The Glitterati - Interview

Paul Gautrey - Vocals
John Emsley – Lead Guitar
Billy James - Drums
Baz Morrison - Bass
Gaff – Rhythm Guitar

I’m sorry for the very obvious first question, but, how’s the tour going so far?

John: You know what, it may feel to you like a very obvious question, but we can provide you with a beautifully comical answer.

Paul: Yeah, this is the second night of the tour, and unfortunately we couldn’t play last night on the first night of the tour, because there were issues with the desk so we ended up not playing last night, so tonight will be the first night that we manage to play on tour.

John: But ultimately we had a really good night thanks!

Paul: Yeah, it was a great night out!

I read that you had toured with WASP before but I was sure this was your first time, but you have toured with some big name bands before, who has been the biggest highlight for you?

John: Wildhearts.

Paul: No we haven’t toured with WASP before, but wow that’s, I don’t know, we’ve toured with bands of so many different styles. We’re more of a rock band so one of our favourite bands would probably include the Wildhearts, but the first tour we did with David Lee Roth, that was an experience.

John: I felt the Kings of Leon shows.

Paul: The Kings of Leon we toured with…

John: The Kings of Leon were really wicked.

Paul: And The Killers, we toured with, bit of a strange line up, but it went down really brilliant, but yeah, there’s loads, all different types of music, a lot of the things for us isn’t necessarily about the gig itself but about the people who are involved because some of the bands who we might not have particularly been into musically have been the best people to be on tour with.

John: It’s when you find yourself at the start of the tour, really knowing a bands recorded output or whatever, and you think “oh no, you know, we’ll play our shows, not sure how much I’m going to get into the kind of people we’re touring with” but ultimately they turn out to be nice guys and by the end of the tour, you’re like “you guys are wicked”.

Paul: You tend to like their music, even if you hated it before!

What was David Lee Roth like?

Paul: Van Halen, well, unusual, he was great, he was great to us, he was chatty and larger then life, just what you expect really. And he’s a great showman as well.

I read that you weren’t particularly keen on some of the modern music that’s around at the moment, and when you were asked “Are there any new bands that you like at the moment” your answer was “not really no”.

Paul: I probably just couldn’t think of a witty answer you know, full of attitude! Yeah most of our influences are more like classic bands and we’ve always had that, I mean we try to have our own take on it as well and so(looks at Tom) am I talking….? Yeah we always want to stay progressive and have a modern slant on it, we don’t want to be a band like a sunset strip tribute band like a lot of bands come out and do, but obviously we’ve got influences from right across the board from classic to more modern stuff and…

John: Maybe I’m being contentious but, honestly, I would love to turn on the radio or love to put on MTV and see a band and go like “Thank F.., they are amazing”, but I just don’t, you know, and that’s just me personally, not for any of the other guys. That bands that, or music that sparks my interest, is very rarely guitar based or certainly very rarely rock based…because just nobody is doing…sic, I being an arse again aren’t I!? I don’t think anybody is doing good rock music, not Emo, not metal, or any sub genre just good rock.

Paul: I think a big part of it is that, the way that the music industry is in this country, there probably are tonnes of good bands out there doing good rock music, it’s just not seen, not accessible. Like I say if you put on MTV you want see a good rock band, you might see the odd one or two mainstream Emo type bands on there, you’re not going to see a rock and roll band playing on MTV, or on Radio 1 or anything. So if they’re out there, people just aren’t aware of them.

John: To an extent, rock bands, contemporary rock, or the bands representing the more rock “outlook”, they do tend to be doing that mildly comical, tongue in cheek, I’m not sure if tongue in cheek is the right phrase, but you know, there almost something apologist about it, like they feel they have to dress up or do something…

Paul: I think, that’s again, it’s like, the British Music Industry, they can’t, the only way rock will get things is if they think “We like it but we not really taking it seriously”, they’re like “We love rock, tongue in cheek”. They never embrace it as serious, or “This is great music”, because “it’s a bit funny isn’t it? Let’s all play guitar”. It’s the best music ever invented.

Are you fans of La Roux?

Paul: No, isn’t she the one who’s mum is in the Bill or something?

Yes

Paul: More of a fan of her mums work on the Bill!

Tom: That’s the most interesting fact I’ve heard about her

Paul: I don’t know which one she is, oh wait, isn’t Gene something?

