Bad
Guys's music has been described as a mixup of Harvey Milk, Torche,
Thin Lizzy, Orange Goblin, MC5, The Melivins, Black Sabbath and
Motorhead. Sure it's noisy, chaotic but Bad Guys have a great
identity of their own mixing dirty lo-fi scuzzy, sludgy, stoner punk
driven riffs with sometimes hilarious over the top lyrics that you
can't quite believe what they're singing about.
They
released their debut album back in 2013 to some critical acclaim. 2
years later, Bad Guys are back with better than ever with their
brilliant 2nd
album – Bad Guynaecology
I
described the album as:
“Bad
Guys return with their 2nd album 'Bad Guynaecology'. Yeah, awesome
pun with a great album cover to match. Bad Guys released a superb
debut album back in 2013. Its style of Punk, Sludge, Doom, Stoner and
Hard Rock won them a range of admirers within the scene. The other
element that make Bad Guys such a great band is their hilarious and
in your face lyrics that verged on genius insanity.
In
summary 'Bad Guynaecology' is a great album for Bad Guys to return
with. It's a different album to its predecessor and it proves that
Bad Guys have matured as a band though there's still a ton of laughs
to have along the way. It's a must have record. Plain and Simple.”
Bad
Guys have written one of the funniest songs of the year with CRIME.
Now it's time to find out more about these TONKA TRUCK STEALING
mother-truckers.
Q1
– Hi guys. How are things with you all today.
PJ-
Prettay prettay good, albums getting good reviews, the Uk tours
booked, the videos done, the Euro tour is coming along, Dave’s
working on getting us to the Ukraine and Poland in October and most
of our colds and infections are clearing up.
Stu
– My piles are flaring up but otherwise I’m fine.
Dave
– I’m still infectious.
Tamas - I`m very excited!
Q2
– Can you give a brief history to our readers of how the band came
about and where it is today.
PJ - The band started as burning desire to do something loud, stupid and
rocking. We'd had enough of dynamics and clever time signatures, we
wanted to have fun and we didn't really plan much ahead of that. Early
gigs with our old drummer Mark Davidson were an absolute mess of
drunken feedback, we'd turn up and play anywhere, usually uninvited,
which had the effect of annoying promoters and security but being
very entertaining for ourselves and the unsuspecting crowd we'd
forced ourselves upon.
The
first gigs were in ATP chalets at camber sands and Minehead, it gave
us a taste for guerrilla gigs which required military style planning
and execution with uncertain results. If we managed to play 1 track
or 6 it didn't matter it was a victory, we talked about playing in
the middle of the junction at Oxford circus once, We honestly didn't
care if we got arrested doing it.
It
wasn't until we had to write a 30minute set of material for a proper
gig in a venue that we realised we might, actually have something
here more than pure indulgent mayhem. The first single and album
encapsulated the early Bad Guys spirit and humour. It’s unrefined
and ridiculous in places but we put a lot of work into making it and
I'm still proud of it.
After
the sad loss of Mark our old drummer who left to become a
professional hermit on the Isle of Skye, we thought it was probably
the end of Bad Guys, as good drummers are as rare as fucking hens
teeth, it was quite a low point having to put a DRUMMER WANTED ad on
Gumtree as a last resort. Fortunately our saviour came in the form of
Tamas Kiss, a brilliant Hungarian drummer we'd known for years who
played in about 3 other bands including one of my brothers’. We
managed to coax him over with cakes and tobacco to join Bad Guys
because one of his other bands split up, I think I just told him he
was the man for the job and he agreed.
After
the first rehearsal, me and Dave realised we'd have to up our game to
keep up with him and a new level of professionalism and life was
breathed into the band. Stuart even drank less red wine. That fresh
energy meant there was no difficult second album, it practically
wrote itself and you can hear these offerings in the form of BAD
GUYNAECOLOGY.
August
2011, Bad Guys guerilla beach gig w/ Gum Takes Tooth and
Dethscalator. Festvial
Pier, Thames South bank. Lo tide, full moon, Mark on drums.
