Whatever you consider to be the main elements for forming a great band, the Gin Riots seem to have all bases covered – catchy songs, insightful lyrics, engaging stage presence and already armed with enough rock n’ roll anecdotes for their first biography (stolen girlfriends, underwear-throwing fans and fence-impaled guitarists among the highlights).
Describing their sound is not something that would be given justice by a few adjectives, but think of the Pogues, Afghan Whigs, the Doors and the Cure in a Victorian drinking den and you will be on the right track. Their sincere-yet-playful lyrics and hook-laden guitars take the lead through songs like “Million Promises” and “In the Bedroom”, but this outfit also gives room to a rejuvenating and dynamic rhythm section – the belting drum intro of “El Torro” is definitely one to catch at a live show.
Formed in Bristol by singer Guy Stevenson and guitarist Cillian Logue, they decided to name the band after the famous Gin Tax Riots of the 1700’s (Guy being a descendent of the main instigator, Tommy Trenchard). It was then on to bigger and brighter things in London, where they met bassist Tim Burton and, after experiencing several non-runners behind the kit, drummer Taan Parker.
With memorable appearances at SXSW and NXNE already in the bag and more-than positive responses at festivals in Europe, the Gin Riots are quickly reaping the awards for their talents.
Their animated sound has also attracted the attentions of movie-business heavyweights: a recent video for the psychedelic/folk/punk mash-up, “The Polka” was directed by “Grandfather of the Zombie” George A. Romero and the group was invited to play Guy Ritchie’s “interesting” premiere party for “RocknRolla”. But perhaps their most treasured achievement to date is appearing on the Afghan Whigs tribute album, “Summer’s Kiss”, providing a tasty reworking of “Be Sweet”.
Live4ever was lucky enough to catch up with the band after their recent show in the Old Vic Tunnels – one London’s newest and prestigious venues buried in a labyrinth of decaying railway passages beneath Waterloo Station – where they were performing as part of the ‘DRIFT Urban Sound Series’. It was a pleasure to come across such a serious act taking it refreshingly less serious than most.
L4e: Can you give us a brief background on how the band started?
Guy: Cillian and I met at university in Bristol. He ended up with a girl whom I had just broken up with, so we weren’t very good friends at the start, but we realised we liked the same music!
So from volatile beginnings, something creative and beautiful was born. We started off making folk music a bit like Nick Drake, John Martyn, Bert Jansch – people like that. Sweet folk tunes, basically.
L4e: How long has the current line-up been together?
Guy: When we left Bristol and went up to London we wanted to go electric. We found Tim shortly after we arrived.
Cillian: Yeah, there were riots in Bristol when we went electric!
Tim: I came in around the end of 2006 – came into it from Gumtree (a classified-ads website). I’m not sure if I posted the advert or if I responded.
Guy: It was a pretty dirty message he put on his advert!
L4e: Hmmm… Were you in the ‘Musicians Wanted’ section or were you somewhere else?
Guy: It was ‘classified’.
Tim: We went through a couple of drummers and Taan has joined maybe six months ago.
Cillian: We’ve had Spinal-Tap luck with drummers.
Taan: I just thank God I’m still alive!
L4e: Gin Riots have a fairly eclectic taste when it comes to music, but if somebody asks you “what does your band sound-like?”, what would be your usual response?
Guy: Well, the Pogues was one of the big bands when we decided to step up from just doing acoustic stuff.
Cillian: I think we had a quote one-time describing us as what the Cure would sound like if Robert Smith was a proper punk!
Guy: I think dirty-sweet is kind of the premise we go for. Punky stuff with sweet melodies.
L4e: Do you each share the same influences or does everyone bring something different to the group?
Cillian: Yeah sure, I’d probably bring a bit of the Cure side of things. Tim has got a 60’s pop thing going on.
L4e: And when it comes to writing the songs?
Guy: It has become quite a collective thing.
Taan: A lot of the writing, where we actually get stuff done, comes when we don’t really think about it too much. Cillian sometimes starts with a riff, the rest of us back it and Guy sticks something on top from his little poetry book.
L4e: Is there a main inspiration for lyrics or is it more a question of what happens, happens?
Tim (interrupting): Well, what I can say about that is…
Guy: It’s a mixture. I guess a lot of lyricists have a mixture of their own personal experiences and stories. I think it’s important not to stick to just writing about one or the other.
Cillian: Given the way (Guy and I) met, there was definitely a misogynistic feel to the lyrics earlier on!
Guy: Yeah, A lot of those first tunes are ‘young-mans break-up tunes’.
L4e: Would you regard the London scene as being in a healthy state? Do you feel it has changed in any way over recent years?
Guy: It’s a lot more competitive here than in any other city.
Taan: It’s tough. We noticed a lot this year as we played in other countries like the US, Canada and Latvia. In other places, there’s a lot more community spirit between bands – they help each other, promote each other to their fan bases. Everybody shares their fans. It makes the whole business a lot easier.
