer the question. Woops!

If you were at a friends house having dinner and you found a dead creepy crawlie in your food, what would you do?

Smash the place up. Especially if it was our drummer Ben’s house. I’d smash his house up regardless of whether there was a creepy crawly or not.

On an aeroplane, you are chatting to someone who is fairly good-looking. Unexpectedly, that person offers you £10, 000 for a night of sex. Knowing that there is no danger and payment is certain, what would you do?

I could really do with ten grand.

What do you think is the most important invention over the last 100 years?

The nuclear bomb.

And also, we ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person, and The Fray want to know whether you prefer Coca Cola or Pepsi?

That’s not very imaginative, I guess it is The Fray though. I’ll go with Coke.

Now can you come up with a question for the next person I interview (make it as random as possible!)

Would you rather have no arms or no legs?

Check out our review of the Young Guns single In The Night here

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison