Sound of Guns Interview

Andy Metcalfe – Vocals
Lee Glynn – Guitar
Nathan Crowley – Guitar
John Coley – Bass
Si Finley – Drums

It seems that the new breed of metal/rock bands that are coming through the ranks in the UK are a brilliant bunch of people who are down to earth, a far cry from the excess of the 80’s American Rock scene. With the likes of The Glitterati, Godsized, Flood of Red, Twin Atlantic and Logan, we now add the Sound of Guns to our list of “British bands we like”.

We head into the new “Academy” venue at the University of Leicester, and although some of it is still a work in progress, it’s looking very impressive so far. We met with Si and Andy from the band in the main student bar downstairs and struggle to hear each other, and thankfully Andy suggests we go outside instead. Once we’re settled down, Grace begins asking the guys about their thoughts on today’s music scene.

Grace – Andy, knowing how much of a fan you are of R ‘n’ B and Auto-tune songs, but seriously, do you think Rock music in general is getting a raw deal in terms of airplay on mainstream radio stations and that there’s a dominance by the likes of X-Factor?

Andy – Good question! I don’t loathe R’n’ B, and I remember the interview where I was quoted in saying that, and the auto-tune rubbish. I actually love Soul music, that’s my favourite. But as regards Rock music in the charts, and especially this industry, things tend to always come full circle, and hopefully it’ll be our turn soon. It just needs a few more good bands like us out there.

Grace – And which band that are out there do you rate?

Andy – I think we’re on our own (laughs). No no, there are some great bands out there, obviously, the more established ones like Foo Fighters, but in terms of upcoming bands, you’ve got Detroit Social Club, who we’re touring with, Si, what do you reckon?

Si – As Andy said, there are some great bands, but they’re hard to pick out, because yes they’re not getting the coverage, everything in the charts is Pop, R ‘n’ B, X Factor, but then that’s what people want at the moment. We just need some good Rock bands to come out and show them that it’s still there, and that it isn’t dead!

Grace – You’re busy on tour, so what do you do to keep yourselves busy, asides from winding up The Little Comets (and is there an escalation planned!)?

Si – Well, we do like to wind up our Tour Manager!

Andy – Yeah, Fuller, our long suffering Tour Manager! And we wind each other up in the band as well. And we drink a lot. But it’s been an ongoing thing with The Little Comets. We did a few shows with them, and Rialto Burns, and all I did was changed it to Rialto Comets and The Little Burns, then someone added, The Little P***s Burns.

Si – (laughs), And then it got out of hand!

Andy – (laughing) Then they cut it up, and well, I won’t repeat what they then put on our dressing room door!

Si – We had a kickabout backstage at the Liverpool gig, about 15 a side football.

Andy – Yeah, the last time we played with them they smashed our window anyway!

Si – And then blamed us! (laughs).

Grace – Andy, you’ve been described as “scientist's genetically engineered hybrid son of Jim Morrison and Bono”, how much pressure does that add?

Andy – It doesn’t put me under any pressure, but obviously, it’s a huge compliment. As a frontman I just love performing, singing, and they were / are great frontmen. So no pressure, I’m better then both of them! (laughing).

Grace – You’ve done quite a few shows now, but, is playing back home in Livepool something a bit special for you?

Andy – Yeah, absolutely, played there on Friday, sold out, and it was a really really special night for us.

Si – Definitely. We always enjoy going back to Liverpool. Including our friends and family, we’ve got a great fanbase there. There’s always just a great amount of energy at the Liverpool gigs. Like at Barfly, everyone was just singing the words back at us, it was awesome, just brilliant!

Grace – From the album “What Came From Fire”, could you tell us about some of the tracks, and what inspired them?

