Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Memoirs Of A Metal Warrior With DAVID GUNN From KING 810
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: I don't know how to give ship plugs. Dude's fantastic.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Man, that's good enough. You told me how to pronounce
- 0:06Speaker 2: a band name, probably anyway, so let's just start.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm just doing some misdirection here, because next
- 0:11Speaker 1: time I mentioned it, I'll say one oh, and then
- 0:13Speaker 1: I'll say eight ten the other time, just to I
- 0:16Speaker 1: just run syops in confusion, trying to make sure we
- 0:20Speaker 1: don't become popular.
- 0:21Speaker 2: We're thirty hours king with band with three numbers behind it.
- 0:26Speaker 3: We go.
- 0:27Speaker 1: That's beautiful.
- 0:28Speaker 2: So being eight one over arrived in Australia early next
- 0:32Speaker 2: month for a run of shows, starting in Adelade on
- 0:34Speaker 2: March of fourth, before taking Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane
- 0:38Speaker 2: over consecutive nights. So not too far away, bro, you're
- 0:41Speaker 2: packed and ready to go.
- 0:43Speaker 1: I haven't packed a single thing, but maybe that's probably
- 0:46Speaker 1: a good idea. I'll have to set a reminder.
- 0:51Speaker 2: It's gonna be your first headlining tour of Australia after
- 0:53Speaker 2: playing sound Wave in twenty fifteen and then supporting in
- 0:56Speaker 2: Heart's Wake in twenty twenty four. So how are these
- 0:59Speaker 2: show's going to be different as Headlina?
- 1:02Speaker 1: Well, there'll be a lot more of it. We've never
- 1:04Speaker 1: played for any more than a half hour or so,
- 1:07Speaker 1: so this is the first headliner that we've ever done there.
- 1:11Speaker 1: So we'll try to give you a whole lot more
- 1:16Speaker 1: of what we were already giving you, and hopefully even
- 1:20Speaker 1: more than more. Yeah, Yeah, I just I don't know.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I wish I knew what to expect, but we kind
- 1:30Speaker 1: of just play and improv and do whatever it is
- 1:34Speaker 1: that that we do each night. So I don't have
- 1:38Speaker 1: any premonitions. I don't have any I don't have any
- 1:43Speaker 1: tips or pointers what you might get.
- 1:46Speaker 2: Yeah, the longest show is like, you're not a band
- 1:49Speaker 2: that goes for part techniques and all the all the
- 1:51Speaker 2: gimmicks are your band, realize more on your music and
- 1:54Speaker 2: your intensity.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Say yeah, especially when coming over there, just because it's
- 2:01Speaker 1: so expensive to do things over there, but also just
- 2:05Speaker 1: to get over there. And so the further you travel,
- 2:10Speaker 1: you realize we like to do theatrical things, and we
- 2:15Speaker 1: try to as much as we can. But the further
- 2:18Speaker 1: you travel, especially when you're small and independent like we are,
- 2:22Speaker 1: the more everything costs to do things. So you start
- 2:25Speaker 1: having this grand vision of how your show looks like
- 2:28Speaker 1: Iron Maiden, But then when you see what is possible,
- 2:32Speaker 1: you are like, okay, we'll bring a back drop.
- 2:39Speaker 2: Most of your music projects scenes of poverty, crime, and
- 2:42Speaker 2: real world experiences from behind County Plint, Michigan. But as
- 2:45Speaker 2: you go around the world, I like you find that
- 2:47Speaker 2: it's hard for some audiences to connect with those emotions
- 2:50Speaker 2: because I haven't actually experienced them themselves.
- 2:55Speaker 1: No. Actually, everyone seems that I talk to, they all
- 3:00Speaker 1: have their way of resonating with it or their way
- 3:03Speaker 1: of clicking with it, and they'll always say exactly what
- 3:08Speaker 1: you just said. Actually, if we are in a place,
- 3:11Speaker 1: say that doesn't have these types of problems or these issues,
- 3:15Speaker 1: someone will always start it out with the people that
- 3:18Speaker 1: I talked to. You know, I didn't grow up like
- 3:22Speaker 1: you grew up. But and then they'll tell me this
- 3:25Speaker 1: story and it's actually pretty cool. So I find.
