Credit: GNASHERS
Advertising and Events Manager
“We just want to make some silly riffs you can lose yourself to”
Our Advertising and Events Manager Kevin Le Merle sat down with zany rock group GNASHERS to discuss their tumultuous origins, influences and aspirations.
This story really starts in 2069, the year that rock group GNASHERS decided to leave their timeline for ours. Since their time travel to the dark and dreary past of 2020, they have been honouring the rock canon in original ways – but their post-modern theme isn’t the only thing they have going for them. Their unprecedented levels of energy on stage are contagious, and translate into some real head-banging moments, almost as if by capillarity.
Their polyvalent style alternates between slower nostalgic interludes, and heavy drums. The drummer’s rhythm feels like the pounding heart of these epic songs of melancholy, toil and trouble.
Gig-goers at their King Tuts stint on 27 February were keen on stating that the show was a bang for their buck: “the music was vibrating in my chest and made me feel alive!”
Glasgow Guardian: When did you guys start?
Tim: We started GNASHERS spring 2019, really. I had written some tunes and got together with Matt and Timmy to jam them. Turned out Timmy had some ideas too, so we booked some practices and got Donal involved in drums. We’ve all come from other bands and decided we were just gonna have some fun and not take it too seriously. If it loses its fun we’ll stop it. We found ourselves really enjoying it so decided to start recording the ideas. I think we all really wanted a project where we could really go to extremes and not really give a shit about what people thought of it.
GG: What gave you the idea for the band?
T: I’ve always had a kind of aggressive, silly, fun side to my music that I’ve not really had the chance to express in my other projects so this is just filling in the blanks. We all just wanted to make something that was really fun!
GG: What are the three most foundational rock artists that have influenced your style?
T: Tough to round it up to three. There are plenty of smaller artists but I reckon the three biggies would be Rage Against the Machine, At The Drive In, and The White Stripes.
GG: Do you guys have stage names?
T: Nothing that’s stuck, we just play around. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel or change the world or anything. We just want to make some silly riffs you can lose yourself to. It’s a kind of therapy for us.
