Sound of Guns… Back with a bang

Interview: Sound of Guns

Published on March 14th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

Anthemic Liverpool rockers Sound of Guns are out on the road in support of recently released second album Angels and Enemies – click here for a list of dates and links for buying tickets – so Rocksucker fired over some questions to the band’s guitarist Lee Glynn…

“Sometimes”

First off, how’s the tour going? Do you get much time to enjoy yourselves when you’re out on the road?

The tour is going well so far. The crowds are totally up for it and already know the lyrics to all the new songs. With regards us enjoying ourselves; what’s not to enjoy about playing gigs everyday?

You don’t really sound like a typical Liverpool band. Are there any ‘scenes’ that you identify more with, or are you not really bothered about that kind of thing? Which bands do you see as your contemporaries, as it were? Or rivals, even?

We didn’t subscribe to any type of scene and I suppose we still don’t. People will always try to lump any band into a scene to make it easier to explain what they sound like, whereas it’s near impossible to pigeonhole us. We make music that’s fit for arenas; not because we thought it would be a good idea to go down that road or anything, it’s just what happens in our rehearsal room and in the writing process. We make music that is still going to be relevant in fifty years’ time. It’s guitar music, and guitar music will never die. We look up to bands like U2, Led Zeppelin and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Just a big sound that melts faces.

How does a Sound of Guns song tend to start life? One of you on an acoustic, or is it more of a jam scenario?

On the first record it was predominantly Andy [Metcalfe, singer] coming in with the song or a verse/chorus idea on an acoustic; we would build it together, and it worked out great. The new record was approached a little bit differently as some of the tracks were written by just jamming out a riff or whatever, whereas the likes of “Sometimes” and “Antarctica” were written by our drummer Simon [Finley], and the rest of us just added our own parts to it.

Do you argue much? If so, what about, and how do you settle debates? (Feel free to make something up…)

We argue more than any other band in the world. It’s always about what goes on the stereo in the van though. Or who drank the last beer!

“Silicon”

Why/how did you decide upon your band name, anyway?

It was a song Andy wrote. One of us saw the title and thought it was a better name than Intravenous de Milo!

What was [producer] Dave Eringa like to work with? And how was the curry house by the studio? Did you try the “consent form” curry?

Dave is honestly one of the greatest people in the world. He was awesome to work with and became a sixth member of the band during our time in the studio. He brought out the best in us musically and really got inside our heads to get the best performance out of us. He’s also got the loudest laugh known to man. He worked so hard for us and wanted it to be a great album, which I know we all succeeded in making.

As for the curry, we didn’t get a chance to get down to the restaurant so me and May threw a whole jar of chilli flakes in a bolognese for a laugh one night in the studio and just watched the chaos ensue. Immense.

Sound of Guns… Photo shoot

Who did the string arrangements on the album?

It was a group called Vulcan String Quartet. One of the guys does Star Wars impressions on the radio, which was blatantly one the most awesome things I’d ever heard of. It was also really weird hearing guitar lines I had written being played by a string quartet.

Having a song on the album called “End of the World” has to be worth a duff, tenuous question. So, here goes: if you knew the world was about to end, how would you spend your last day? And is the song (sample lyric: “It’s not the end of the world / Because the end of the world is over”) a response to Mayan ‘End Times’ Prophecy?

I would go surfing with my brother back home, listen to Brand New all day and nail as much Jim Beam as possible. As for what the song is about, you’d have to ask Andy that.

Do you know yet which festivals you’ll be playing this summer?

Unfortunately we haven’t had any confirmed yet.

Which football teams do you all support? 

There are two viscous Liverpool supporters and two Everton supporters in the band, whereas I don’t follow football at all.

Who’s the best in the band at table football?

By far it has to be Simon. He’s a damn machine on that thing. The rest of us just cheat as much as possible.

Are there any obscure and/or up-and-coming artists that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?

There are lots of bands we love,  but the three that spring to mind now are Little Comets, Carly Connor (who is currently supporting us on our tour) and Symphonic Pictures.

Finally, if you were forced to spend the rest of your days in solitary confinement, but were allowed to bring the entire works of five different artists along to tide you over, whose would you choose?

That’s an easy one: The Bronx, Brand New, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, U2 (up to Achtung Baby) and Ryan Adams.

Lee, thank you.

Angels and Enemies is out now on Distiller Records.

For more information, including a list of live dates, please visit soundofguns.com or the band’s Facebook page.

Artists: sound of guns

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.