Interview with Gomez drummer Olly Peacock
Posted by Stephen Mogan on 06.15.2006
The man with the biggest drum kit in the world?
To say that the music industry hasn't exactly been fair to Gomez is akin to referring to that chick off American Idol as "slightly annoying" (out-dated reference alert!). In the same way that I get the urge to put my foot through the TV every time that manic, crazy-looking bitch appears, so these five must have felt like punting a few Virgin Records execs after being dropped last year. But I'm getting ahead of myself (in truth, I just wanted to work a rant about that annoying cow into this feature. I think I did a very subtle job), let's go back to the beginning to see why these guys have every right to want to punch that dame in the face. I mean, to hate "the industry".
Gomez appeared on the British music scene in 1998 with their debut album, "Bring It On". The record was well-received on both sides of the Atlantic due to its beautiful mix of luscious, West Coast harmonies and forward-thinking electronics (which weren't cool yet, by the way). Having three good singers and a shitload of musical talent didn't hurt either. Later that year, the band picked up the Mercury Music prize for the album. This is the UK equivalent of the Shortlist Prize, and usually guarantees commercial success for the winner (see: Franz Ferdinand in 2004). Unfortunately for Gomez, the prize meant absolutely nothing in 1998, since nobody in Britain gave a fart about guitar music at the time. In today's indie-obsessed marketplace, the Franz boys have racked up a couple of top 3 singles and a few more top 10s. Gomez's highest chart placing? 18. Doesn't seem fair really, does it?
The boys kept the same formula for album no. 2, "Liquid Skin", which was just as critically well-received as the first, but didn't fare any better commercially. On third album, "Bring It On", the electronics really took over, with some tracks completely devoid of guitars altogether. It was a fantastic album. Unfortunately, label troubles meant that many people didn't realise it existed. At this point, the UK press pretty much gave up on the band. They were never perceived as the "coolest cats" to begin with, but it was now 2002, and in the post-Strokes era, image was even more important than ever, and has been ever since. Gomez consists of 5 normal-looking guys you might see down the pub. Put them next to the eternally-preened likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, and I'm sure you can pretty quickly figure out who'll be selling the most records to impressionable young girls. Gomez now found themselves in the bin marked "Fucking great British bands that the NME won't touch because they're not cool enough" along with the Super Furry Animals and the Beta Band. For those of you unaware (you lucky people), the NME is a British music magazine that pretty much exclusively covers "cool new guitar bands". If these guys like you, you will sell records, no matter how bad you are (see: The Bravery or, more recently, BoyKillBoy *shudder*). If they don't, well, you're screwed.
Gomez released a fourth album, "Split The Difference", in 2004, but a monumental lack of promotion from Virgin meant that it made even less commercial impact than their previous release. For the record, the album was weaker than their other three, but still much better than most of what was in the charts at the time. The electronics had pretty much been dropped altogether, in favour of a more traditional mix of hard-rock and gentle, country-tinged pop songs. At the same time, bands like The Killers were achieving chart success that the ‘Mez (as they're affectionately known) could only dream of, with an electronic sound they'd already become bored of 2 years earlier. Then, to top it all off, they got dropped. Angry? That American Idol broad better thank the Lord she wasn't on TV when all this was going on.
Fast forward to 2006, and things are looking rosier. Having secured a new deal with ATO Records, the band's profile in the US has never been higher. They've been touring the States for much of the last two years, playing some legendary venues and putting in some astounding performances. The press in Britain is beginning to take notice; NME even reviewed their latest single. With a new album, "How We Operate", receiving rave reviews (and one not-so rave review) and a summer of festivals ahead, drummer Olly Peacock took time out from their latest UK tour to talk to yours truly.
Hi, Olly, thanks for doing the interview. How's the tour going so far?
It's great. We had a really, really good show in Bristol. That was the first gig of the tour, then we had Newcastle last night and that was pretty cool as well.
Everything's going smoothly, then?
Yeah, it's been good because we've just been to the States for a month, so it's given us time to get everything rehearsed.
How do you find touring America , is it a lot different to Britain ?
In some respects it's different, obviously because of the scale of the place. But for the most part, we've been over there so many times that we're kind of used to it by now.
You played a residency at the Fillmore last year, and I know you guys have been before, how did it feel the first time you ever played there? Was it nerve-wracking or did the incredible history of the place excite you?
