Adam Dunphy talks to Gallus, an indie band at the heart of Glasgow’s burgeoning underground scene.
Glasgow has been the cradle for countless upstart musicians – Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, Paolo Nutini, Lewis Capaldi – and all sorts of styles and genres. You are very likely to find your niche here. You might think of music in Glasgow and jump to festivals such as TRNSMT, but you should pay more attention to the smaller festivals and venues. For this, there is no better starting point than Tenement Trail: an independent festival of smaller bands in venues off the beaten track. It is here that I found Gallus, where they headlined the BAAD stage earlier this month. At this show, everyone in the crowd – pressed against the barricade all the way up to the bar – was shouting and jumping along to the tunes. I’ve been to gigs all over Europe, and there’s nothing like coming home to Glasgow. Being on stage must be another experience altogether.
Though still early in their career, Gallus have made big waves, and it seems like there’s only more to come. I spoke to their lead guitarist, Eamon Ewins, and started by asking him what it’s like to be the best live act in Glasgow: “I’m flattered you describe us as that! There are a lot of bands who are much tighter than us, so in that regard I wouldn’t describe us as the best live band. What we do have though is a reputation of having fun gigs which breeds excitement at our shows. I love that we have that, we are very grateful for it.”
Eamon found it difficult to outline the differences between the music scene now and when Gallus first formed a couple of years ago, because the nature of his involvement has changed: “Every few years a new generation of bands come along, some go on to do big things, others call it a day or slow down, and they start drinking in different bars. It’s very cynical like that. I think Covid and lockdown really sped up that process and changed the local music scene quite dramatically. What I will say though is there are some very, very exciting new acts at the minute. Glasgow’s music scene changes quite a lot but it’s consistently good.” Asking Eamon how he feels the band has changed after the Covid-19 lockdown, he says that the “most obvious change is that [our second guitarist] Gianluca is now in [Gallus], which will obviously have an impact on our sound. We came out of Covid with a record deal and a booking agent somehow, so as soon as gigs were allowed again it was flat out for us. We’ve gone from having only played a few times down south to now having played in seven different countries. We’ve become a bit more professional in that regard, but we’re still the same idiots.”
Gallus are very much on their way up. Eamon describes it as a “nice feeling”, but “the worst thing you can do is get used to that feeling. You can’t be on the up forever and believing that you should be is what turns people into arseholes. You need to just find satisfaction knowing that there are people who enjoy your music, which is what really matters.” Asking whether Gallus sees themselves as in a mentoring position, Eamon does not: “Don’t get me wrong, I love talking to new bands and if I have any worthwhile advice I would give it if asked, but I don’t view myself as a kind of mentor. I’m still a relative newbie in music-the grand scheme of things too – so I might not even be worth asking!” Asking which bands are the ones to watch at the moment, Eamon mentions the “one and only Tina Sandwich, but I’d also give honourable mentions to The Big Day, Pinc Wafer and Doss. Those are the best relatively new bands in my opinion but the list is endless for great local bands.”
Returning to Glasgow itself, and the experience of its crowds from the point of view of the performer, Eamon says that “People singing songs back to you is an incredible feeling. Even weirder is people singing back guitar riffs! Glasgow crowds are obviously the best in our experience. Seeing that many people jumping up and down from start to finish was incredible.”
