Interviews: GUTTERFIRE!

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Hard Rock band, GUTTERFIRE! from Australia. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that? 

It means the state of the planet right now. It’s a bit of a gutterfire. To come up with it we actually just threw words around for a really long time until something stuck. Which is not to say it means nothing obviously. But the meaning came after. We nixed it the first time around but Clay (our drummer) brought it back up about a week later and for some reason we'd all changed our mind on it. We love it now. Short, punchy, to the point.

2.Why did you want to play this genre?

We tend to jump around a lot in genre, but I guess there's a common thread, which would be that we all love Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone age. But we do like to experiment a lot. Those bands are just our true north and we kind of use them as a jumping off point for other things when we want to play with hard rock, alt rock, punk, or a whole range of other styles. We don't like to repeat ourselves but there's a lot to play with when it comes to different combinations of some of our favourite elements.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Az (Guitarist), Photon Jon (Vocalist) and Dudeman (Guitarist) all knew each other before the band started through playing around town in other bands together. Clay (Drummer) & Az met one night waiting for a Red Fang show right as Az was trying to find the right people for the band (that was a deliberately long process). Mike (Bassist) met Az through his cousin Ryan (Vocalist for Vibrations From The Void) when he was roadie for his old band.

4. Each band member favourite band? 

Photon Jon - Faith No More

Az - Queens of the Stone Age

Dudeman - Black Sabbath

Mike - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Clay - Queens of the Stone Age.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

The riff! It sounds simple, but if there's no riff to inspire us then not much happens. We all just really get off on great guitar, bass & drum parts and the possibilities around them. We love jamming them out and teasing out every little bit of goodness we can from a great idea. It's done when it feels done and it's always a very satisfying experience. But also just the local scene. Brisbane is jam packed with amazing bands and we all feed off each other and push each other to aim higher. It's a really amazing time right now full of super talented people here. There's something in the water.

6. Where was your last gig? 

We just did two in a row to launch our new single "Eight". Vinnie's Dive down the Gold Coast (excellent venue!) and Mansfield Tavern for a mini festival that had the biggest stage we've played on so far by a country mile. It was fun using all the extra room! One of the best weekends we've had in a really long time. We hadn't released new music in over 12 months for obvious reasons, but that's set to change in a big way this year with 3 more singles and an album ready to go.

7. Where would you like to act?

(Assuming this is supposed to be where would we like to play?) - We definitely want to hit up some of the iconic Australian venues that we haven’t done yet. The Tote, The Bendigo, The Triffid, Fortitude Music Hall, The Forum, The Enmore, The Tivoli, Crowbar Sydney.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

We actually just did a very different collab with our mates in PurpleZain covering a K-Pop song called Zero For Conduct. That kind of opened us up to the idea. It was heaps of fun. If we could shoot for anyone I think we'd all love to play and/or make some music with Josh Homme.

9. Whom not? 

We're open to pretty much anything! We love experimenting with new sounds so long as we don't lose the core of the band in that.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Our singer Photon is actually on the autism spectrum and found it all quite daunting at first, but exposure therapy is best for that! Dive into the crowd and remember that they're just humans. We all get nerves sometimes, but be well rehearsed, remember how much you love what you're doing and make sure that shows, because people notice. Then it just becomes an exchange of energy with the crowd that you can't help but feel positive about. To paraphrase Chris Cornell: “If you don't have nerves then you should stop performing because you've lost the passion”

11. What bands have inspired you the most? 

Pretty much the common thread ones and favourites that we've mentioned, but there's definitely a separate sense of camaraderie with bands who have a strong sense of who they are and just go for broke and try anything they think can work. So that would be your Led Zeppelins, Faith no More, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins, probably a little Devin Townsend in there too.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

I don't think we're quite there yet! But most of us have played some weird and wonderful places all over Australia with some pretty colourful characters, so it's bound to happen sooner or later.

13. What do you think of your fans?

So far they all just seem to be really nice, decent people. Some colourful ones as mentioned. But overall really enthusiastic and energetic and increasingly coming back for more having brought some friends. It's all so positive and celebratory which is exactly the kind of environment we want to foster.

14. What do you think of our site?

Great logo! Also like that there's a good selection of bands across genres. Too many websites die in a niche. Tidy work!

15. Something add?

Our new film clip for the song “Eight” is out now on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (IGTV). It's a lot of fun! There's puppets! Go check it out! The single is also streaming on all platforms.