- 3:29Speaker 3: It the opposite to where I think it does connect
- 3:34Speaker 3: with people, and maybe not exactly in the direct type
- 3:43Speaker 3: of this happened, and this also happened to me, and
- 3:46Speaker 3: this also happened to me, and this also happened to me.
- 3:48Speaker 3: But musically or feeling wise, I think it connects with
- 3:55Speaker 3: people on different types of levels. Different people on different
- 3:58Speaker 3: types of levels as well.
- 3:59Speaker 1: You know. So luckily we never turn up to a
- 4:04Speaker 1: room full of people that are pissed that they can't relate.
- 4:08Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I suppose a lot of people too,
- 4:11Speaker 4: like they've had problems with their own growing up in
- 4:14Speaker 4: the world, and when they hear you guys singing about
- 4:16Speaker 4: what you've been through, it actually helps them open up
- 4:19Speaker 4: a bit more about things that they think at you doo.
- 4:21Speaker 1: I guess yeah. You do have some times someone will
- 4:25Speaker 1: tell you a story that you know you wish didn't
- 4:28Speaker 1: happen to people. And luckily, since our music is all
- 4:32Speaker 1: pretty true to they're my actual experiences, things that I've
- 4:38Speaker 1: experienced in life, Luckily I can relate to them in
- 4:43Speaker 1: that type of way. But even when they don't have
- 4:46Speaker 1: these really deep traumatizing experiences that I think our music
- 4:50Speaker 1: and vulnerability in the music that we have kind of
- 4:53Speaker 1: opens up to people. It's a minority of people, it's
- 4:56Speaker 1: not everyone in the crowd. It's not going to meet
- 4:59Speaker 1: you after to tell you about this fucked up story
- 5:01Speaker 1: that they also lived through. But for the people that don't,
- 5:06Speaker 1: I think it resonates with them in a different way,
- 5:11Speaker 1: you know, on a different level. Some some people it
- 5:14Speaker 1: only resonates with superficially on a level of Oh, I
- 5:18Speaker 1: like to listen to this when I'm in the gym.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Some people are kind of emotionally stimulated where they're They're like,
- 5:25Speaker 1: I had this experience that this song talks about. I
- 5:29Speaker 1: was wondering if that was real for you, and that
- 5:32Speaker 1: I have to say, unfortunately, yes, and then we both
- 5:34Speaker 1: become grim. And then some people will engage with the intellectually,
- 5:41Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. There's just different levels of
- 5:45Speaker 1: engagement that I think people have. So that's that's actually
- 5:50Speaker 1: pretty cool because that's kind of how I write the songs.
- 5:54Speaker 1: I try to make a feeling, and it has to
- 5:57Speaker 1: have like a feeling, emotion, whatever you want to call it.
- 6:02Speaker 1: I don't really like to think about it like that,
- 6:03Speaker 1: but on that type of superficial level. But then if
- 6:08Speaker 1: someone wishes to peel back, I like to engage them
- 6:12Speaker 1: intellectually or emotionally or even in a way that might
- 6:17Speaker 1: conjure up some type of I don't know, conflict, or
- 6:22Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't always have to be conflict, but I
- 6:24Speaker 1: try to layer these things, even not song by song,
- 6:28Speaker 1: but all in every song. You know, to where there's
- 6:32Speaker 1: stuff in each song that many different people can find,
- 6:37Speaker 1: you know, if they're not necessarily a heavy music person,
- 6:41Speaker 1: but they're like, I like the storytelling that you have
- 6:43Speaker 1: in here, or if they're not a super thoughtful person,
- 6:47Speaker 1: they're like, I play this in the military when we
- 6:51Speaker 1: go out on our patrols and it's just stuff like that.