Andy – Architects, one of the first ones we wrote, and I remember coming in with a basic chord, (laughs) I think it was the E chord, and I remember saying to Si, I just want it to be dead noisy, with Si working his magic and stuff, and we took it to the band, and form there it developed. That song is really just about power, the feeling of it. Alcatraz, came shortly after Architects, and at first it was like a Country Acoustic song to me, and then Si wrote all the parts and arrangements around it, so that was more his baby. Elementary Youth, which is my personal favourite…

Grace – That’s mine too!

Andy – Is it! (nods of approval) That was written on the piano, and if I remember it was this chord progression (hums the tune) in the morning, we started jamming it in the afternoon, and then it was done by tea time.

Grace – That’s quite unusual for a song to come together so well, quite a few seem to take a lot longer, with different band members having conflicting ideas sometimes.

Si – Yeah, on the album, there’s a mix of songs that came together very well, like Elementary Youth, but as you say, there are some that took weeks to do. Songs like 106 we had to come back to, we tried it and it and it just wasn’t working, so we put it away, then came back to it, that song was finished basically as we were recording it for the album. So yes, it works differently for each song.

Grace – Is there a danger that the song might never be finished if you keep going back to it, and when do you call time on it?

Andy – We do try to have cut off points to them, but because we were working so fast, a lot of the songs were half or three quarters finished fairly quickly, and then you go back to them.

Si – Yeah, obviously it’s something that plays on your mind when it’s half done and you want to put them to bed, but then you always just want to try different things, and yeah, there is a danger of not knowing when to stop.

Andy – Yeah, we’re going to do an orchestral version of the album!

Grace – You could always take three songs and merge them into one! Worked well for Queen!

Andy – I love these questions! It’s great when someone’s done their research!

Grace – While we’re on the subject of the album, loved the cover art on it, who did that for you and what was it like seeing the place where it all started like that?

Andy – Actually it was quite difficult seeing it like that. I lost quite a lot of gear in there too, my piano brunt down with it and stuff. It’s where as you said, the band started, so there was a lot of attached sentimental value. But, it wasn’t our building. Yeah, a company called “Dots of Joy” did the sleeve design, but the photo was taken by Tom Sheehan, who did all the photo’s for not just the album but the singles too.

Si – The girl who did the design, it was weird, she had this dream about what the album cover should be. And then we had a meeting with her, like a week later, and she got this book out, this sketch, and she said “I can see what it should look like”, with the flagpole and all that, and we were “Are you serious!? Do you realise where we used to rehearse!”. So we took her to this place, and she was “I can’t believe my eyes”.

Andy – That was a much better story then I was telling!

Grace – We still liked your story too!

Andy – It’s true that, and the funny thing, the only thing that did survive, was the flag pole! And before we did the shoot for it, and we didn’t know the flag pole was still there before the photo shoot, but we had this massive Sound of Guns flag made.

Si – Yeah, a lot of people think the flag has been superimposed onto the photo, but no, it’s a real flag on there.

Andy – Yeh, it was a b*****d getting it up there.

Grace – You didn’t have the Police called again like in Wakefield did you!?

Andy – Actually (laughing), the Council turned up and said “What are you doing?”, and we told them we were just trying to get a photo, because we had kind of gotten in to the adjacent house to get some shots…

Si – Yeah, we got kicked out (laughs), and yes, there were some Police about too!

Andy – (Laughing) Oh, and we got caught in the back of bank the other day too! Getting some photos. Yeah, we were doing a photoshoot in London, Leicester Square, and the photographer was “Oh I like these stairs”, so we were waiting for the doors to open, and as they did we ran in and got all these photos. This fella then said we had to get out, this is a bank! We were like (looks shocked).

Grace – What’s been the biggest challenge for the band so far and how have you overcome it?

Andy – Actually, I had better answer this one before the others, but, my ego is quite a challenge!

Si – Yeah, we still haven’t over that yet!

Andy – Yeah! But, the biggest challenge, the album. It was great fun and it’s done, but with recording and producing it ourselves, that was tough.

