Gus Wood - Young Guns (31/05/2011)
In 2009 Young Guns emerged from the shadows, being carried off on tour with We Are the Ocean and releasing their EP Mirrors in the same year. This was followed by a self booked tour around the UK to promote Mirrors which gave this fresh young alternative rock band even more momentum. Their debut album All Our Kings Are Dead was released in 2010 to critical acclaim, and since then their popularity has sky rocketed and doesn’t look to be slowing down.
I spoke with Gus Wood the lead singer of Young Guns, hearing about the humble beginnings of the band, the creative process behind All Our Kings Are Dead, the writing of their yet to be released second album, his thoughts on their success and their upcoming slot on the Soundwave Revolution line-up.
Gus thanks for taking the time out of your day to talk to us, where are you at the moment and what have you all been up to?
Hey my pleasure, I’m just bumming in Ben’s lounge room in the outer suburbs of London. Ben’s off somewhere at the moment and I’m just here by myself.
Being the bum in the band isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Haha, well there’s five bums in this band, none of us are working.
I don’t suppose you have time for jobs since the band took off?
Yeah, we’ve all been really lucky with our rise to success; the band is doing well enough now that none of us need to hold down jobs.
Ok, to kick off I have to ask you about the name of the band, who chose it? And was it intentional to be associated with a 1988 classic film?
Oh God, we all hate the name! We’re hoping that we’ll make of enough an impression that the name will stop being associated with the film. We inherited the name from a previous member who used to be the lead vocalist in the band, and the name just stuck. When the band took off two years ago we realised that as much as we hated it, it was a little too late for a name change!
I suggested they could follow in the footsteps of Prince and do a “…” formerly known as Young Guns. Gus laughed and said he didn’t think they had the same prowess or sticking power to pull it off.
I know it’s not the best source of information but Wikipedia dates the formation of the band back to 2003?
Haha well I don’t know who’s doing our Wikipedia but it isn’t us. Back then (in 2003) the boys were playing under the name Amber Fools there’s been other names but none that I’d care to mention as they’re all equally bad!
Your careers took off pretty fast, to think that Mirrors was only released two years ago, what’s the journey been like so far? Can you tell me a bit about the line up changes, how the band formed and what it’s been like since you joined?
Sure, the rest of the boys grew up in Buckinghamshire, an area of London that had a great music culture with a lot of bands and music venues. They’d been playing together for years in a number of different incarnations and under different names. But I didn’t know any of them as I’d grown up in central London and was quite removed from the Buckinghamshire music scene. Members have come and gone, the style of the music has changed many times since the original members started playing together until the current boys and I found our niche. I joined the band about five years ago, in October 2008, I’m the second newest member. Simon joined on bass three years ago. I got brought in through a mutual friend, and the band started to go in a new direction. Mirrors had a really good reception and we’re still quite surprised at how far we’ve come since then.
With regards to All Our Kings Are Dead, what was the creative process like? Who writes the lyrics? Does anyone have more creative control than anyone else?
Well I write the lyrics, but the rest is a collaborative effort. We’re very democratic; we sit around playing with riffs and phrases until we find something that works. The average length of time to write a song is two weeks, for example Stitches took approximately two weeks to write whereas Weight of the World kept changing and evolving in its instrumentation over a number of years. For the next album, which we’re in the process of writing at the moment, we’re trying something different, each of us is working at home with our laptops, and bringing something a little more concrete to rehearsals.
Looking ahead to Soundwave, what’s it feel like to be on the bill of a major Australian festival with such big names in rock?
It’s quite surprising to go from jamming in a room with your mates to being on the bill for an Australian festival! A lot of our friends were in the line-up for Soundwave earlier this year and we were green with envy at their opportunity. We’ve wanted to get out there [to Australia] for a while, and it’s great to finally have the chance. I’ve personally wanted to come out as a tourist but haven’t had the time or the funds so I’m hoping to have some time to look around while we’re here.
Do you know whether you’ve got much of a fan bass out here?
I didn’t really even know that anyone in Australia had even heard of us! But we employed a company to survey who was listening recently, and at the time Australia was the country where we were getting the most attention. It’s pretty exciting to think that you can record music in the UK and have people hearing it across the other side of the world.
Well Triple J has been playing your songs like How We Let it Be since as early as 2008!
Wow thanks, that’s really great to hear!!
Is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to seeing during the Soundwave touring circuit?
Well we’re all pretty stoked to be on the same line up as Van Halen, but we’re also looking forward to hanging out with our mates We Are the Ocean who will also be out here for the Soundwave Revolution tour. We had fun with them on the last tour and we’re looking forward to spending time with them again.