Cillian: There’s a saturation of bands in London. We’ve always been a bit eclectic and we’ve never really fitted into a sort of scene, so it has hard to know whether it has changed much.
Guy: We’ve also done our own thing in the past. We used to run these “Gin Palace” nights down near Peckham (a suburb of South London), where we would have lots of different acts. We’ve stop doing them, but we’re thinking of bringing them back.
L4e: You’ve had some exposure overseas and already claim a European fan-base to your credit, how would you compare crowds in the UK to those on the continent?
Guy: We played a really big festival (Positivus) in Latvia a couple of weeks ago, which, bizarrely, was amazing.
Taan: We even got bras thrown at us!
Cillian: We got a really good response in SXSW and NXNE in Canada. There seems to be a lot less inhibitions and it’s a lot less about being cool when you compare it to London.
Taan: People are there for the music rather than the scene.
L4e: After two stints at SXSW, was the second-time round much different to the first?
Guy: Yeah, massively. The first time we had a good response but we played quite a small place off the beaten track.
Tim: We played in this place that was a Texan restaurant, but they had turned into a venue for the duration of the festival.
Guy: Yeah, but the second time round we were on the main drag – we did a really good gig.
Tim: We definitely knew what to expect the second time.
Taan: We had a map, basically!
L4e: So for a new band starting out, what festival would you recommend going for first, SXSW or NXNE?
Cillian: I’d recommend either to honest. Geographically SXSW is quite centralized, whereas NXNE is far more spread out.
Taan: At NXNE, with everything spread across the city, it has a more official atmosphere, with bands started at specific times.
Tim: SXSW is pretty much bands playing all the time.
Cillian: There can be three bands playing in each venue, and about 100 venues.
L4e: You’re video for “The Polka” was done in collaboration with George A. Romero. Can you tell us why he was attracted to the project and what he was like to work with?
Tim: He came to see us play at NXNE in Toronto, which is currently his home city.
Guy: He had a listen to the music, really liked it and decided to come over to London and shoot a video. The concept for “The Polka” was kind of a 1930’s Parisian speakeasy/ brothel vibe. We got in lots of people who looked the part and just had a really good time for two days.
Tim: I played a hat stand in the video, which was kind of interesting!
Cillian: And the absinth you see us drinking is real… not a prop!
Tim: Yeah, the main guy got really drunk – he had to do the same shot about ten times!
(Polka crew)
L4e You’ve played a private premiere for Guy Ritchie. What was it like performing for the movie-business elite?
Cillian: Yeah, that was about a year-and-a-half ago at the premiere for “RocknRolla” in London Bridge. We were playing with The Beat (of “Mirror in the Bathroom” fame). It was all decked out like a film set and actors were playing out scenes from the movie.
One of the guys from Peep Show (a UK comedy series), “Super Hands”, was , as he also starred in RocknRolla. As Tim looks a bit like David Mitchell (one of the show’s main stars) I said to him “you gotta come get a picture with my mate, he’s the spit of David Mitchell!” And he agreed to get his picture taken.
Tim: Back to the band, yeah? Thanks Cillian.
L4e: And your experiences with the music-business elite?
Guy: Among industry figures, in general there is more enthusiasm in North America which obviously filters into the industry itself. It’s easier to make contacts there.
Cillian: What we’re discussing at the moment is touring America, actually. That would be our natural progression.
Guy: We have a good fan base here in London, but like we said, it’s a saturated market.
L4e: Are there any bands out there right now that you would regard as an inspiration?
Cillian: Arcade Fire
Guy: Caribou, from Canada.
Tim: Yeah, and Villagers, who played the Old Vic Tunnels just a few nights ago.
L4e: Best gig to date?
Guy: We played a really good show supporting the Futureheads in the old fire station in Bournemouth – there was a really big audience and really good response there. But Positvus in Latvia was quite surprising. We didn’t know much about it but it was a really good festival. I think when we played with the Futureheads we were supporting a band than everyone had come to see, but at Postivus everyone had come to see us.
Tim: In Latvia everything worked: the songs worked and we all played really well – it was a great time. We also had a smoke machine and people throwing stuff at us!
L4e: So what does the rest of 2010, and 2011, hold in store?
Guy: Well it feels like it’s all starting again. We’re booking university shows at the moment.
Taan: Yeah, we want to do a university tour and get ourselves out there for fresher’s week.
Guy: Otherwise we’ve got an EP coming out and hopefully we can think about an album.
Tim: And we’re hoping to do a show in Hamburg, where the Beatles played.
Guy: They have an equivalent of SXSW thing over there as well. It’s sponsored by Simple, so we get free shoes!
You can keep up to date with The Gin Riots’ on their Myspace page – www.myspace.com/theginriots
Conor O’Brien