Q3
– How would you describe your own sound. As I feel it's best coming
from the band themselves.
PJ
- We always just say its 'heavy rock', the influences are pretty
clear if you know your rock and metal history.
Q4
– We have to talk about your new album – Bad Guynaecology - So
are you excited, nervous or thrilled what people are going to make of
it.
Tamas - I`m very excited!
PJ
- I'm as excited as a schoolboy who just found a copy of Razzle in
the bushes. I was a bit annoyed it took so long to get out, but
that’s probably our fault.
Dave
- I don't really mind to be honest, I just hope that people will buy
the album so we can get out of debt.
Stu
– I just want it all out so I can get on with my life. I’m sure
some people make feature films with less faffing about than it took
to make the video for Prostitutes. Not to mention how long it takes
to layout lyrics on a CD booklet. Fiddling with font sizes and
kerning and shit. I’m like the fake Geena Davis at the beginning
of The Fly 2, giving birth to a giant maggot screaming GET IT OUT OF
ME.
Q5
– Why the hell did you choose the name Bad Guynaecology. Awesome
title which shows off your insane sense of humour.
Stu
– The keen eyed will notice it’s a lovely portmanteau of ‘Bad
Guys’ and ‘gynaecology’. And is a tribute to the (shit) Prince
album ‘Musicology’. It’s got so many layers.
Q6
– Was it a hard or easy album to write and record for. Are you
happy with the final result.
PJ - As I said this album was a pleasure to produce. Some of the songs
we'd been gigging for a while and we demoed it first so it was really
easy to bash ‘em out in the studio.
Newer
songs like 'Reaper' and 'Fabled Succubus' I wished we'd had a bit
more time to refine but sometimes its good to have a time limit and
really please with the end result. I will happily give the record to
Stuart's parents for Christmas.
Tamas:
- Some songs were very easy to write - a couple of rehearsals and the
songs were done, but some songs took ages to finalize. We
always revisited the already written songs to see if they are still
rockin’, sometimes we had to ditch completed songs or some ideas -
unfortunately.
Dave
- I think recording the album was the easy part as we had almost
everything completely written before we went into the studio. I
am personally really happy with the final result. I think Gomez did
an amazing job producing
Stu
– Yeah recording was easy coz Gomez is a master blacksmith with
beautiful, safe hands. He has his shit on lock.
Q7
– What influenced you when writing and recording the album.
Tamas
- Almost everything, lots of laughter definitely...
PJ
- Everything from ZZ Top to John Carpenter soundtracks. The giant
Well spring of Rock is there to be dipped into and all is considered
without bias, prejudice or until it’s found guilty of being a shit
idea.
Q8
– Has it surprised you the way critics are enjoying the album. It's
starting to win some major praise within the Sludge/Stoner Metal
Scene.
PJ
- I always thought it was a better album than the first one and we'd
managed to step up a gear but yeah I am a little surprised at the
response and the biggest surprise is, its not just the heavy rock
scene that’s giving it good reviews, the album seems to be creeping
over into the mainstream a little, like a pervert in the night. I'm
not sure how I feel about this, Bad Guys was never created to go on
Jools Holland, but it would be fucking hilarious if we did.
Stu
– I wouldn’t go on that weird pixie’s show, but I wouldn’t be
against you all using a hologram of me, like Tupac. Or even better,
use the Tupac hologram and make him sing my lyrics. That’d be good.
And then Jools joining in for a honky tonk section of World Murderer.
Can we make this happen?
Q9
– As you may of know I think the song CRIME is possibly the
funniest song I've heard all year. So is this song based on an actual
event. Did you steal a TONKA Truck when you were younger. You don't
have to answer that part. It's a song that shows people your great
sense of humour.
Stu
– It’s not a true story. PJ said we should write a song called
‘Crime’, I assume thinking we were gonna make something all tough
sounding, so I wrote those lyrics just to be difficult, or different.