John: Do you know what, I actually do know who it is…

Is it Gene Ackland?

John: Yeah Gene Ackland.

Paul: I think what happened with La Roux, Gene pulled some strings at the yard or whatever, and that helped her rise to fame!

In terms of music, we’ve read that “Appetite for Destruction” was your favourite album, is that still the case?

Paul: Definitely the album that probably influences most people, but we’re probably talking about more like when we were a younger band just starting out, that was like the blueprint, and I still think it’s the best rock album of all time. So yes, it was definitely the most influential on our music, on the first album more so, but, it’s the one that although we’ve all got different influences, it’s the one we all “met on”, the one that when we first wanted to get into a band that was everything really. I’d say it was even the one that even made me interested in rock music as a whole, and then we’ve had little links on the way, like we did our first album with Mike Clink.

John: Yeah, but can you honestly say, when was the last time you listened to it?

Paul: Hmm.

John: I couldn’t say, you know what I mean? It’s almost like it’s wrapped up in some kind of sepia beautifully roasted, there’s so much romance involved.

Paul: I still think it’s one of the all time best albums out there.

Certainly one of the best produced. And Chinese Democracy, great or a disaster?

Paul: No I don’t think it was a disaster. In places it’s really good, and I think a lot of people are against any kind of trying to do anything modern and progressive, and at times it maybe tries too hard. I admire ambition, and with all of the hype around it, and it was never going to fulfil everyone’s expectations. In places it’s patchy, and I really wanted to love the album, but in places it’s really good as well.

John: I think there are songs on Chinese Democracy though, that if you made the ultimate Guns N Roses album, there would be a couple on there.

Paul: And to be honest that seems to be what you get these days, if you get a couple of songs on each album, I don’t think it could ever live up to such a huge build up. I think most people who don’t like it wanted Appetite 2, and Appetite was so huge they couldn’t even make it Appetite 2 when they were making Use Your Illusion. They probably didn’t even want to. It is what is, some good songs, could have been better, but yeah.

The line up has changed for the Glitterati, so has the final product changed?

Paul: I think we got worse, the two new guys have destroyed everything.

John: Morale is terrible

Baz: We put La Roux on the top of the chart!

John: Absolutely, yeah! You know, they’re kind of like a bad smell, you know what I mean, it’s kind of there and nobody talks about it.

Paul: We started doing our new album with the three of us, the ones that were left, and then Baz came in just before we started recording the album, and Gaff came in towards the end, so the input has grown as we’ve gone along. I think it’s the happiest, and I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s definitely the happiest we’ve been as a band. Especially as we had such a long time between our first and second album, it was an absolute f……. nightmare getting into a new deal with a label and getting the second album out, and a lot of people didn’t think that was going to happen. And the two new guys have been really important in keeping the band together…yeah…they p… me off!

Yeah, you’ve got the new album, where exactly are you at with that? Is it done ready to go?

Paul: Yeah, we did it ourselves before we signed to the label, Demolition, they signed us up. The first single, if it’s called that because it’s a free download, not sure how that really works, is out this week. Then the plan is do to another single in January, and then release the album in February time. It’s all ready to go. They’re the ones planning out when the singles and albums come out, the tours and things like that, but it is all ready.

Talking about the single, what happened with the planned download of that?

John: You’re talking to the Glitterati!

Paul: You’re talking to a band who are now on the second leg of the tour and are still waiting to get on the stage for the first time! The thing is, if something is going to go wrong…

John: It will do.

Paul: We even joked about it the day before because the same thing happened with Atlantic. Our single came out on the Monday, and they were giving us all this pressure on “This song’s got to chart here” because we had a couple of songs in the top 40, and then they didn’t get the download ready until Thursday. And I was joking about it with these the night before this download, and at 10am when it was first supposed to go online, it was saying it’s not online, then I got in touch with the label, and they said it was going to be fine, and that was Monday morning. Wednesday evening, we were all just sat there “It’s not happening is it!?” Basically it was an error, not at iTunes, but we think it was something at 7Digit, ITUnes had it advertised at a price and we wanted it as a free download.

You see what you should have said that demand was so great it crashed the server

John: This guy is right! He’s right

Paul: Quick, rewind that, well what actually happened that there was such a big demand..