The first time is a bit daunting because you wander round and see all the posters from the past of everybody who's played there. It's so legendary – there are so many great artists that have played there over the years. Hendrix has had big spells there, all the classic San Francisco bands and The Doors etc. etc. So I think we were a little bit concerned because we just wanted to pull it off. I think we managed to do a good job.
Were you pleased with the way the live album you recorded there, ‘Out West', turned out?
Yeah it was pretty cool. We did three nights, and we recorded each of the nights, but we changed the set a lot, we didn't play many songs twice. When it came to choosing the tracklist, there were a few difficulties here and there, technical problems with the sound etc. etc. so there are some songs that aren't on there that probably weren't intended to be. But at the same time, it made us choose some other tracks that maybe wouldn't have been first choice to go on there and it made it a little bit of a different kind of record for us. It's not a defining live record; it's more a record of Gomez at that time at The Fillmore.
Let's move on to questions about the new album, ‘How We Operate'. First of all, how did the recording process compare to your other records?
For the most part, the major difference was we were recording with a producer for the first time in Gil Norton. We actually rehearsed the record as well, which we'd always intended to do but never got round to (on the previous records). We'd usually just go into our own studio and do things in our haphazard kind of way. So we rehearsed it and did some demos round at Blackie's (Gomez bassist) house. Gil came in and we rehearsed the songs, got them refined and then went to the studio with Gil. Mostly, it was the fact that we rehearsed everything through and worked with a producer that makes it stand out from the other records.
How was working with Gil?
It was a little bit daunting because it was a case of having someone come in (from outside the band) and we were wary in case we didn't get along or had completely different musical tastes. But because we'd met him before, we knew what the vibe was and what he wanted to get out of it, generally speaking. We knew it was going to work out well for us.
The thing that strikes me most about the album is that it sounds like you had lot of fun making it - it has quite a playful sound to it. Would you agree with that?
Yeah there's definitely some stuff that is light-hearted, quite similar to the earlier albums in a way. It's very much us sounding like a band, rather than 5 individuals writing songs and messing about. This one is much more focused
You must be pleased with the positive press response. The majority of reviews have been very good.
I've seen a few around; we got a great one in Mojo and one in Classic Rock magazine that was very complimentary. It's always nice to have a bit of attention paid to us because for the last year it seems that people are only concerned about brand new acts. Nobody wants to discuss anybody that has released two albums.
How are you finding playing the new stuff live?
It's great. The album has only just come out, so nobody really knows it. It's cool – we're playing six new songs, but then there's a lot of old stuff that we haven't played for years and years as well, so for most people it will be a completely new show. The response has been great; it's good fun that you can go out there and play the new stuff and impress people.
You have a great relationship with your fans, why do you think that is? Is it something you went out of your way to cultivate?
Not particularly, I think people just see us in a good light because we're fairly honest and open as a band. You can see us having fun on stage and people feed off that. We're just very much ourselves. Were not a typical band in terms of the pretensions, we love making music and that's what we do. It's a simple operation in the way we conduct ourselves and people seem to like that.
You've never had that unapproachable rock star thing going on. It's quite refreshing that you encourage people to trade shows with the livegomez.com site, for example. Whose idea was that?
I think everybody was involved in that, and it goes along well with the new website. We can blog, and be in touch with people; let them know what we're up to. Any time we can give the fans more information or free songs, we're definitely up for that.
Speaking of free songs, how do you feel about the mp3 format?
It's interesting. I use it a lot, everybody's doing it. You just have to embrace it – record companies should have done that a long time ago. We wouldn't have had so much trouble and lawsuits with Napster for example if they'd got involved a lot earlier. I love it if I'm at home in the evening and I can buy an album online and listen to it straight away. People are always going to copy music, when I was young it was people copying tapes for each other. Everybody's always to some extent "pirating" material. Nowadays, we just have computers to get things around faster. In an extreme form, bands wouldn't be able to make any money, but for now it's working out well.
Apart from piracy, the other major concern people have about mp3 is that playlists will ruin the mystique of an album because people don't listen to them all the way through anymore. Do you agree with this?
That's completely true, some people will pick and choose the tracks they want. If I'm on iTunes for example, I'll listen to 4 or 5 songs but then buy the whole album if I like it. It all depends on what type of music fan you are. Some people just want a few pop tunes to listen to, and so they'll buy single tracks. But serious music lovers will always want the album. The option is there for either.
