After meeting through a Gumtree ad seven months ago, Irish three-piece Strangers With Guns today (August 30) unveil their debut album 'Degenerate Art'. The Dublin-based band - who describe their sound as "groove-driven, hypnotic rock" - help us to get to know them a little better, as well as walking us through the album, track by track.
Who are you?
I'm Jeff Crosdale I play the guitar and do the vocals. Rick Wright is on bass and backing vocals, and Paul Rennick plays the drums.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
We got together through Gumtree. I wrote four of the tracks - 'Summer of Sam', 'Spaceman', 'Lies of Omission', 'Sane' - four years ago and just paid a session drummer and engineer to help me record them with a view to finding a band easier once I had completed songs up. I only do the vocals out of not being able to find our gel with a singer. But anyways, literally every year since I put them up I've floated ads on Gumtree. A few times it's turned into jamming with people, but it's always dwindled out. I'd find a lot of Italian, Polish or Spanish drummers it seemed who were more into prog or jazz but we're looking to just get into a band over here. So we'd jam a few times, then they'd find something they would prefer or else the lack of chemistry; I would call it quits and lose heart for a few months before trying again.
Paul and Ricky we're both previously in a punk band called Kiss My Acid and fortunately for me, that band literally fell apart right as I placed an add up again. Paul responded and we organised a jam with a friend of mine playing bass. We had instant chemistry and my friend on bass started to become less and less available and eventually we called it a day with him. Then Paul suggested asking his previous band mate. As soon as Ricky showed up we all clicked, they had their previous history and all the touring of Ireland, UK and Germany so they we're very in sync with each other, and got the songs down in no time. And we commenced to go flat out booking shows all over Ireland to try build a name.Went back into the studio about five weeks ago and finished off the album. We were lucky to get legendary, at least in Ireland. The Republic of Loose singer Mik Pyro involved on our track 'Monkey King'. Interesting day in the studio that was, we were expecting him on Friday and he went dark, heard from him at Monday at 5pm when we had 2hrs of Studio time left and I raced over to get him. Listened to it a few times, then went in and did a few takes, all we had time for.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
I think our style somehow turned out to be a mix I guess between the Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band' and The Melvins. I think how we all sound will become broader when we record next. I wrote every note of music on this album, so it's almost a solo project. I think our next stuff will be far different, we'll be able to jam it all out a lot more. We really enjoy the three-piece set-up and dual vocalists as it gives quite good dynamics and contrasts.
There's not a band in Ireland that sounds remotely like us, we are trying to have crossover appeal. And we get thrown in with a lot of punk bands at punk festivals where we are quite different. Our closest musical comparison in Ireland probably be the Vulpynes or Bicurious. Nothing moves you in a live setting like heavy music except for maybe bands like the prodigy. There's something powerful about it, at least thats what we believe. We try book the trends of lots of other Irish bands who are very rehearsed in their actions. We go up to have fun, give it socks and just do whatever comes naturally.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
The entire album was recorded in three different stages at TrackMix Studio by Michael Richards. First in 2015 the first four songs, then the next four right at the end of 2019. Then finally we went and re-amped the whole thing and laid down the next tracks. There wasn't really any producton. And to be honest, I'm not over the moon about how it all turned out, but it's all my finances would allow. Same thing that's holding us back on music videos.
In Ireland we find there's a lot of nepotism and connections involved. Imro have given bands like The Fontaines D.C. 7,500 to tour, Just Mustard got a big grant off them as well. The same names keep getting played at all the Imro run festivals because of their appearance and pop sensibilities. So we do at times feel like we are swimming against the current. But fuck it, it just fuels our drive.
Tell us a little about the album.
Our songs don't really mean anything. I kind of like what grunge bands did, especially the likes of Stone Temple Pilots. Different genre, but also someone like Mike Patton. Just words that fit. There's enough people singing about their feelings or trying to make points, some of our songs do. But the majority are just fun.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
Our next show is our album launch. It's in Dublin's The Grand Social on August 30. Keep an eye on our social media for more dates.