John: I think we crashed their server…

Paul: Yeah

John: Yeah crashed it.

Paul: And even though it was only available in the UK, I heard it crashed world wide. People were trying to log in.

John: Didn’t the internet go down?

The album you’ve got coming out, hopefully, where did you get your inspiration from? How do you feel it’s gone?

John: Well, I mean, I think the album came out really well…wait, put all of this through my bias filter

Paul: Go on, promote yourself.

John: I really feel like the guy we worked with Mark, did an amazing job, not only engineering it but producing it. I thought he really brought a lot to the band.

Paul: He was like part of the band.

John: Absolutely especially as we started members down.

Paul: Penniless

John: and his input was invaluable.

Paul: Label-less

John: But I think we made the record that the three of us, the four of us, the five of us, I hope Gaff feels like that! I feel like we made the record that we wanted to make, probably more so then the first record. This one comes out heavier with better hooks, better melodies, more aggressive, just everything we wanted really.

Paul: I think, after coming out with the first record we ended up without a label, 2 members down, and we didn’t have any money, and we had to sit down and look at a way to record an album. It was a real struggle to get to where we are now, releasing an album and being on tour, a lot of the times it didn’t look like it was going to happen, didn’t look like we could keep it together, but we’re really proud we’ve got it done. We did it completely ourselves. The guy who produced the album, Matt Hyde, he did it for nothing, and he’s done a lot of impressive stuff. He would come round, we recorded a lot at our house, and then he would go off to do Slipknot’s album for two months, come back two days, do a track with us, it took forever, but we were just so grateful we had somebody on board at that point who could see we had such a strong album, regardless that we only had three members and not a penny or a label.

John: I think it’s great to work with a guy who produced it and mixed it, because you know, while you’re tracking, all those conversations you have about “I want it to sound like this” or “want to do this”. I mean a lot of the time you work with a producer and it goes off to be mixed, the guy who’s mixing it doesn’t have a clue about any of the conversations you’ve had, and all the things that are important to you, they might be lost. With Mark though, he basically, with the four of us, the five of us, and maybe Gaff less so…

Paul: You’re just not important in the scheme of things!

John: You know what I mean though! We all knew, what album we wanted to make through the conversations, and even before the got to the mix stage, we all had a really good idea how we wanted it to sound, and it sounds better then that.

Paul: True. The first album, especially as we were working for Atlantic who are a massive business, the thing is you end up making the album for ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen different people there. You have the people at the label who you want to please and they want to have their input, you have the producer and the mixer who want to have a part of it, then the other 5 people. In the end you get a scaled down version of what everyone wants but ultimately with no-one completely 100% happy with the end result. Whereas this time it was just us making it with Matt and I do think it’s important to have someone else from outside of the band, you need someone to say “That doesn’t work” or “That’s wrong”, you can always disagree, and we probably do, but it’s good to have that. The fact that it was just us, the band members and one guy, and that’s how we were making it, it made for a stronger record.

Baz: Pushed us as well didn’t he.

Paul: Yeah

John: Yeah he did. He was just a really great producer, it was a great producing experience.

Did he push you beyond your normal boundaries?

John: Yeah he did, but at the same time he made us feel really comfortable. We were recording with our mate.

Paul: We’ve known him for a long time, when we first started recording, he was just starting out too.

John: Go on, call him a teaboy.

Paul: Haha, he wasn’t a teaboy! He was assisting the bigger engineers, he’s one of the best up and coming producers.

John: Really sound guy.

Paul: And we were really lucky we semi stayed in touch, and he saw that we had a good album. He’s made his name from a lot of great metal stuff, he’s done Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine, it’s good to get that guy for free.

Ah yes, you guys are good at that, I seem to recall when you first started out a meeting with a potential manager meant a free meal!

John: Yeah, meetings mean meals.

Paul: We were so poor when we moved though.

John: What do you mean!? We’re still poor!!

Paul: We’ve come full circle now though! At that point it was kind of a weird world because for whatever reason we were deemed the hot band of the minute - all the labels were interested and everything. We didn’t have a manager, it was just us, we were meeting all these different people at the same time and we were absolutely dirt poor. Everyone was promising us everything so we knew we were probably going to be all right in a month. We were just trying to survive to that point where somebody actually gave us some money but yeah, that was a good time.