I’ve actually no idea where the Tonka thing came from specifically.
It’s a good word though isn’t it? ‘Tonka’. Sometimes it’s
good to think about what sounds nice when making music.
Q10
– Humour is obviously a big part of the Bad Guys sound. Especially
with the lyrics. Was it an easy decision to include humour in your
music. Did you worry that overseas audiences wouldn't understand it
as it has a very typical British feel.
PJ
- I don't write the lyrics of course but I'm going to throw in my
stinkin 2 cents here anyway:
On
the contrary, I think what overseas listeners want to hear is our
silly British humour and use of provincial language. British humour
for me is one of our best exports. I love the idea of a kid in the
Philippines going online to try and figure out what Stuart’s just
said. Will he be surprised or disappointed?
Stu
– I thought most metal bands had a sense of humour? If I’m wrong
then there are a lot of serious dudes looking pretty silly singing
about weed and magic. If
I was gonna write ‘serious’ lyrics, I don’t think a band with
two double neck guitars is really the right platform for it. Also,
across all genres, there are only a handful of artists who can write
good, serious, heartfelt lyrics that are like poetry anyway. It’s
Sturgeon’s law isn’t it? Like with anything, 99% of lyrics are
shit. All the pseudo-philosophy, and sombre, heartfelt lyrics that
fall flat, and tough guy lyrics sung with a straight face by people
who’ve fallen for their own act are, to me, way fucking funnier
than anything on our album.
Q11 - How important is a physical product to your band being either CD or Vinyl. As some bands are relying on Digital Downloads for their first release(s).
PJ
- When you are touring and playing live it’s incredibly important,
you still can't beat having the thing, the object to take away with
you, no one wants to buy a digital download code from you at a merch
table. Maybe its from a bands perspective as well, but the first
thing you wanna do when you get into music is to release a PROPER
record, that’s never gonna change is it? Maybe you should ask
some younger people though.
Dave
– Whenever I bought an album when I was young I would listen to it
from start to finish and read the lyrics throughout, it wasn’t just
songs it was an album. I think just releasing singles here and there
takes away from the challenge of writing an LP. I am getting old
though so don’t listen to me.
Stu
- We clutch at relics but they only serve to weigh us down and slow
our ascent to the infinite and liberating virtual heavens in our
future. People are idiots. Here, buy our record for your shelf.
Q12
– Which bands and artists influenced you all as musicians. Any
particular album that stands out that made you decide to become a
musician.
Stu
– I like noise and dance music. And weirdo avant-garde stuff. When
I was a kid I used to really enjoy singing along to all the songs on
Faith though. Still do. I just started singing in a band cos PJ said
to get drunk and rant while he played guitar, and I’m not one to
turn down a drinks invitation.
PJ - I'm from Stoke so we took what we could get. There's plenty of
embarrassing influences in there but my earliest real influences were
probably Metallica, Megadeth and Earache label bands because you got
a free CD compilation on the magazine. So Obituary, Carcass,
Entombed, etc… and Cathedral used to come and play in town so we'd
always go and watch them, all 10 of us, (they must have loved playing
Stoke). 'The Ethereal Mirror' is probably engrained in my psyche. I
still love all of these bands today. (Not so much MegaDave though)
Dave
– I’m from a small town in Canada, we got even less than Stoke so
probably even more embarrassing influences in there for me. I think
when Nirvana and Soundgarden made it through to the village that was
a big moment for me.
Tamas:
From Deep Purple through Edda Muvek to Carnivore and beyond... One
artist made me influenced and it’s the drummer on my cousin’s
wedding back in 1988 (hope I remember right) and I thought I can play
on drums better than him.
Q13
– What is your musical setup when playing live or recording new
material. Do you have an advanced setup or basic setup.
PJ
- Our set up for both is the about the same, its not that crazy but
has a few anomalies.
Drums,
2 guitars, 1 dry vocal. We don't have a bass player though so live I
split out to a bass amp to thicken up the bottom end but in the
studio we always record a proper bass part. Me and Dave both use
these ridiculous double neck guitars which are a Baritone and a
straight six so we constantly switch between about 3 tunings. We
will have back problems when we're older.
