Call Upon The Author

Frontman Gustav Wood (centre) and his bandmates

2010 has been a fantastic year for High Wycombe quintet Young Guns, who are undoubtedly flying the flag for up and coming British rock bands at the moment. Their new album “All our Kings are Dead” has received positive acclaim from the UK’s music press, including an impressive “4K” rating from Kerrang! Magazine, who are becoming a regular in the prestigious rock magazine. We took the time to catch up with Gustav Wood, the bands vocalist, during a busy UK tour to talk, fan tattoos, personal experiences reflected on the album and supporting Bon Jovi.

How did you find supporting Bon Jovi in June? Exciting or somewhat daunting?
Both! Bon Jovi are a band that all of us in the band (and probably nearly everyone in our generation) grew up listening to. They are one of those bands that are so big they’re almost more than just ‘a band’ and more of a part of pop culture. Driving to the o2, unloading our gear, setting up our equipment around Richie Sambora’s personalised amps, Tico’s ridiculously over the top tribal tattooed drum kit etc, and sound checking on their travelling stage set was done in a total state of disbelief. I’ll never forget looking out from the edge of the stage across the vast space of the arena waiting to check my mic, and the sound of my voice echoing around the empty venue. Even if we’d just gotten to do that, it would have been an incredible experience, let alone playing to a sold out crowd. I don’t usually get nervous but I must have walked a couple of miles pacing up and down our dressing room. The show itself, predictably, went by in a blur, but on the whole it’s a night I, and we, will never forget

You have been likened to rock royalty such as Lostprophets and 30 Seconds to Mars. Do you consider that an accolade?
Definitely, although we never set out to sound like anyone else other than ourselves. We’re not a million miles apart but I don’t actually think we sound that similar to those bands, I think it’s more the sense of scope and ambition that I think you can hear in our music. We’re just a small band starting out but I do think we write music that maybe sounds a bit beyond that. It’s an honour, they are extremely talented guys, and if people want to put us in the same bracket as them, that’s fine by us! We have our own idea of how we want our music to sound, and we just try and work to that standard. However other people want to label it is their choice, but they are definitely flattering comparisons. As a band we’re still finding our feet and our way, and I’m sure our sound and approach will evolve and change as we do. Also, we are obviously bound in ways they are not, but we do what we can!

You had five and a half weeks to make your latest album “All our Kings are Dead.” Did such a short amount of time to make the album push you to breaking point as a band on occasions?
Making a record in that amount of time is tough under any circumstances, so making one under the pressure of the amount of hype that we’ve been given and the scrutiny we’re under at the moment was, at times, a painful process. As a unit, although like all bands and circles of friends we argue, it’s never anything that substantial or important, and so there wasn’t a huge amount of inter-band friction or anything like that. It was more just a massive undertaking and there was a lot of worry and anxiety involved. Would it be finished in time? Would it live up to people’s expectations? Would it even be any good? We had to just trust our gut and try to put our peoples ideas or expectations of what the record would be, out of our heads and focus on the task at hand. Previously, everything we’d ever recorded had been free of pressure and without the notion that people were waiting to listen to, and to judge, the finished product, so writing and recording whilst being aware of that was a new experience for us. We tried to just write/record the best album we could, and to try and come out with something that we could honestly say that we were pleased with/proud of. That’s what’s gotten us this far, and that’s the way we’re happy to work. There were some intense sessions, especially towards the end when I was recording vocals, a couple of shifts where we’d do 2 days in a row without sleeping etc, but I like to think that the blood and sweat that went into recording it just ended up giving it a little more weight and value. Certainly it did to me, it really feels like a labour of love, and something we had to really put our all into doing.

the cover to debut album All Our Kings Are Dead

Your song “Crystal Clear” is about having no regrets and embracing your mistakes. Are there any personal experiences behind this song?

Well, lyrically I wanted to write a song that I felt had an overriding feeling of positivity and motivation to it, to counter-act some of the darker, denser moments on the album. A lot of the album deals with things in my past that I’m not happy with in some way, be it my growing up without a father figure, or my more self-destructive tendencies, and I wanted to be sure to speak about learning from mistakes instead of just dwelling on them. Turning negatives into positives is a central idea on the album, and I tried to use the album itself to turn things that I felt were negatives in my life into a positive. All Our Kings Are Dead is the most important thing that I’ve ever had anything to do with, and it’s already had such a massively positive impact on my life that, for me at least, it’s already done just that. The song is about the dawning of the idea in my head that it was within my power to make things good for myself, but also that if I wanted that to happen then it would have to be me, and that in some ways I was as much to blame as anyone else for my circumstances, if not more so.