- 6:55Speaker 2: You know, yeah, you personally, i'd rether these are all
- 7:01Speaker 2: things that have actually happened to you. Like, I know,
- 7:03Speaker 2: you write them because it's cathartic and you like to
- 7:05Speaker 2: get it out, but night after night you are reliving
- 7:08Speaker 2: these experiences that weren't really went for you, like it
- 7:13Speaker 2: over with you emotional and like is to take us toll?
- 7:16Speaker 1: Yes, there's no there's no follow up to it. Yes, yeah,
- 7:24Speaker 1: I can laugh and make a little make a little
- 7:26Speaker 1: joke about it. But I think about that a lot. Actually,
- 7:30Speaker 1: Luckily I'm pretty well centered and I do a lot
- 7:34Speaker 1: of other work to kind of counter that, or to
- 7:39Speaker 1: at least balance it and things like that. But it does,
- 7:46Speaker 1: it does. Yeah, I wish.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Yeah, You've got two Australian acts in the Gloom in
- 7:55Speaker 2: the Corner and Drag as national supports for this. Joe
- 7:58Speaker 2: so do you know much about them hands on with
- 8:00Speaker 2: the selection process.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Yeah, we met actually this last run. Some of the
- 8:08Speaker 1: guys were working on the last run that we did
- 8:10Speaker 1: with In Heart's Way and Paleface. That's how we met,
- 8:14Speaker 1: and we just got to talking and said, you know,
- 8:16Speaker 1: we'd like to come back. We don't want to wait
- 8:18Speaker 1: another ten years to come back, so we would like
- 8:23Speaker 1: to come back sooner. And if we did, would you
- 8:25Speaker 1: guys like to do something. We wanted to get some
- 8:28Speaker 1: people from over here from over there, I mean, and
- 8:32Speaker 1: they were cool and we just kept in touch and
- 8:36Speaker 1: ended up making it work. So that's kind of cool.
- 8:39Speaker 2: Nice right doing it. And you turned on the back
- 8:41Speaker 2: of two albums released last year with Ross Belt New
- 8:44Speaker 2: Medal and K seven Roussbelt New Medal two. So are
- 8:46Speaker 2: they going to dominate the setlist story? You spread it
- 8:49Speaker 2: out a bit brighter.
- 8:51Speaker 1: We'll try to play as many things as we can
- 8:53Speaker 1: because we're also putting out Ross Belt New Metal three
- 8:56Speaker 1: right now, and so we did those Ross Belt New
- 8:59Speaker 1: Metal three. We did those three records in a year,
- 9:02Speaker 1: but we're that one's acoustic, unplugged kind of thing, so
- 9:08Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff will be from our last
- 9:11Speaker 1: several records. But as I was saying before, we've only
- 9:16Speaker 1: ever played for a half hour. So we're going to
- 9:20Speaker 1: try to spread out all of the records and play
- 9:23Speaker 1: stuff from each one, so as as many things as
- 9:27Speaker 1: we can play, because a lot of we haven't a
- 9:30Speaker 1: lot of people haven't heard a lot of the stuff
- 9:32Speaker 1: that we have. For I don't know how many records. Oh,
- 9:35Speaker 1: you said K seven, So we have seven records, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 9:41Speaker 1: so we need to maybe pick a few from each one.
- 9:45Speaker 1: And but also we don't play the same set list
- 9:48Speaker 1: every night, so we're going to play as many things
- 9:51Speaker 1: we can do.
- 9:53Speaker 2: Those two albums I mentioned, they're both unique in the
- 9:55Speaker 2: fact that they're recorded in one day in front of
- 9:58Speaker 2: a live audience of fifty people. Like, that's a great
- 10:00Speaker 2: little idea. Wait where did that come from?
