21 GUNS

[Geoff]

On 2/7/2009 at 10:20 AM, Dave said:

Pretty interesting to read......Taken from an interview with Scott Gorham in relation to 21 Guns...

 

 

 

As you said, the next thing for you at that point was 21 GUNS. Keith Murrell, Tommy La Verdi, Hans Olav Solli, you had some great singers in that band as well, wouldn't you say?

 

Fucking singers, man! [laughs] Keith Murrell was just for the demos, Leif and I just needed somebody to get the melodic things over in the songs so we could listen back to it to see if we were going in the right direction. Keith was never actually a singer in the band. Tommy "fucking" La Verdi... Tommy was great, he was a really good singer, amazing sense of humor, and he had a really good voice. He was just, he was really shy in front of an audience, and he felt uncomfortable up there to the point of where we'd have to write up things for him to say to the audience because he couldn't talk to the audience. His voice would freeze up to the point of where we were only able to play thirty minutes a night; you can't go on like that. I love Tommy to death, but we had to part ways because it just wasn't working. And then we got Solli and... it didn't kill me. I got halfway through it and I thought "I'm not into this anymore." and really that album ["Nothing's Real"] just became... I call it the great demo album, nothing ever got finished on it. At best, things were like half finished, but for some reason Leif wanted to put it out, so he got into his studio, mixed it up and we put it out.

 

There's actually kind of an interesting connection here, Solli sings on Adrian Smith's first PSYCHO MOTEL album ["State of Mind"] while you appear on the second [WELCOME TO THE WORLD].

 

That's where I heard of him, he was working with him first and also Adrian was working with my drummer, Michael Sturgis. So we had this kind of incestuous thing going.

 

When the first 21 GUNS album came out in 1992, it was quite different stuff than what you'd done up to that point, wasn't it?

 

Yeah, it was way different from the THIN LIZZY stuff and all that. My manager would walk into the record companies and play the demo and they'd go "I love it, but it doesn't sound anything like THIN LIZZY!" and he'd say "Yeah, that's the point.” I did eleven years with THIN LIZZY; I needed to try something else. So finally the people at RCA, they did get what we were doing, they fell in love with it, so we got signed up with RCA.

 

 

 

By the time the second album came out, around 1997, times weren't really that great for that kind of music, were they?

 

That's the album that was the great demo album, for me it never got finished because just like you say the whole sound changed and everything. We saw that [grunge] and though it wasn't gonna work, so basically we just lost interest in the second album. Leif wanted to put it out, so he went in his studio and put like a quick mix on it and threw it out.

 

Then there's also the DEMO-LITION album that was released in 2002, isn't there?

 

That's just like first stage demos that we were doing.

 

Is there a chance you might do something again with 21 GUNS or are you done with it?

 

No, we're working on stuff right now. We've got a new singer called Pete Shoulder; he's 23 years old, a northern guy with a fucking kick ass voice on him. We've got probably twelve songs written now, right now they’re in the demo stages and we're just finding a window of opportunity for the three of us to get back in the studio and actually do the proper thing.

 

Are you planning to actually do some shows once the album's out?

 

Yeah, that's the whole idea, to give 21 GUNS the full treatment. We never actually gave the band a chance.

 

That's cool. Thank you for the interview, Scott!

Wow, totally missed this first time round. Would have been interesting to hear that album if it had happened. 

Really interesting on La Verdi too. I had no idea that was the case. Can totally understand it as it'd be me to a T if I ever fronted a band, lol (minus the amazing voice). But yeah, not really a tale I've heard before when it comes to frontmen. What a shame it wasn't something he could conquer. 

[Eric3]

9 hours ago, Geoff said:

Wow, totally missed this first time round. Would have been interesting to hear that album if it had happened. 

Really interesting on La Verdi too. I had no idea that was the case. Can totally understand it as it'd be me to a T if I ever fronted a band, lol (minus the amazing voice). But yeah, not really a tale I've heard before when it comes to frontmen. What a shame it wasn't something he could conquer. 

I'm really shy in person so I can sympathize. I'm a good public speaker but I fucking hate it, I get very anxious beforehand and feel exhausted after. Can't imagine playing rock music in front of thousands of screaming people.

[Geoff]

10 hours ago, Eric3 said:

I'm really shy in person so I can sympathize. I'm a good public speaker but I fucking hate it, I get very anxious beforehand and feel exhausted after. Can't imagine playing rock music in front of thousands of screaming people.

Haha, public speaking, without a near competitor, is easily what I fear most in life. 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

17 hours ago, Geoff said:

Haha, public speaking, without a near competitor, is easily what I fear most in life. 

I'm not a very talkative person, normally, but give me a mic and you can't get me to shut up. Heh. 

[Geoff]

9 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

I'm not a very talkative person, normally, but give me a mic and you can't get me to shut up. Heh. 

I emceed a wedding once and it was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. It's not just the actual night, but months of pure torture in the lead up, knowing it's coming and dreading every single second of the lead up. 

I remember dropping an early peice of hilarity, obviously, but due to the nervous, probably stuttery and petrified delivery it was a hard lead balloon and just made a bad situation worse, lol. Horrid. 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

7 hours ago, Geoff said:

I emceed a wedding once and it was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. It's not just the actual night, but months of pure torture in the lead up, knowing it's coming and dreading every single second of the lead up. 

I remember dropping an early peice of hilarity, obviously, but due to the nervous, probably stuttery and petrified delivery it was a hard lead balloon and just made a bad situation worse, lol. Horrid. 

Fuck. That sounds terrible. Did they not know you were uncomfortable with MCing, or did you yourself not realise before you accepted the gig? But I also understand it can be hard to turn down family or friends. I've been roped into so many weddings. I fucking hate weddings, now. Buuut, I'd rather MC or DJ than simply attend. They're so boring, and I usually dislike most of the people, so give me a task to keep me occupied. 

[Geoff]

14 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Fuck. That sounds terrible. Did they not know you were uncomfortable with MCing, or did you yourself not realise before you accepted the gig? But I also understand it can be hard to turn down family or friends. I've been roped into so many weddings. I fucking hate weddings, now. Buuut, I'd rather MC or DJ than simply attend. They're so boring, and I usually dislike most of the people, so give me a task to keep me occupied. 

Yeah, definitely made it clear I wasn't keen, but it was family (in law) and they're all like you'll be fine, convinced they were doing me a favour by having me involved in the wrdfing. But I would very much rather just sit at a table quietly sinking ales all night with the inevitable few people there I actually like.