What does it feel like to see your lyrics tattooed on your fans?
Surreal but amazing. I always feel like I’m struggling to convey the ideas in my head with my lyrics, and I always think that at best I did a passable job. If I haven’t managed to get them to a stage that I’m happy with, or ran out of time with or whatever, it’s a horrible feeling and can ruin a song for me as it’s all I hear. I am definitely still learning my trade, and know that I have a long way to go, so to see that the words I’ve written in my bedroom late at night, or in the van on the way to god knows where, mean enough to someone that they’d want to get them written on their body for the rest of their lives is a humbling experience. I just hope that they continue to mean as much to them as they do now. It’s a massive thing for me, and it hasn’t gotten any less incredible as it’s happened more. That people like my band enough to inspire them to get permanent proof is just unbelievable. It’s hard to comprehend sometimes, but in the best possible way. But if you’re gonna do it, take care of them and make sure they heal well!!!

Gustav you were quoted in Kerrang as having a “split personality” when it comes to being a frontman. A confident performer sometimes and other times feeling a little insecure. Is this due to how impressively quickly the band has shot to success?
Maybe that’s a part of it… I’m not sure. Being in a band on the level we are on is odd because you walk around existing day to day just the same as the person you have been for however many years you’ve been alive, but then you stand on a stage and perform and sing and share your emotions and do all this completely extroverted stuff that is impossible to do in a day to day context, and I sometimes find it hard to align the two or reconcile them both with each other. Sometimes I stand on stage and feel like there is nowhere else in the world I should be, and others I feel like an imposter or that I’m not good enough at all. I’m not sure if that’s due to the speed with which things have progressed, or if it would happen no matter what. It’s an odd adjustment to make. I don’t really consider myself a born talent in any way, so I’m still learning and am often unhappy with my own performance, to the point where sometimes I can be quite negative. I don’t equate our band with other bands, and sometimes find it hard to imagine that others could view our band in the way I view bands I like, as ‘real’ or deserving of the stage they’re on. It’s probably just a defence mechanism to some degree. Things are so good right now, and feeling even just a little bit like I’m achieving something or succeeding in some way is such a novel experience (and one I’d written off ever actually experiencing) I almost don’t want to believe it or put too much faith in it, because it could fall through and disappear at any moment. I do love my role though, and I love that we’re lucky enough to have people giving us their attention and time. It’s not a gift we take for granted, and we try to make people that like our band feel as involved and as important as we can, because they are.

You appear passionate about making music that true to yourselves as a band. Did you feel in any way that your feelings and experiences were more exposed doing this?
Totally, yeah. I think that we’ve written a record that is totally honest and 100% us, but doing that means that you are obviously a lot more exposed, and therefore criticism hurts more. I consciously made an effort to make my lyrics and vocals as honest and real as I could, right down to not using auto tune etc. Level any insult or criticism you want to at us, but you cannot say that we’re trying to be anything other than ourselves on this album. We tried our absolute hardest on this album, we worked our fingers to the bone to do the best we could with the time and resources we had. Having said that, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have a much better album inside of us, and my real hope for this album is that it allows us to get to a stage where we can write that better collection of songs.

The variety of songs on “All our Kings are Dead” is striking. Why do you feel it is important not to conform to a specific genre?
We just didn’t want to repeat ourselves, and didn’t want to play it safe and just shit out a pop-rock record, which I think to an extent some people were probably expecting us to. It’s heavier and more intricate than I think people were expecting, and probably a little less instant, but these were all conscious decisions. It wasn’t so much about not conforming to any specific genre but more about just not being afraid to experiment and try new things. Also, we strongly felt that the art of writing an ALBUM instead of just a bunch of songs is not held as being as important as it used to be. We really wanted the album as a whole to have a consistent and overall identity, rather than just 12 verse-chorus-verse-chorus pop rock tunes, so we tried to get ebb and flow, and a dynamic that runs through the whole thing. We really looked at how songs connected and worked next to each other. We deliberated for so long over the order, and even wrote with it in mind. I feel it’s much more of a statement that way. We listen to lots of different styles of music, and just didn’t see the need or the reason to restrict ourselves. Hopefully people will hear and appreciate the fact that we’ve tried to do something different and push ourselves to work hard and be the best that we could be, we’re growing as musicians and as people, and hope that people that like our band will grow with us.

“All Our Kings are Dead” is out now and Young Guns are currently embarking on a UK tour. Google it, Facebook them, just hunt them down and go. I don’t think there are many other Brit rock bands who have worked so hard and are more deserving of success than these.

check out Young Guns at www.myspace.com/youngguns