Gunns launch their new single, The Fool, this Friday, October 10, at The Bird and Sunday, October 12, at Mojos. BOB GORDON checks in with vocalist/guitarist, Clint Oliver.
All of you are inter-connected with other bands, just how did Gunns come to form, then settle?
The project began as a trio. At the time myself and Mike (Jelinek) were playing together in The Growl and Jenny (Aslett, bass) was playing in Hootenanny. We played with this line-up for a year or two. Once the live show grew we got Hamish (Rahn) on second guitar, Ham and I had played together in HAMJAM. As the recordings progressed into more synth-based soundscapes, the next logical addition to the live thing was keys/synthesiser. This saw Mike move onto synth/space station and James (Ireland, HAMJAM/The Growl) came in on drums.
There’s disparate influences at play, are you conscious of what form Gunns’ music takes or are you pretty open-minded?
We’re pretty open minded, I think. We’re always looking for new sounds but at the same time we’re mindful that it still sounds like Gunns and we’re not blatantly copying any of our influences. For me as a songwriter the goal is to create a sound that is instantly recognisable. Sound comes first, especially during production. So I guess you could say we’re conscious of where we’re headed.
What have been the highlights as a band so far?
We just toured nationally with The Preatures which was heaps of fun. Southbound was also great. Ahhh, we have an exciting announcement in about two weeks… I wish we could tell you.
Tell us about the new single then?
The Fool is actually quite an old song. We’ve recorded it a bunch of times and always put it on the backburner because it hasn’t felt right, so it feels great to finally get it out there. The lyrics were written about a young man that let showbiz change his personality.
What are the plans looking into 2015?
We’re finishing the year with a bang, which you’ll hear about soon. Then we will be doing all we can to get the EP out which will be followed by an album sometime next year.