Stu
– I have back problems now, from doing removals when I was 16.
PJ
- Tamas uses a double kick pedal and has that weird almost left
handed set up, with the hi hat on the right and 2 massive floor toms
either side. It confuses the hell out of me how he does it but it
looks so fluid and natural when he's playing, like liquid gold.
Sometimes at rehearsal the 3 of us sit for hours in silence, just
drinking beers, watching him play.
Q14
– What is the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it down to one
individual or a group collective.
PJ
- I'll usually have a riff or two but no idea what to do with the
things, then we'll all take turns at pummelling it into a song,
usually the original riff is unrecognisable but it doesn't matter,
the process is what matters.
Stu
– I write the words but don’t have much say over the rest of it.
If I really don’t like something I might just continue to delay
writing lyrics for it in the hope they all forget about it or give
up. Sometimes what works is singing a riff you don’t like in a
sarcastic tone, ruining it for everyone.
PJ – Stuart is usually our litmus test for a good riff or idea, but as
we have the instruments and are a lot louder than him he may not
always be heard.
Q15
– What were the reasons behind the album cover. Very understated
but I wouldn't expect nothing less from you guys.
PJ
- I think Me and Stu liked the fact that you get sucked in by that
beautiful bear man's eyes. You don't know whether he wants to kiss
you or punch you. Either way you know he could have you if he wanted.
Stu
– Yeah I love him he’s mesmerising.
Q16
– You will shortly be going on a small UK Tour in April. Can you
tell people what to expect from a typical Bad Guys show.
PJ
- It really all depends who shows up! We'll do our part, its up to
the audience whether it’s going to be a good night or a great
night. (Yes those are the only two options).
Stu
– I don’t care who turns up, I will sing to anyone. I love
singing.
Q17 – Do you perform gigs on a regular basis in your hometown or do you travel further afield.
PJ
- Yeah we play in London all the time, mainly in the east cause
that’s where all the venues are (and where we live). We do travel
quite a bit but its always a mixed bag of nuts touring the UK, the
shittest gigs are always the ones where you had to travel the
furthest it seems. Apart from in Europe, its generally more fun in
Europe, and they feed you.
Q18
– Riot Season Records are once again releasing your new album. Was
it an easy decision to stay with Riot Season. Did you have any more
offers to release your new album.
PJ
- (shhh don't tell Andy Riot Season but we did look elsewhere) - Not
because we were unhappy with him, but because we weren't sure if we
were too much of a metal band for his label, he admits it was a bit
of a wild card for him putting out our first album and I think it got
mixed reviews from Riot season fans.
Dave
- Once
the album was ready though and we'd had a look around it quickly
became clear that we would be silly to move away from Riot Season.
It's such a well respected label and it's great to be on a label
that's put out Shit n Shine, Mainliner, Hey Colossus, Acid Mothers
Temple and Henry Blacker. RS has released some of the best music of
any UK label over the last however many years in my opinion.
Q19
– Before you go do you have anything to say to your fans.
PJ - We have fans? - Ok if you exist and like what we do, buy the album.
If you don't like what we do, please still buy the album, We had to
sell Dave’s liver to fund Bad Guynaecology and the man said we
could buy it back if we're quick enough. I don't know how long that
is but Dave’s looking pretty weak and yellow.
Don't
let Dave die you selfish pricks, forget about drummers have you got
any idea how hard it is to find a new double neck guitar player?!?
Stu
– I would like to say, to all my
fans, thank you for your support, I love you and I’m nothing
without you, etc.
Words
by Steve Howe and Bad Guys
Thanks
to Nita at Gold Star PR for arranging this interview. And to Bad Guys
for taking the time out to talk to us at Sludgelord HQ. Bad
Guynaecology will be out to buy on Riot Season Records from 16th
March 2015 on CD/DD/Vinyl.
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