Si – That was a huge challenge, we had the choice when we came to do it of right, do we go with a big producer, or do we do it ourselves. But we thought, no, we’ve recorded everything ourselves, produced everything ourselves up till now, let’s just do that way. True, a few people thought, is that the right thing to do, producing it yourself, but we did.

Andy – We stuck to our guns (laughs).

Grace – Didn’t that add a lot of extra pressure?

Si – Yeah, that added a lot more pressure because you haven’t got that outside perspective, and that’s hard to maintain when you’re quite involved in it, but we enjoyed it anyway. And of course, we’re not making a record by committee.

Andy – Less b******t involved!

Si – Having said that, with our next album, we’ll probably go with getting a producer in. Take that next step up, and of course that might ease some of the in band fighting (laughs).

Andy – Producers always go with the singers anyway, they’re always right!

Grace – What’s the best gig you have ever been to, asides from your own?

Si – AC/DC. At M.E.N Arena (Manchester). Definitely the best gig I ever went to!

Andy – Mine would be, it’s going to sound ridiculous, actually I’ve got two, can I name two?

Grace – Yes!

Andy – Ocean Colour Scene, at the Labbats, but what is now called the Apollo in Manchester, in 1997 or something like that. It was amazing. And the other one was like the worst, but also the best, it was Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, at ammm, at Butlins (laughs). It was unbelievable! He sweated through like two suits. I didn’t shake his hand like, but he was amazing.

Grace – What was the first record you ever bought?

Andy – (Laughs) Mine, I was telling these the other day, mine was a House of Pain song called “Shamrocks and Shenanigans”. Yeah, I was trying to be cool, my older brother took me over, he as into House of Pain, but the first proper album I bought was Ocean Colour Scene.

Si – Appetite for Destruction, Guns n Roses. Brilliant. They were one of my biggest influences when I was growing up, just used to play along to them in my bedroom.

Grace – Are you going to follow their lead and turn up to your gigs two hours late?

Andy – Absolutely, yeah, that’s why he’s been working with me for so long!

Si – Yeah, I saw them live in Leeds, something like 2002, and the same thing happened there. Turned up an hour and a half late, but it was an amazing gig. People go expecting them to turn up late, it’s part of the show. I still play the Appetite album all the time.

Andy – Constantly!

Grace – Do you prefer festivals or small gigs?

Andy – I don’t know, I mean, festivals are amazing, and it’s what you join a band for, to play to a huge audience, and all the free booze, and... what I love about the Festivals, all the rubbish sound checks are out of the window. You turn up, get your gear on, you do your best, then you get off.

Si – The club gigs are more intimate, and personally I get more out of those. You’ve got people right there in front of you. Festivals are great, but it’s a sea of faces, but the clubs can be a bit more pressurised because you can see right into the fans eyes!

Grace – Who’s the best band you’ve toured with?

Andy – Ooh. Ocean Colour Scene hands down. Favourite band, that was amazing.

Si – The best for me was doing the Adam Green tour, he’s like a boss fella. Totally got on with him, it was just a laugh every night.

Andy – Yeah, and our guitarist with a bandage round his head, let me explain! It was the night before London, and were to play Birmingham, and we had two shows that same night. We rushed to the gig in Birmingham, and then had to race from there to London to play with The Twang. Anyway, after the Birmingham gig we were talking to the likes of Mark Ronson, and Lee fell down the stairs and split his head open. So we put him in the van, put a massive bandage round his head, took a photograph!

Grace – Thanks for your time.

As the interview draws to a close we have a bit of chat about Everton being above Liverpool in the Premiership, and then make our way to enjoy Sound of Guns playing. During the whole interview both Andy and Si have been smiling and laughing away, they're remarkably candid, fun to talk to and enjoying themselves. This is exactly what rock music should be about.

To learn more about Sound of Guns visit their Myspace page: www.myspace.com/soundofguns

Interviewer - Grace