- 10:02Speaker 1: About the desire to do that, just constantly thinking of
- 10:06Speaker 1: ideas that I don't see anyone else doing. We were thinking,
- 10:13Speaker 1: we have something coming up that we're going to do
- 10:16Speaker 1: that is pretty crazy, and so we were thinking, what
- 10:21Speaker 1: is the opposite of that? And then we got to
- 10:24Speaker 1: thinking what about a Because a lot of our music
- 10:27Speaker 1: is kind of cinematic soundtracky and big atmosphere, and that's
- 10:31Speaker 1: the type of stuff we like. But when you come
- 10:35Speaker 1: up with a theme or a character or a type
- 10:37Speaker 1: of feeling for a record you kind of like to make.
- 10:41Speaker 1: I don't want to say rules or boundaries, but I
- 10:44Speaker 1: like to narrow in on an idea or a concept.
- 10:49Speaker 1: And so we started talking about, what have we just
- 10:51Speaker 1: made this record just in a live room, you know,
- 10:57Speaker 1: And then I had this profound experience I've talked about
- 11:03Speaker 1: it in other places before, where I had this kind
- 11:08Speaker 1: of vision of doing it three times in the year
- 11:11Speaker 1: and having it be in a live room but also
- 11:15Speaker 1: in front of people. And that was just Whenever something's
- 11:20Speaker 1: a little bit I don't want to say intimidating, but
- 11:26Speaker 1: you haven't done it before novel, I guess, or or
- 11:29Speaker 1: or unusual or or something, I think it presents a
- 11:33Speaker 1: challenge to us that we get excited about because it
- 11:39Speaker 1: seems like, well, how would we do that? And if
- 11:41Speaker 1: that's if that's where you start, then that's a good
- 11:45Speaker 1: sign for me. Whenever someone you know is pitching an
- 11:48Speaker 1: idea or we're sitting around thinking it has to start,
- 11:52Speaker 1: it can't be like you we're going to go make
- 11:54Speaker 1: a record, it has to you have to say something
- 11:57Speaker 1: that gets everyone's attention, and it has to be challenging.
- 12:01Speaker 1: I guess if that makes any sense or else it's
- 12:04Speaker 1: not exciting for anyone. So it also has to be
- 12:09Speaker 1: you have to be unsure you can do it, you know.
- 12:14Speaker 2: And had that did you choose those fifty people and
- 12:17Speaker 2: did you speak tore them after us to engage their experience.
- 12:19Speaker 2: But there's not something that happens every day.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Yeah, we have. So we had a VIP kind of
- 12:27Speaker 1: ticket sale thing where they would it was like a
- 12:31Speaker 1: limited number and some people came to every single one
- 12:35Speaker 1: of them. And the limited number was just because we
- 12:38Speaker 1: wanted to keep it small. The studio could fit probably more,
- 12:44Speaker 1: but we wanted to kind of be exclusive. We didn't
- 12:46Speaker 1: want it to be a crowd doing all types of stuff,
- 12:50Speaker 1: but we wanted We were thinking when we came up
- 12:54Speaker 1: with the idea that if we liked a band, we
- 12:58Speaker 1: would like to see this type. Like if Marilyn Manson
- 13:01Speaker 1: was recording a record and was like, yeah, you can
- 13:04Speaker 1: come to the studio, we would want to be there.
- 13:07Speaker 1: So we just think about it from that perspective of
- 13:10Speaker 1: what would we want to see our favorite bands do
- 13:13Speaker 1: what would we want to see from our from our bands?
- 13:17Speaker 1: And that's that's kind of what it was. So, yeah,
- 13:21Speaker 1: we'll spend the whole day with them. We usually it'll
- 13:24Speaker 1: start around noon ish and uh, I'll have one of
- 13:28Speaker 1: my friends out there doing barbecue or like making pizzas
- 13:33Speaker 1: or something like that, so they'll have food and things,
- 13:37Speaker 1: and then we'll come in and we'll do the recording session,
- 13:42Speaker 1: which usually takes a couple hours, and then we do
- 13:46Speaker 1: a meet and greet. We kind of hang out for
- 13:49Speaker 1: a while talking to everyone, and it's it's actually pretty cool.
