Starting Out
How did the band start out?
We were in New Zealand, touring with a band that we were in before this. We'd already been to South East Asia and were beginning to realise that lack of party potential in the circles we were moving in. Who needs tough guy posing when you can have a hell of a good time? We'd spent a long time doing the work of Satan and decided that a different kind of Devil was due in this fiddle contest.
Why the name Gay Paris? Where did it come from? Were there any other names you considered?
The idea to start a new band came with the name attached. This isn't just a band, it's a world wide party (thanks, internet connection), so I had to name that community. Gay Paris. Can't beat that.
How would you describe the bands sound?
If I had to draw the noose tight, let's call it swamp rock. We've been working on 'swamp funk' lately, but shit is still heavy as a crisis situation. People throw all kinds of weird nets on us, but I'm not sure that they fit. At the end of the day, it's just rock n' roll, albeit an exemplary form of it.
We all come from a metal background, I guess, and it shows, even if it's just in the sounds used, but only Slim grew up on it (and James Brown). Blacktooth does a good job of sliding his punk rock roots into things and as much as rap rock needs to stay in the cold, cold ground, I'd say that my hip-hop pedigree comes through, if only in swagger.
But I digress, we're a rock band.
Why did you choose that particular sound?
We didn't choose anything really. When this started out, Blacktooth and me thought that this was going to be a classy blues act - a touch on the heavy side - but certainly not as unrestrained and strange as it has become. We grew into these songs, bought new gear, changed sounds, rewrote things on the road and at rehearsal. We became very comfortable with messing with people while cajoling them into having a good time.
I think that a willingness to shame yourself publicly and try everything once has a big impact with where this whole thing is going, too.
The Album
There are alot of different elements in the album - wolves from the future, fox queens, skeletons etc - what made you choose these elements?
So many factors, dude. I've had wolf dreams from a very young age, it stuck with me. Things like that grow from memories into thought systems and to keep it all straight, some ideas break down and become code words; while my views on certain subjects change as I grow into my magnificent decay, the codes stay the same. My cipher is too complex to keep on switching.
What inspired the songs on the album?
Art. I really loathe the way that we as a society consume what is considered to be art. We eat it down and get sick and bloated then go bulimic and force it all up again. Hooray! Look what I made! No, someone else made it, you just made it disgusting. Or, we let it all fall out the back end, straight to the latrine and it is flushed away, unimportant.
With such easy access to all manner of media, most people don't really seek out anything new. Likewise, people aren't really looking for new ideas.
I'm not asking everyone to record glass breaking on ice and make an album with dead language vocals and I'm not saying that there is no place for conventional prose or oil painting or Shakespeare or even Mills and Boon paperbacks. Just be aware and keep an open mind. As for myself, I'm staying hungry.
Can you explain the narrative of the upcoming album, 'The Skeleton's Problematic Granddaughter'?
Girl is born, rich, spoiled and bored. She meets a boy, he is adventure. He gets her with child and she steals it away back to her boring city. A child is born and she grows bored, though she has had all manner of excess and opportunity from her birth. Her suitor is the maestro of the orchestra she plays cello in. She loathes him.
A wolf from the future, glamoured and man-like arrives, he falls 'in-love' with the cellist and slaughters the maestro with dark arts and bloody hands before raping the poor girl.
She flees into the wilderness, seeking the Pale Surgeon to perform an abortion but upon meeting him, the Wolf catches up and slays the Crayfish Doctor.
Hell opens beneath them as the cellist suffers a miscarriage and the Wolf and girl are laid out upon the feasting table of Hot Darkly aka The Morning Star. Upon devouring Future Wolf, the Dark one is mighty ill and shits the pair out, the wolf 100 odd years in the past, a past that the Wolf has already lived through.
He seeks out his first love, a Japanese fox spirit, but cannot contain his passions, raping and eating a farm girl before he reaches 'Pom-Pom'.
He woos her over again, though the spirit of the farm girl haunts him.
Meanwhile, back in the 'now', the cellist's grandfather (the Skeleton), draws her from the abyssal latrine that she finds herself in, all the while lamenting the life that was chosen for his son's daughter.
Upon being brought back to the land of the living, the cellist is hanged for the murder of her maestro.
The album was recorded in 2009 - why the delay in releasing it?
Because everything costs a lot of money to do properly.
How do you feel about the album? Favourite track?
At the moment, I'm not really into the record - that said, live, each song is neo-orgasmic. Nothing is as gratifying as singing these songs.
We've sat on this for so long that we're beginning to change tracks each show to suit our moods.
On a related note, I guess that I'm really into any of the songs that heavily feature Future Wolf, it wasn't meant to be 'his' record, but it seems to have turned out that way. Charming murderous bastard that he is.
The Tour
You've got the '4 Drink Minimum' Tour coming up, what are you looking forward to most?
The high adventure! Every moment of a tour is a grand thing for me; lack of sleep and food mean very little when you get to spend a lot of time with your best friends doing the things that really make you happy.
Best and worst parts about touring?
Playing shows is far and away the highlight, but I guess that is a given. Catching up with friends in other cities is always great, taking days off 'real jobs,' is a kind of Nirvana. Lately I don't think I get to spend a lot of time with the other guys, so I really look forward to just talking shit, hanging out and drinking with them.
The worst parts don't really affect me, though I tend to do some strange things that the other dudes could likely do without - sleep walking/talking is probably a little frightening considering the weird shit that I tend to rave about.
Any bands you would like to tour with - or perhaps tour with a band you have previously?
We develop band crushes - some bands are good and some are good dudes, but it's hard to find the killer combo. Here is the list as it stands now:
Hell City Glamours
The Snowdroppers
The Beards
Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders
Kira Puru & The Bruise
The album launch is on April 15th [where you are supporting the Beards] - do you have anything special instore - performance wise?
Well, if you'd come to a Gay Paris show, you'd know that every show is different and as much as we may prepare, it's always hard to know what is going to happen on the night. I can say that I will end up in a state of intoxicated undress and feel no remorse for any feelings that are hurt and that for the first time ever (officially), Gay Paris now have four beards instead of three. The Beards will probably just let us play two sets and give us their performance fee.
How would you convince our readers to buy the album and/or come and see you on tour?
By having them watch this: http://www.youtube.com/user/GayParisMusic#p/a/u/0/7Yk1Pu4HU-o