So, looking back, is there anything that you would change or do differently.

Paul: Not really. I mean you can always question if you signed to the right label because obviously we only lasted one album and I think we deserved at least another album after this. Everything that they set out to sign us for, which was building the band – the band was growing as a live band but probably we’ve regressed on that a little because we’ve been away for so long. So we feel like we’re starting again now. But at the time everything was growing, it’s just that the major labels can be impatient, and obviously they want their money back as soon as possible. You can say we signed to the wrong label, and we did have loads to choose from, but, we signed to the label that at the time seemed the best option.

John: How many times though, I mean you looked at their history and they seemed the best bet.

Paul: It wasn’t just the label though, it was the general UK music scene too, I mean it changed from Rock to whatever else really quickly, and that still happens now, so I think we did well to get a fan base, stick to what we like doing. And if it comes round again, and it’s the hot thing at the moment, and we’re flavour of the month again fair enough, but, if not, we want to make a career.

John: I think that, I want to say, but I feel slightly arrogant saying it, I don’t regret anything, but at the same time, the bad choices we made, we’re not going to make those choices again. I think it’s been a really good fun learning experience.

Paul: Yeah, it’s been a struggle, and I look back at the bands we were touring with then, 2003 – 2006, and a lot of them didn’t make it to the second album. We’re taking it a lot more for what it is, just trying to enjoy everything. You can get all caught up in everything, and yes, sometimes you do have to, to keep on top of stuff, you have to get a little involved in the business side, but just want to make sure we enjoy ourselves. And any mistakes we made first time round, hopefully we’re in a good place to know not to do it again. But we’ll probably just screw it up again haha.

John: You know, you were saying that.

Paul: I was thinking there, I hope we don’t make any of the same mistakes, but then actually, our download didn’t come out till Wednesday and we still haven’t played a gig yet on this tour haha. Things just happen, take them in good humour. First time round we got really annoyed about it and probably annoyed at everyone around us, but now we know it’s going to happen!

I was going to ask all of you, so you get a chance to speak this time round.

Gaff: I’m the strong silent type!

John: You can add subtitles.

What prompted you to actually become musicians?

Gaff: For me it was just natural, it’s the only thing I was ever good at straight away, but it was just so natural, picked it up…

Paul: Haha, goods a bit….

Gaff: Yeah it was just natural for me to do that, it happened at the right time and I kept going and going.

John: You did just consider stealing cars as a career choice.

Gaff: I’m very good at hotwiring!

John: As Gaff said, ultimately, some people, everybody has something they’re really good at, and some people it could be just being organised, or a more traditional career path, maybe even easier, and possibly more rewarding, because being a musician is not necessarily the easiest life in the world, but like Gaff said, there’s nothing I’d rather do but play guitar.

Baz: For me I guess, I was a bit late at picking up an instrument. But, noticing I was listening out in tracks for the basslines, especially Entwhistle, The Who, I used to be a Mod in my teenage days, Quadraphenia, and it seemed logical to do that.

Billy: I tried to play the Saxophone, but that didn’t work out!

John: Did you!?

Billy: I used to always hit things…

Paul: Walls.

John: Have you seen the Lost Boys?

Yes.

John: You know that muscular guy who played the Saxophone on the beach? Haha

Actually we hijacked those guys!

John: Really, how were they all together?

Well it was erm, one of those erm *coughs* geekfest *coughs* thing.

Paul: Haha, Collectormania!! This girl was telling me about it the other day, about the one in London. I was like “What is Collectormania?”, and she was like “It’s where people go to get stuff signed.

John: Kleptomania, sounds good!

Paul: You’d be well into it John, Sci-FI, Star Wars, all that stuff.

Are you a Star Wars fan?

John; I am a Star Wars fan, I’m a big big Star Wars fan, but I’ve kissed a girl…

SO you’re not a “real” fan then! And Liverpool fan?

Paul: WHAT!? Everton!!

John: Everton.

Paul: I can’t believe he said that, that’s the worst thing.

What do you reckon to the season so far then?

Paul: Terrible, injuries, obviously, is our excuse. We had the worst possible. It’s a depressing season to be honest. Last year they were so good. Everton is a team who don’t spend much but do really well as a team, and you end up really proud of them. But this year, depressing, seems like it’s being badly run. Every time we play the best players…

John: Hang on, stop, depression right, watch this! Liverpool, how’s it going for them?