I read in another interview that you felt Virgin didn't support your last two albums enough. Do you think that those records were overlooked by the British press a bit because of that?
Well, I think it definitely didn't help, especially on the last one, "Split The Difference". We were being moved from (Virgin subsidiary) Hut Records to Virgin literally at the exact time the album was coming out. Hut went down and we were shifted to Virgin, who didn't know what to do with us. They were unfamiliar with us, didn't know our history and they didn't know how to market us, so they didn't. A lot of the press didn't even know about it, neither did radio. We went on tour in May, and by the time we got to London , even though the album was out, I think hardly any of the 5,000 there knew about it. It was very disconcerting, a very unusual situation to find ourselves in. And then for the one before that (‘In Our Gun'), EMI was swallowing up Virgin and loads of people were losing their jobs. It was the same situation again both times, a real double whammy. It's made us stronger as band though, to come out and get a new label that's being much more supportive.
I heard a radio ad for the new record last night, which I never did for any of the others. ATO seems to be doing a much better job.
Yeah, so far we've done some stuff in the national newspapers; we have people coming out to see us at Bonnaroo and things like that. There's a lot more interest. For a long time a lot of the British press wrote us off and ignored us and were only concerned with new bands. I think it's got to the point where they can't ignore us anymore because we are still going and we're better than we've ever been. It's funny because, as a music lover, I've always thought if a band's still releasing good records then I don't understand why people aren't interested or don't talk about it. It's so simple. "Is it a good album? Yes it is." Well tell people about it then. I think they tried to get rid of us and shun us but now they've realised "Oh shit, these guys are actually still pretty cool"! Hopefully, with the new album they'll take note that we're still relevant to some degree. We've been spending most of our time in the States because we're getting more support and our shows are getting bigger and bigger. The press seem to have finally realised that we're getting bigger in America and that's important and people want to know about it.
That's true, because you're having tremendous success over in the States and have been for a while, but here in Britain we didn't get to hear about that until recently.
That's a really odd aspect of British journalism. I've seen reviews over the years of so many British bands playing in the states, playing in a venue that Gomez had played two years before. We'd have packed it out, and moved onto venues two or three times bigger, but all of a sudden this new band is about to ‘break America', even though we'd already done what they were doing years before. It's so misleading for everybody, they just like to slant it to whatever they want people to believe. It's kinda funny.
It's something we hear all the time, ‘Oh, ‘Band X' is about to break America '. It's something you heard back in ‘95 or ‘96 about Oasis when they were really popular in the UK . And yet, in the year 2000 when Oasis weren't popular at all in Britain , they actually played their biggest ever US shows, but nobody reported it because they weren't the hot new thing anymore. It's a similar situation that you guys are in.
It's funny the way that reality doesn't fit into what you read about in magazines. It seems to be the opposite of what's actually happening at times. It's so fickle sometimes that you can't begin to understand it.
In some magazines, you'll read about how great a certain band is on one page, then turn over the page and find an article burying that same band. It's strange.
I don't see the point. NME, for example, has been a farcical magazine for years. If you mention it to people outside the UK , everybody just fucking laughs. It's such a bloody joke - It's like a cartoon magazine. The funny thing is, they seem to think they still have some sort of good reputation. They don't realise everybody mocks it.
It is a bit like a cartoon magazine, it's certainly aimed at kids. I think you wake up one day, maybe your 18 th birthday, and just think to yourself, "My God, NME is shit".
Yeah, "this is all full of lies" *laughs*
Ok, last couple of questions. Firstly, you've played so many fantastic venues across the world: Bonnaroo, Coachella, The Fillmore, Glastonbury , South by South-West. Which was your favourite?
It's so difficult. We've probably had our best experience as a band at Glastonbury . Having said that, I like playing Bonnaroo and the Fuji Festival in Japan . That's a great festival.
Finally, do you have any plans for the next album yet?
No, we haven't even contemplated that. We're always writing tunes and getting things together but at the moment we're very much on the road, focusing on working this record. We're doing the new website and trying to get the whole Gomez experience to be the best it can be.
"How We Operate" is out now. You can check out the band's website at gomeztheband.com.
Also, keep your eyes peeled for a live review from an incredible show later in the week. Take it easy,