- 13:55Speaker 1: It's Yeah, so we spend the whole day with them basically,
- 14:00Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of first come, first serve.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Though.
- 14:02Speaker 1: We we tell our mailing list that this is what
- 14:04Speaker 1: we're going to do, just this is when it's going
- 14:07Speaker 1: to happen. Da da da da da, if you're interested
- 14:09Speaker 1: in this, and then it's became a pretty cool group
- 14:15Speaker 1: of people. Actually, it's awesome.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Yeah, did you say the third one is acoustic? Yeah,
- 14:22Speaker 2: that would have been an interesting take on things.
- 14:25Speaker 1: That was a bit. Yeah, it's kind of like we
- 14:27Speaker 1: grew up watching those MTV on plugs and taking ad
- 14:34Speaker 1: ideas from that and not as high production value, but
- 14:39Speaker 1: you know, it's still it's still pretty cool and I
- 14:43Speaker 1: think that's what all the videos are. We released two
- 14:46Speaker 1: songs from that record so far, so we released one
- 14:50Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago and released we released one
- 14:53Speaker 1: on Friday as well. So it's pretty cool because the
- 14:58Speaker 1: videos are the live performances of the songs. You see
- 15:01Speaker 1: the people in the studio and stuff like that, and
- 15:03Speaker 1: that's what all the videos have been for this past year,
- 15:06Speaker 1: for all the three of these records. So it was
- 15:10Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. And also we wanted to switch it
- 15:13Speaker 1: up a little bit so every record, but you.
- 15:16Speaker 2: Got your vital cells not let's say, it's not conducive
- 15:19Speaker 2: to really, So how did you how did you go
- 15:23Speaker 2: with that? Was it was it hot to do?
- 15:26Speaker 1: No? I just do whatever I know how to do.
- 15:29Speaker 1: I don't even know if it sounds good or not.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Someone has to someone has to let me know, but
- 15:33Speaker 1: reel me in or try to. Someone has to reel
- 15:36Speaker 1: me in. I'm doing the wrong thing out here, but
- 15:39Speaker 1: I don't know. A lot of the stuff that I
- 15:41Speaker 1: like or listen to is close to what my range
- 15:46Speaker 1: would be. Some of the more storytelling, softer stories telling,
- 15:51Speaker 1: stuff like Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave or something like
- 15:57Speaker 1: that that's kind of that same register that bossip perfundo voice.
- 16:03Speaker 1: It is not necessarily just storytelling.
- 16:06Speaker 2: So you mentioned before something crazy about your next album.
- 16:12Speaker 2: Can you can you reveal any details.
- 16:14Speaker 3: In that or.
- 16:16Speaker 1: That one's a little too far out. I'm gonna have to.
- 16:19Speaker 1: It's a big deal to us, and it's going to
- 16:22Speaker 1: be it's a big event for us, and I think
- 16:26Speaker 1: it's the best record we've ever made. But I know
- 16:29Speaker 1: everyone says that about them about the record that they
- 16:32Speaker 1: have coming up because they want people to buy it.
- 16:35Speaker 1: But since everything's free these days, I don't have any stake,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and it really is the best one. So you just
- 16:42Speaker 1: have to stay stay tuned. It'll be we release so
- 16:46Speaker 1: much stuff so quickly and so often that you won't
- 16:50Speaker 1: really have to wait long. So it's not going to
- 16:53Speaker 1: be a thing where you're gonna have to wonder what
- 16:55Speaker 1: the hell I was talking about.
- 16:56Speaker 2: Because all right, David, well, thanks very much for your time,
- 17:01Speaker 2: made pleasure speaking with you. The Chre kicks off March
- 17:03Speaker 2: fourth in Allelaide, so I'll be at the Brisbane show Brothers,
- 17:08Speaker 2: so best of luck with the have fun.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Thank you, I'll see it soon.