Brilliant, Gus we have to wrap this up, but I just wanted to say a big thank you again for taking the time to talk to me, I’m hoping to come see you when you’re out here and I hope you have a great time in Australia.
Thank you, it’s been a pleasure, come and say hi at the festival.
Jillian McEwan
I spoke with Gus Wood the lead singer of Young Guns, hearing about the humble beginnings of the band, the creative process behind All Our Kings Are Dead, the writing of their yet to be released second album, his thoughts on their success and their upcoming slot on the Soundwave Revolution line-up.
Gus thanks for taking the time out of your day to talk to us, where are you at the moment and what have you all been up to?
Hey my pleasure, I’m just bumming in Ben’s lounge room in the outer suburbs of London. Ben’s off somewhere at the moment and I’m just here by myself.
Being the bum in the band isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Haha, well there’s five bums in this band, none of us are working.
I don’t suppose you have time for jobs since the band took off?
Yeah, we’ve all been really lucky with our rise to success; the band is doing well enough now that none of us need to hold down jobs.
Ok, to kick off I have to ask you about the name of the band, who chose it? And was it intentional to be associated with a 1988 classic film?
Oh God, we all hate the name! We’re hoping that we’ll make of enough an impression that the name will stop being associated with the film. We inherited the name from a previous member who used to be the lead vocalist in the band, and the name just stuck. When the band took off two years ago we realised that as much as we hated it, it was a little too late for a name change!
I suggested they could follow in the footsteps of Prince and do a “…” formerly known as Young Guns. Gus laughed and said he didn’t think they had the same prowess or sticking power to pull it off.
I know it’s not the best source of information but Wikipedia dates the formation of the band back to 2003?
Haha well I don’t know who’s doing our Wikipedia but it isn’t us. Back then (in 2003) the boys were playing under the name Amber Fools there’s been other names but none that I’d care to mention as they’re all equally bad!
Your careers took off pretty fast, to think that Mirrors was only released two years ago, what’s the journey been like so far? Can you tell me a bit about the line up changes, how the band formed and what it’s been like since you joined?
Sure, the rest of the boys grew up in Buckinghamshire, an area of London that had a great music culture with a lot of bands and music venues. They’d been playing together for years in a number of different incarnations and under different names. But I didn’t know any of them as I’d grown up in central London and was quite removed from the Buckinghamshire music scene. Members have come and gone, the style of the music has changed many times since the original members started playing together until the current boys and I found our niche. I joined the band about five years ago, in October 2008, I’m the second newest member. Simon joined on bass three years ago. I got brought in through a mutual friend, and the band started to go in a new direction. Mirrors had a really good reception and we’re still quite surprised at how far we’ve come since then.
With regards to All Our Kings Are Dead, what was the creative process like? Who writes the lyrics? Does anyone have more creative control than anyone else?
Well I write the lyrics, but the rest is a collaborative effort. We’re very democratic; we sit around playing with riffs and phrases until we find something that works. The average length of time to write a song is two weeks, for example Stitches took approximately two weeks to write whereas Weight of the World kept changing and evolving in its instrumentation over a number of years. For the next album, which we’re in the process of writing at the moment, we’re trying something different, each of us is working at home with our laptops, and bringing something a little more concrete to rehearsals.
Looking ahead to Soundwave, what’s it feel like to be on the bill of a major Australian festival with such big names in rock?
It’s quite surprising to go from jamming in a room with your mates to being on the bill for an Australian festival! A lot of our friends were in the line-up for Soundwave earlier this year and we were green with envy at their opportunity. We’ve wanted to get out there [to Australia] for a while, and it’s great to finally have the chance. I’ve personally wanted to come out as a tourist but haven’t had the time or the funds so I’m hoping to have some time to look around while we’re here.
Do you know whether you’ve got much of a fan bass out here?
I didn’t really even know that anyone in Australia had even heard of us! But we employed a company to survey who was listening recently, and at the time Australia was the country where we were getting the most attention. It’s pretty exciting to think that you can record music in the UK and have people hearing it across the other side of the world.
Well Triple J has been playing your songs like How We Let it Be since as early as 2008!
Wow thanks, that’s really great to hear!!
Is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to seeing during the Soundwave touring circuit?
Well we’re all pretty stoked to be on the same line up as Van Halen, but we’re also looking forward to hanging out with our mates We Are the Ocean who will also be out here for the Soundwave Revolution tour. We had fun with them on the last tour and we’re looking forward to spending time with them again.
Brilliant, Gus we have to wrap this up, but I just wanted to say a big thank you again for taking the time to talk to me, I’m hoping to come see you when you’re out here and I hope you have a great time in Australia.
Thank you, it’s been a pleasure, come and say hi at the festival.
Jillian McEwan