THOSE GULLS Right before the release of their upcoming album Forevermore, we were lucky to touch base with Andrew Grosvenor (Vocals/Guitar, AG) and Peter Zachar (Drums, PZ) of rock outfit Those Gulls. The lineup is rounded out by Jake Ting (Guitars, above far-left), Kate Schroder (Keys/Vocals, above center) and Kurt Borutski (Bass, above far-right). Check them out on December 18th for their CD release party at the House of Targ!
VITALS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thosegulls
Web: http://www.thosegulls.com/
Merch: https://thosegulls.bandcamp.com/merch
Latest release: On Our Own (Tape, August 2014)
Upcoming shows: December 18th, 2014 - Forevermore CD Release Party (with Kings Quest and Saint Clare), House of Targ, Ottawa
SA: How did Those Gulls get their start? PZ: I guess there’s two starts you can talk about. Andy has been writing and recording material under the moniker “Those Gulls” since high school, but I suppose the band didn’t fully materialize until 2007 when he came back from China with a handful of songs. I wanted to learn how to play the drums, and he needed a drummer. I bought a mixer and some microphones, and without really knowing what we were doing we ended up recording the first album “The Beautiful Progress”. AG: Jump ahead to 2013 and our ranks grew to include Kate and Jake, which has really had a positive impact in terms of song writing and performance. Most recently, following Pierce’s “departure” we’ve been joined by Kurt. So, you know, continued improvement on all fronts. PZ: To be clear, massive improvement in the bass department.
SA: What bands would you say are the main influences on your sound? PZ: That’s a tricky question, especially now that there are five members in the band. We all bring our own musical histories and current tastes to the band, from electro-pop to black metal we pretty much cover the spectrum in terms of our influences.
To give you some band names, one of Andy’s long-time favorites is Sonic Youth. I think you can definitely hear that influence in a lot of our songs… we tend to gravitate towards riffs and sounds that feel good, rather than trying to hack everything into a verse-chorus-verse structure.
SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your greatest accomplishment? PZ: I think the answer to this question would always be “our latest album”. We love going back through our previous releases and hearing the evolution, both aesthetically and technically. We record all of our own material, a situation that was initially born out of necessity but has become a key part of our artistic process. Going back to earlier albums, and comparing them to our latest record for example, I think you can hear that shift in mentality… all that to say, I think we always consider the current batch of songs and the current record to be our greatest accomplishment, and we look forward to the next time being even better.
SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? PZ: Andy is a total piece of shit diva. If it wasn’t for him, we’d have a Grammy by now. AG: Peter’s constant need to take breaks during practice because he cannot play drums without hitting his own hands so hard that he starts bleeding and nearly passes out. Deal with it? Metal hands like Dr. No, or drummer auditions in early 2015. Nothing is sacred, no one is spared.
SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process, and given that you started as a two-piece, how has this process changed over the years? PZ: Well, the first album when it was just the two of us was very much a case of Andy coming over with a song, and me attempting to play the drums. I had a bit of creative input at that stage, mostly to do with the recording and adding parts here and there, but it was pretty much Andy’s vision and I was along for the ride.
Since then, it’s opened up a bit. Most of the times it’ll start with a riff that Andy comes up with, but we’ve got five voices now that help mold the song. It kinda gets tugged in a bunch of different directions according to all of our tastes, and the final product is very much a sum of the parts. I think one major step came when Kate joined the band, particularly in shaping the song structure. The focus still isn’t really to churn out pop hits, but she introduced words like “chorus” and “verse” into our songwriting dictionary.
SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? PZ: Best place to be, in my opinion. And thanks for not prefacing that with “some people call Ottawa boring”… Piebald, one of my all-time favorite bands, has a line in their song “Just A Simple Plan” that goes “If you’re bored, then you must be boring too”. I know it’s not original to them, but being in a band hearing one of your favorite bands sing it really brings the point home. Maybe five or ten years ago Ottawa didn’t quite have the visible scenes that it has now, but we didn’t just piss and moan about it. Now there are bands and venues and record labels that are doing amazing things, and it’s all in the spirit of building something.
SA: You guys are currently in the midst of a fall/winter tour, with a total of 9 stops. Any highlights from the tour thus far, in terms of great venues, great receptions, or just overall great vibes? PZ: Every show we’ve ever played has been a highlight. I’m not being superfluous, playing live and getting any kind of reaction is 90% of why I’m in a band. Connecting with the audience is the best feeling in the world.
We’ve had a lot of fun in every city so far, but we always get the warmest welcome at This Spill in Peterborough. The Speakeasy in Sudbury is also a rad place.
SA: Those Gulls has an album release show for your upcoming album Forevermore at the House of TARG Thursday, December 18th. With respect to your new album, do you have any favourites to play live, and how has the live show changed over the years, given both the size of the band and the nature of the songs? AG: One of my favourite things is starting the set off with the song “Cliffside”. I had a vision for that one really early on, back in 2012 when we were still only three members. Actually being able to play it like I had it in my mind is awesome and I think it really kicks things off well.
On the whole, I think you can always tighten up a live performance, and with five of us up there now the audience has more to focus their attention on. I love the scale of the Those Gulls sound now. If I could, I would add even more instruments/musicians for the live show! PZ: I think the first big change to the live show came with Kate again. We’ve been called a “shoegaze” band before, and I know that’s a genre but it was also a pretty apt description of our live show at the time. Kate brought a bit of the live presence she had developed with her own solo material, and brought us all out of our own heads a bit. Jake was the next step in that, because he’s a character live. The first time he played with us he was just bouncing off the walls! We all play to each other’s level of energy, and I can kinda see that level climbing with every show.
Another change came with the visual component. It started with a string of Christmas lights that we tangled around Kate’s synth stand, and it’s evolved into the current multiple bare-bulb setup that ended up featuring in our album art. A bunch of us have had this conversation in the past, and we all share the idea that a live show should unquestionably add something to the music. We’ve all been to shows where the band just kinda stands there and plays their music at you (fuck, we’ve BEEN that band), and it sort of makes you wonder why you’re not just listening to the music at home on your iPod. That’s not necessarily to say we’ve broken drastically new ground and reached the pinnacle of audience captivation, but our live philosophy has definitely shifted towards the overall performance, and not just accurate reproduction of the music. Whereas before the live show was maybe an attempt to convey the recorded material, I think now the live show contains the definitive versions of the songs, including us and the visual component.
SA: Over the years, Those Gulls has released some interesting music videos, some of which were even part of a multi-song trilogy. Can we expect any new videos from the band, and if so, should audiences expect the more 'dramatic' version of the band seen in recent clips ('Friday Night') or the humour that has been hallmark of many Those Gulls videos ('Swim with Sharks', 'The Out')? PZ: I think there will always be humor in everything we do. We take our music and recording seriously, but never ourselves. The video for “Friday Night” was definitely a departure from the previous ones, and I think you can expect more of that kind of video in the future. Humor, of course, but within a narrative. Everything is about communication and storytelling. We’re always conscious of the line between evoking an emotion and clichéd pandering, and it wouldn’t be true to us if any aspect of what we do didn’t have a tongue in a cheek somewhere…
SA: Finally, what’s up next for Those Gulls in 2015? All the best, guys! PZ: Hopefully, festivals! We’re all devotees of the festivals that have been going on around Ottawa, and I’d be lying if I said we weren’t dying to get involved with them.
We’ve also got some exciting stuff planned for our studio, and Ringbill Records!