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Instagram // Twitter
The album track by track:
Now Wait for Last Year
The title is from a Philip K Dick novel. It was never aimed to be a song about anything, but kind of turned into one. The song is kind of a reminder to people about their own mortality. In the chorus Ricky shouts "You should probably say it now, nobody's guaranteeing you later, another face that's not the crowd", basically you get to live once, don't be timid and let things pass you by and don't just follow the crowd.
Spaceman
This track is very random. There is some poker references in there just because it fit "Spaceman came down on, November 9, he was calling for chips, but I was for time". November 9 is when the world series of poker final table (the biggest prize in poker) happens. Doesn't mean anything, it just fit. However, we did throw some educational gems in "I made friends with the hippo, the aul riverhorse, he's the third largest mammal, that walks the land, and I asked him where he came from son bitch said the Rio Grande". The name hippo comes from the Ancient Greek term for River Horse', and after elephants and rhinos, it is the third largest land mammal.
Monkey King
This song was a pure fluke. I don't get much time to play guitar, so I mess around with finger exercises and was messing with it one day and stumbled on the main riff. After I wrote the music for this song it had an old school blues story telling vibe to the main riff. I struggle to do serious, so I just created a fictional tale about being woken by a drunken monkey when I was living in the south of France.
Lies of Omission
This song dates back 10 years, I had an idea before I had the song. I wanted it to be a dark, bass-driven track with a big chorus. At the time a lot of people I'd be talking to we would be talking away then i'd find out they just never told me something I thought was quite significant and they would be like "Well I didn't say I wasn't" but would have massively indicated that way.......lies of omission.
Too Tired To Sleep, OK To Drive
Just a fun story I wonder might come back to haunt me, because on some of our mini travels I've been struggling on the road. However, I do pull over. It's a fictional tale of the three lads in the band going out driving somewhere, the car crashes, Paul dies and me and Ricky just burn his body and drive off. Sounds a bit twisted, but purely fun.
Problem Is You
I sometimes think this our best song. I wanted to write something in the vain of Radiohead's 'The National Anthem', but without ripping it off, and came up with this. Like all our stuff it came together very fast. I've never spent more than an hour on lyrics, I'd say. And it's always been just what I have felt at the time. Somewhat a shot at PC culture and people being afraid to say things for fear of reprisal.
Fortune
Kind of unanimously agreed in the band as our worst track. It's pure nonsense:
"If I had half my faith in her, I ain't dying, not today
Take a look at half the town, half the town just aint right
Seen some lettuce in the news lettuce get's some real abuse
All those ducks chirping away, they're false tripping everyday"
I mean......nonsense. Fun though.
War
This came about from me just messing around in Drop D tuning. I was strumming and muting and just stumbled on this and loved it. The chorus came instantly and the whole song came together really fast, and it's great fun to play. The ending was completely spontaneous and one take in the studio, but we kept it, the lads dug it.
Summer of Sam
This came about from me messing with my guitar effects pedal. Literally the first time and I got an Eraserhead feel off it instantly. The song feels like it wrote itself. At the time I was on a springboard course trying to avoid getting my social welfare cut off, hence the lyrics, "I'm sitting here at the back of classroom, trying to avoid getting cut of the scratcher.......fuck"
Sane
This was written on an acoustic guitar. I adore Megadeth and chord sliding is a big Dave Mustaine thing. So I was fooling around and discovered the intro/chorus riff. Was also listening to a lot of Rollins Band at the time, and just channelled that for the rest. This was probably the third some I wrote off the bunch and I didn't want to do just verse/chorus so added in the finger picking section just for more dynamics.
Never thought about the Money
This one was written on my dad's guitar, when I was messing around with chord shapes, and wrote it a while back. Was watching clips on my phone of song ideas, remembered this one and finished it off. The lyrics mean nothing. The chorus Ricky sings "Cheeeeesssseee, Ttttoooooasssssstttt and I come in with melt" pure kind of track to through the listener because it's so far removed from everything else.
Bert Sugar
This was a song I'd given up on, but when me and the lads were playing all the other stuff, I just played this and Paul dug it. I had the lyrics from years ago, just thought they suited the vibe. Thought this would almost be like a filler or B-side track, but people seem to have taken it. The "Wah" on the chorus was just an experiment in the studio. First time I tried it, but it stuck and added a new dimension to the song.
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