Paul: Haha! That’s the plus side because they’re not doing well, but how much better would it be if we were still doing well, and they were struggling.

John: You can’t have everything mate.

Paul: No, I’m not happy. That’s the first thing for auditions, if Gaff had said Liverpool we might have still considered him as out old guitarist was a Liverpool fan, but when he said Everton, that sealed it!

Guitar Hero, you any good?

Gaff: I’m shocking, rubbish, can’t do it.

Paul: I’m terrible

John: I played it once, and prior to playing it, I had heard about it, I was all indignant, just it’s the worst thing in the world, it’s killing music, it’s giving people these bad habits, making people feel like they can achieve something on guitar without having to practice or anything, and then I played it, and thought it was wicked!

Paul: Haha! I lie it but I can’t play it.

And the sales of guitars worldwide shot up by something stupid like 50%.

Paul: And I tell you what, the main thing going for it, my brother has got a little lad, and his favourite songs are like Welcome to the Jungle, or some AC/DC tracks, and he’s like nine years old. The thing is, at least it’s letting a new generation of people hear music that they might not have, and if it stops him from listening to X-Factor. I’d rather him listen to “Welcome to the Jungle” then that, and it’s good for the bands too…

You ever considered gate crashing X Factor with a pineapple.

Paul: Haha, yeah I saw that.

Yeah it was Calvin Harris.

Paul: I didn’t know what was going on at first.

John: Sorry what happened?

Paul: He jumped on stage with a pineapple on his head, obviously because they had their hair like…

John: Oh right, brilliant…you say obviously, but, I don’t really know!

Paul: Everyone just thought he was one of the crowd who just ran on!

John: Brilliant.

Paul: I do like watching it be honest, it’s a really bad programme I know, but I can’t deny it.

John: No, no, no

Paul: Aw come on, I think it’s funny.

John: No whatever your reason, you’re just perpetuating this awful idea, seriously.

Paul: Aw yeah, I know, but..

John: It’s ruining music.

Paul: Ok, maybe it’s ruining the idea of being a successful musician who’s worked for years, I tell you the funny thing though. It’s when you get a nineteen year old lad and they say “If I don’t make it, this is the end for me”. You just want to say, “You’re 19! go out and so some gigs or something, surely if you don’t get this audition it’s not the end”.

With things like the X Factor, and some of the people we’ve interviewed have said, Guitar music is dead.

Paul: People have been saying that for years, probably even when the Beatles came out! People always say that. Music goes in cycles, some types of music being fashionable, and then the other isn’t in vogue. For us it’s about getting out to other countries, because if you want to sustain a career, bands like WASP for instance, can play venues like this all over the world, whereas In the UK it can be a bit tunnel vision like. I speak to a lot of bands, and I would take success anywhere, and yeah there is obviously a level of kudos being big in your home country, but they would rather be a semi well known band here then be big in other countries, but it’s all record sales, so yeah, wait, I don’t even know what the original question was now!

John: Guitar music, dead?

Paul: Oh yeah, it’s not dead is it. People will do different takes on guitar music, I don’t think it’ll ever die. If it has three months where it’s not the coolest thing in the world, that won’t be a new thing, and then it’ll come back in a new form perhaps. How can it be dead when sales of guitar hero are through the roof, and you look at the music on there?

John: But yeah, it’s like you say, and there might actually be a glut of guitar bands in a couple of years time. Then, there might be a dozen people who have been turned off guitars, so, NME will come out and say that guitar music isn’t cool anymore, and rest of the media follow suit. So yeah, guitar music isn’t happening, but in reality, it’s just twelve folks in Hackney, going “Ho ho ho, we just stuck it up guitar music!”. And when I was a kid listening to music, I would be wondering how they came about producing electronica music, making that stuff, so there I was watching Top of the Pops, watching these guys standing with these Keyboards and stuff, and to be honest, I couldn’t afford to buy a keyboard. You know what I mean. I just could not buy a synthesiser. There was no way a kid from Pudsey, or me from Pudsey, could buy one, but I could go to some crappy music shop up the road and buy a guitar for ninety quid. That was my way into music.

Thank you very much for your time!