Band Spotlight: The Gay Blades

The Gay Blades are gearing up for the release of their 2nd LP Savages, which drops October 5th via Triple Crown Records. In doing so they've already released new music, announced a short basement tour and of course answered a few of our questions for them! The NJ/NYC group also happen to be making a stop at Montclair's Meat Locker this Saturday, September 25th. The NJ Underground presented show is ONLY $2, so you might not want to miss it. Check out our interview with James Dean Well's and their new keyboardist/mulit-instrumentalist Mike Abiuso where we discuss the new album, basement shows and their plans for the rest of 2010.

The Gay Blades - Try To Understand (Dmerit Remix)

What was the writing process for Savages like? 

We were touring internationally non stop through most of 2009 and had about a month to finish writing and demoing the record in September before we headed out for our fall dates.  We had a few tunes we had written along the way, so we cleaned those jams up. I was dealing with family crisis and Quinn aka Puppy Mills was dealing with putting up with me, so we were pretty stressed out. We ended up writing a handful of songs and then jumped back out on the road. When we came home, I wrote a few more songs and then jumped into the studio with our producer Dean this past March.

How did you guys hook up with producer Dean Baltulonis?

I've always been a fan of The Hold Steady. Dean has been involved with them for some time engineering projects here and there, but with their latest record, he engineered, produced and mixed the whole thing. For those of you who haven't heard Heaven Is Wherever, its a perfect blend of pop and The Hold Steady's signature beat styled classic rock. Its pretty rad. When we were asking around, Dean was immediately excited about working with us, which was a surprise to us. We brought in Puppy Mills Presents to do a trial run, and he helped us turn our meandering ditty into a real song. Its pretty fucking awesome sounding on the record...

What's your favorite song on the record and why?

Hmmm.... Try To Understand or Mick Jagger. Both are the kind of songs I would never dreamed I'd be able to write and record. They are so over the top and fun with David Bowie horns and fantastic guitar tones. I'm really stoked on how they  as well as all of their brothers and sisters came out on the record.

 

Mike Abiuso:

Shadows like a ghost, because at first all the heavy songs are like "fuck yeah" this shits hot, and the slower ones like shadows, and too cool are slightly over looked, but those are the ones that grow on you so hard in the end, and stay forever 

You talked about how you guys don't fit into any one scene or genre, but what currently active bands do you see yourselves fitting best with on tour?

HAHAHA...no we don't. Do you think we do??? I'd love to tour with bands who play guitars loudly and then softly and sing into their microphones and care about connecting with their audience. Bands who don't mind a lil showmanship, but who remember that the songs are the top billing. You know...bands like that...know any???

Mike Abiuso:

Either a dancy, poppy band would fit for us tokyo police club, passion pit, ra ra riot, korn etc, or a band that has a huge amount of super strong respectable fans like cursive, trail of dead. but those are all long shots.

What was the greatest basement show that you've ever attended?  

Mike Abiuso: On the might of princes on revelation, or monument / tomorrow set ablaze / bastard war / twice on sunday (that show changed my entire outlook on music and i switched from being in a shitty high school punk band to a shitty high school prog/metal/blablabla band)

What are some of the band's favorite spots to play in New Jersey?

We love Maxwell's, Asbury Lanes, really anywhere there are people working to make their lives better through music. Its kind of a rarity...ya know???

What are the groups plans for the rest of 2010 looking like?

Just tour and try and hammer these tunes into everyone conscious. We also need to introduce all of the TGB Savages to our new keyboard player/multi-instrumentalist Mike Abiuso. He's very handsome and can play and sing his ass off. We're lucky to have him. We also need to sell enough records so that Puppy Mills can get that tummy tuck he's been saving up for...

Comments

[Mark]

digging Try To Understand a lot. Not the remix, but the original version

[Jamie]

pumped for Saturday!

[Katie]

can't wait for the new record! <3