steve gullick

Indie rock doesn’t produce much in the way of anthems, but, then again, Glasvegas is ‘indie’ only by D.I.Y. courtesy, started as it was by four Glaswegians with more confessed ambition than self-admitted skill. A series of happy accidents (along with more than a few holy-fucking-shit reactions among fans and bloggers) led to the band selling out venues all over Great Britain. A contract with Columbia segued into a late-2008 debut the oft-hyperbolic NME dubbed ‘Album of the Year.’ In the case of ‘Daddy’s Gone,’ this sounds just about right, given the durability of noise-pop pyrotechnics and the U.K.’s late paucity of epical tunes. Not since Oasis or the Smiths has Britrock seen a band with this kind of emotional depth and crowd-pleasing heart-on-the-sleeve heroics. We catch up here with guitarist Rab Allen at the 2009 Benicassim Festival before his band is about to go on. Crowd and feedback noise from Oasis’ rattletrap set punctuated a conversation already fraught with slippage between the musician’s Glaswegian accent and the interviewer’s equally impenetrable Appalachian drawl. This interview by Ron Garmon.

[An opening feedback howl is followed by distant applause, as the publicist says ‘Fifteen minutes’.]

What thunderation! Who’s on now?
Rab Allen (guitar): Oasis is on just now and we’re on just after them.
Nice! The climb to the top for you guys has been fast and perhaps dizzying. What’s the view like from up there?
It seems quite natural. It seems like things have gone very fast for us. Once it slows down, we’ll be better able to reflect on it, but right now it’s the most normal thing in the world—traveling every day and playing with Oasis, U2 and all these other bands. It just seems natural.
It’s like you just stepped into something most rock musicians experience only in their heads.
Yeah. I just think some people get a little bit kind of shocked by it, y’know—it made me think about a lot about how it might be, but we wanted it that much. That’s what we wanted to do for two or three years. So when we got it, we did what Scottish people do and grabbed it with both hands.
[Frontman] James Allen described your sound as having much to do with the unique dynamics of the band.
I dunno if that’s true. I guess the sound of the band came about my accident. Since Caroline [McKay] played only two drums, we had to fill in the gap with the guitars—make the guitar sound really colorful, like an orchestra. It started as an experiment—it really wasn’t meant to be that way, but that’s how it came out. Maybe with the next record, we’ll have a bit more time to focus and develop something. I think within a month of playing together we had that sound.
‘Flowers and Football Tops’ sets the tone for the whole album. You’ve described Glasvegas as ‘people who’ve never played before who are too stupid to understand limitations.’ Since you’ve learned so much, are there any limitations left you all are too dumb to get?
Really, we’re still so dumb we don’t know about limitations. I think that’s one of our charms. Caroline, y‘know, didn’t play drums before we started the band. Paul [Donoghue] never played bass. It was just one of those things. Individually, as musicians, we’re all terrible, but you put the four of us in a room together and there’s that spark. It’s one of those things you can’t make happen—either it does or it doesn’t. Even live, with us there’s that excitement—probably because the whole thing’s hanging together by a thread and we could fall apart to anything. To me that’s the exciting part. We’ve all matured, but since James is the songwriter, he’s probably learned the most. His songwritin’ has gotten so much better, especially with the new stuff you’ve yet to hear.
Well, you know you’ve arrived when you’re praised by the likes of Morrissey—from whom praise comes most difficult.
I only heard about that two days ago. I don’t know if Morrissey likes us or not, but he’s heard of us. A lot of musicians tend to respect us, which is really sweet.
Tell us about opening for U2.
Well, the show we’re doing is in five days [July 24th] in Dublin. I expect that to be absolutely crazy. We’ve already played with Oasis, so to open for U2 in their home city I think—well, there’s not many bands that we favor, so I get kinda nervous, but I think U2 will probably embarrass us and I wouldn’t say that’s unlikely. I like that a lot of U2 fans are actually fans of music. In Britain, quite a lot of people go to these shows to get drunk and throw their shoes on stage. They may be a lot more civilized than that in Dublin.
There’s no accounting for one’s reception among the vulgar herd.
Exactly.
You guys have the epic tracks opening and closing the album which gives it a classic Britrock feel. Was that a conscious choice?
James came with a full album when we went to New York, so we had it all laid out, one to ten. When [producer] Rich [Costey] got ahold of it, he sonically made it travel. Again, I should say we were a naïve band who went in thinking they can have it all done in five day. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. He actually got in touch with us before any record company. We were doing a small tour of Britain and he called our manager and aid he wanted to work with our band. We didn’t know who he was. What happened is someone gave him a copy of our demo. We didn’t have a label or any money or a record deal and he said he’d do it very cheap or for free because he loved our music that much. When it came to doing the album, the record company had several people in mind, but we said we wanted Rich. He’s one of the top two or three in the world who does what he does, so straightaway we felt very good about working with him.
What did he bring to the record?
Rich made it sound the way we wanted. Funny, when we go back to the demos, we see he didn’t mess with them very much in that sense. It was all in the mixing switch and that’s his genius. One of the favorite parts of the album for me is at the end when he goes into those, like, landscape sounds. That was one of those songs we gave him that he really, really liked and I think he knew that was the end of the album. He was the right guy to do it. He wants to do the second album and we’ve asked for him to do it, so here’s hoping.
Tell we Angelenos about the local incident—a teen murder in Glasgow that’s since inspired much racial and gang violence—that inspired ‘Flowers and Football Tops’?
It was like reading the newspaper and putting yourself in someone else’s position, like what if you won the lottery? In Glasgow, a few people mobbed up and you ask ‘What if I was in that position?’ Obviously, the ‘You Are My Sunshine’ part at the end…
[Deafening feedback squelch]
Wow. Long live rock.
It’s been going on and off. There. It’s gone again.
(shouting) Some rock critics have questioned the very largeness of feeling and expression on your album. What does this say about rock critics these days?
Our album was received so well—in Britain, for example—that some of it shocked us, comparing James to Morrissey and all that. You never can prepare yourself for what the critics will say. They’re obviously more than welcome to their opinion, but we sold out our first British tour before we had a record deal and that was largely due to online reviewers. In America, we haven’t seen a lot of the press. I dunno if it means it’s that bad and they don’t wanna show us! I’ve noticed in America, people travel quite a lot, but in Britain, if you don’t go to their city, people won’t see you. There’s a crowd and the people who love music, really love music.
Do you think this generation needs any more rock stars?
I think so, because you can learn from other people’s mistakes. It’s good to see how others have achieved and others fallen down. Throughout history, people have always made the same mistakes in rock ‘n’ roll.
What next?
After U2, we go to America, then do some more shows in Britain, then we go away and do the second album, which we’re actually recording in Los Angeles. James is buying a house in Los Angeles and wants to move there for a few months.
That will certainly be welcome, given the real estate market around here.
We fell in love with Los Angeles. It felt like home, which is strange. (laughs) So, it’s L.A. for us next year.

GLASVEGAS WITH IDA MARIA ON TUE., JULY 28, AT THE HENRY FONDA THEATRE, 6126 HOLLYWOOD BLVD., HOLLYWOOD. 9 PM / $22 / ALL AGES. GOLDENVOICE.COM. GLASVEGAS’ SELF-TITLED ALBUM IS OUT NOW ON SONY. VISIT GLASVEGAS AT GLASVEGAS.NET OR MYSPACE.COM/GLASVEGAS.