INTRODUCING: Gods Of Sometimes
GODS OF SOMETIMES are a new band who consist of Andrew Giacumakis (who also plays in MOAB) and Brad Hill (from FU MANCHU) and released their self-titled debut album last year. While the band’s music on the album is a long way from either of their main bands, being that it is a lot mellower and hazier, it still comes with the same passion. The pair between them, perform everything on the album with a bit of help from some special guest friends along this musical journey like J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr and Steven Drozd from Flaming Lips and it sounds like a perfect summer listening experience. We caught up with Brad and Andrew to talk about the album and how GODS OF SOMETIMES became a reality.
We start off with Brad telling us about how the recording process of the album went and what went into making Gods Of Sometimes. “It was lengthy but smooth. We both live in Southern California. However, I live in Orange County, which is about two hours south of where Andrew lives and where the studio that we have is, so we had to chop that up into various weekends throughout the last three years.”
With GODS OF SOMETIMES being a new band, Brad then gave us a bit of insight into how they started and when. “I think probably about nine or ten years ago, I met Andrew through a mutual friend because FU MANCHU was looking to play some shows in Los Angeles and Orange County, and we were trying to think of some new opening bands that we could play with and our friend Jeff recommended MOAB to me. I got a record from Andrew and I listened to it and I was very taken with the production. I was like, ‘who produced this? Where did these guys get these tones from?’ It turned out that it was Andrew recording it himself. We started to work with Andrew on some other recording projects. Then, eventually I started playing drums for MOAB after Erik Herzog sadly passed away. We were playing shows and just through conversations, it came about that me and Andrew and both were into a lot of mellow music, so we decided that it would be fun to do a recording project where we can kind of play that music that was now on our mellow side of things.”
With GODS OF SOMETIMES sounding so different to both Andrew and Brad‘s other bands, we delved into the reason why they wanted to make music with a much mellower vibe as Andrew tells us. “It’s been an ongoing thing for a while for me. Brad heard me say that for me it started when my father passed away in 2019. For some reason, listening to heavy music felt weird. I was bummed out when I lost my dad, he’s a good guy and I was listening to a lot of mellow music at the time and lost my fire for riffs for a bit. Not forever, but for a bit. That prompted me to make mellow or music softer, That’s where it started for me.”
With their debut album out already, talk turns to if GODS OF SOMETIMES have thought about any new material and it is good news as Brad reveals. “It seems like we’re already sitting on another half a new record and hopefully the next one won’t take as long as this first one.”
With the revelation that the band’s next album won’t take as long to emerge as their debut, Andrew delves into why the debut took a while to create. “Another reason the record took a long time wasn’t just the fact that we were working on weekends, basically. We were also finding out what the vibe of the record was. We didn’t really know and we went into it open minded, let’s try this kind of style. Most of what we did stuck, but there were a few tunes that weren’t right, they weren’t the right kind of vibe for what the record was turning out to be and so those got tossed to the side.”
When it comes to who has influenced the music of GODS OF SOMETIMES so far, the duo plump for some classics, with Brad telling us. “As far as the ones that me and Andrew share would definitely be THE BEATLES and FLAMING LIPS.” Andrew adds, “NEIL YOUNG too, and there’s a classic rock vibe to it, that kind of thing.”
We then talk about what both members of GODS OF SOMETIMES feels that the other brings to the band and their sound with Brad going first. “Andrew does almost everything. He’s a multi instrumentalist, musical genius, who is also a producer and engineer. He engineered all the songs, all the recordings and mixes everything. It’s quite awesome. I’m kinda on there like Flavor Flav! Although I did see a video and Flavor Flav is actually a multi instrumental, like talented dude.”
Andrew then gives his input. “Brad, well first off, everybody knows his bass playing but beyond that, his drumming which isn’t overly technical but has so much groove. Beyond the instrument playing, his taste is hard to find. A lot of musicians, they tend to be good musicians, but overly focused on technique and things like that, as opposed to just like, what are we doing here? What’s the sort of artistic flavour of what we’re doing? Brad‘s very good at that and very honed in on that, and also has a great work ethic.”
Gods Of Sometimes is out now via Falling Dome Records.
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