(great band)
(great interview)
(who knows)
Gills: We actually started a year and a half ago! Tom came up with the name at the time; we were kinda struggling to come up with something when we started out. Coming from Purchase, we have bands like Sirs, Sports (then later, Spook Houses), things with s at the end. I guess it kinda spurred from that. Also, Tom and I found an interest in the Creature from the Black Lagoon - that later became our icon for the EP.
Me: Awesome way to come up with a name! So what made you guys start the band?
Gills: Call it a cheesy thing. I wanted to start the band at first, basically finding people with similar interests in style and music, the usual. I put up fliers around campus with the original bassist, Colin - we jammed a couple of times and clicked. Tom was one of the first people to respond to the flier. We all practiced, and that was how we got together. Colin quit at the end of the semester, and for a while Gills was a two-piece. I soon befriended Bern at his other band, Morrison Brook's first show (morrisonbrook.bandcamp.com<http://morrisonbrook.bandcamp.com>). He was up to play bass. And here we are.
Me: What were you going for in terms of sound?
Gills: Sound came from all of us experimenting in some way. (I guess we can all answer this differently) I bought this old vintage guitar, a Teisco ET-440, it has four pickups - it is very sludgy and noisy, you can scream in the pickups. My interest in this guitar came from bands that also use vintage guitars for that sound, like Unwound or Drive Like Jehu or Sonic Youth, to name some of my influences. There are a lot of sonic elements as far as live and recordings go. When we play live, its cranking it up to the highest gain, being able to hear those pickups squeal. Bern recorded us on tape, and our intent for that was to layer upon layer the sounds. Very loud stuff. Bern probably could say more about the recording process.
Me: Well what are your plans for the future? What do you have in the works right now? a tour or new music?
Gills: I'd say that we have about three new songs in the works, hoping to get at least five in by the end of the semester. We hope to tour in the summer with some friends, with lots of destinations in mind. We have fans in Minnesota,for instance. It's quite a distance. Breathing Patterns (breathingpatterns.bandcamp.com<http://breathingpatterns.bandcamp.com>) from San Jose, California will be releasing a split with us later in the Spring, either in May or June. This is a really big step for us. We've gotten so far in these past few months. There is that idea of a "full-length" in mind...I don't think that will be until we're ready. A while back, Guy Picciotto from Fugazi came up for a screening of the film, Instrument, and he took an interest in Gills. Maybe we'll produce something with him! We're still young, but our sound is maturing in very complex ways.
Me: Damn, do you guys plan to keep playing for a very long time?
Gills: We're dedicated. What I've learned from dedicated bands is being able to communicate with your other band members. It took us a while to get to that point. What I love about being in this band is that we click while we practice, while we play live, and recording. Not many bands have that click. Some bands are lead by a primary singer/songwriter - we feel things out before we can determine our songs. I guess what we're looking for now is people to participate. We're an instrumental band. Bands these days that play instrumental tend to not add vocals over time. What we look for is people to contribute, collaborate, and participate in our "final" concept. The magic of this is how powerful and free music invokes creativity. And we're a noise band - noise isn't particularly a quality of sound, but the activity that people create to make noise. When we played live once, our friend jumped up and did vocals on a couple of songs. It was basically a surge of emotion, but it was just noises from his mouth. That interests me and I want to see more of that from our fans, live or on recordings. I don't want this band to end. We've got plenty of potential, and we're getting there!
Me: Do you guys have like funds for your music? Do you have merch? Do you have stuff for people to show how much they love your music? Do you have a shirt I can wear to bed? Or a cd for my '98 Avalon?
Gills: Like I said, we're getting there! We have tapes (sorry, no CDs!), patches, and t-shirts. All of our art stuff (including the album art) was made by our friend, CJ Severin, so it was done on that kind of level of support. We sell our tapes at shows and online at our tape label, anthillconglomerate (.tumblr.com); they go for $3, so it's not a bad deal. Shirts are a sliding scale between $4 and $8. Patches are a buck, but you get them free if you buy the tape. We've been playing shows at Purchase, so most of our sales are through the merch and not shows. We're going to change that this time around, playing all ages shows, basements, in Connecticut, the 845 area, NYC, and Jersey. Most of this has been out of pocket, and that's a big mistake for lots of bands starting out. We're still learning from our peers, though, and thankfully we live in a community of artists that are willing to contribute their expertise.
Me: Okay here are my last three questions!
Do you feel very accepted in the area you play music?
Do you feel that there is alot more room for improvement?
What have you learned in the time you started this band?
Gills: At Purchase, there is a huge diversity of sound. We are one of only a few noise bands at school. Gills is a mix of noise, math rock, post-hardcore, and lots of other genres. To put things in perspective, I would say we are accepted, but there is work that needs to be done. The beauty of it is we are constantly changing. I feel like we could only keep going forward. Since we started, I've learned a great deal of things. For one, its communication. I've never had this much activity in a band before, and we've made strives to better know each other. The other thing is we are challenging ourselves. The riffs I've been making as of late are more difficult than the ones we started out with. Like I said earlier, we're become more mature in sound and activity that by being in a band, I can only imagine what we'll be doing in the next couple of months and years to come: touring, playing more and more shows, more music - these are all goals that we hope to achieve.
Me: Thank you guys so much for the chance to interview you and get to know you better and your music better!
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