GUN: Riding On With All Guns Blazing
There’s a song on Hombres – the sparkling new album from seminal Glasgow rockers GUN – called Lucky Guy. The penultimate track written by lead vocalist Dante Gizzi, it talks about celebrating his 21st birthday whilst on tour in America, more specifically at the legendary Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. But don’t think this is an indication of the whole record – you won’t find GUN relying on past glories to keep themselves going.
“It’s been an amazing adventure ever since we left school,” reflects Dante, “and so far, it’s taken us round the world once, maybe twice, but at the end of the day it’s all been about the music, which we love.”
“Even after all this time, I still feel as excited about the music as I did when we made our first album,” continues Dante’s brother and GUN guitarist Giuliano ‘Jools’ Gizzi. “It’s all about that, the songs and the experience of meetings new people in new countries; I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
In a career that is, for all intents and purposes, close to hitting its fortieth anniversary, GUN have had highs and lows in equal measure. On one side, within three years of forming they were opening for THE ROLLING STONES across Europe and followed this up with support slots for both BON JOVI and DEF LEPPARD; on the other, they split in 1997 and wouldn’t reform for over a decade, in addition to a lengthy list of revolving band members. Today, GUN might not be playing the stadiums they were at the very beginning, but they’ve not lost the thrill of being on the road.
“It’s exactly what we want to do,” explains Jools. “and as long as there’s a demand out there for the band and fans are still coming to shows, buying the merch and the records and taking time for us, that’s what we really get off on.”
“People still haven’t heard of GUN, you know,” reveals Dante. “It’s great to be able to continually introduce ourselves to people, such as in Germany where we’ve just begun to tap back into the market. But also, we’ve had plenty of people come up to us and say they weren’t the biggest fan back in the day, but are blown away by the new album, and that’s all really positive too.”
GUN also have heavy metal royalty backing them on Hombres in the form of IRON MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris, on record saying this is the best album since 1992’s s sophomore release Gallus. It’s certainly in with a shout – with a title inspired by both ZZ TOP’s brilliant Tres Hombres album and the band’s continuing success in Spain, Hombres is ten punchy, driving rock tracks that don’t outstay their welcome and leave a lasting impression. The band’s first new material in seven years, following 2017’s Favourite Pleasure and two albums of reworked songs and covers in R3LOADED and The Calton Songs, there was only one thought in the brothers’ minds as the world opened up after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We said ‘2017 was our last record – let’s make a cracker’.” Jools divulges. “’Let’s make a cracker of a record that the fans can dig’ and, as the sessions went along, we were starting to really enjoy what we were creating. Me, personally, I think it’s the best record we’ve ever done.”
Dante agrees, not just musically but also with his own performance. “I’ve never been that confident with my own vocals and I often cringe at them, but I’m really chuffed with myself this time, you know? I’m my own biggest critic and it’s a great sign that something that doesn’t normally happen, has.”
Hombres is also the first record to feature new guitarist Ruaraidh ‘Roo’ MacFarlane, who the brothers confirm has settled in well. “He’s a lovely guy,” gushes Dante. “There’s no airs and graces, he’s down to Earth, and, in a band of our age, after how far we’ve come, the last thing we can be bothered with is people with egos and all the other stuff that comes with it, you know? Trust me, there are thousands of people out there who are incredible guitarists, but their attitude stinks and I don’t want anything to do with that.”
As Dante and Jools approach their fourth decade together as the beating heart of GUN – the eleven-year hiatus notwithstanding – they seem more at home with their current position than ever before. “We just want to try and continually write the best music we possibly can,” concludes Jools. “It’s taken us a bit of a while to get here, but we’ve done it nonetheless. We’ll have to up it again when the next record comes around, but we’ll be up for the challenge when that arrives.”
Hombres is out now via Cooking Vinyl.
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