Deep into tour ing Dance Gavin Dance I was fortune enough to catch up with Dez from Good Tiger and get right into tour antics and grab an insight into what was next for the transatlantic prog metallers. Having completed the American leg of the tour, the band was in the midst of their UK dates and several hours before doors, at The Fleece in Bristol, I had a chat with the band’s guitarist and tour manager for this tour.
First of all how has being on the road treated you so far? I believe that you’re midway in the UK part of the tour?
This is midway in the UK part, though we’ve just come straight from America which was probably 5 or 6 weeks long, so we’ve been on the road for quite a while now – achy bones and all that! But no, it’s been good – really good to be back in the UK, because the last time we toured in Europe was pretty much a year ago. And with more than half the band being from the UK, it’s really nice to be home, and touring places that are familiar to all of us as well.
So how was the American part of the tour then?
That was really great! Dance Gavin Dance definitely play to a different kind of crowd to what we’re used to, but probably more inline with what I think our music is like. All of us have toured in various different bands but with the music we’ve created with Good Tiger it’s finally a tour that make sense for us, depending on whom you talk to!
I totally agree with that! In comparison to other bands you’ve toured with for example, Periphery, Between the Buried and Me, I feel that their music is much more aligned to yours. Or they are definitely one of the closer bands that you’ve toured with sonically.
I think it’s within that post-hardcore scene with influences from progressive and experimental sides of things, so bands like The Mars Volta, Circa Survive and Fall of Troy or whatever. Not that we sound like any of the bands that I’ve just mentioned but within that sort of world is where our music aligns. We’ve played to a largely metal audience and it’s been great to be able to play to this crowd. Also, before touring with DGD, I’d heard of them but not really known about how large of a fan base they have in America. In the states they are a household name, and it’s not until you go out and see one of their shows that you realise how diverse their crowd is. It’s great to play to a different audience.
I guess that makes it a great way for you guys to open doors and push your music across a different scene, perhaps away from the prog-metal scene?
Yeah, definitely, I mean we’re not exactly trying to shy away from anyone. But as I’ve said it has been great to do this, and in comparison to in the states where they play bigger rooms for sure, there is definitely more of a grassroots feel here in of the shows we’re playing but this is still very important for us given that we’ve not toured here for a considerable amount of time and to be able to playing to new people is definitely what we want to be doing.
So the album has been out for a while now, just over a year, I assume writing has begun? What’s happening with that aspect of the band?
We’ve been writing for the past few months and we’re going into the studio in January. We’re playing a new song on this tour and we’re toying around with a few new ideas at the moment, but we’ve got time booked in the studio and it’s just basically a case of being excited to write new music again! Obviously the album was released a year ago, and written several months before that and recorded and so on so forth. It’s difficult, as playing live is amazing, but what makes playing live amazing is the feeling of playing new material – and that’s why we’re currently playing a new song on this tour. So people that know us will obviously hear stuff they know but an added bonus of hearing something new, whilst the new people that we encounter won’t have heard anything so it doesn’t really matter what we play to them! It’s been great playing this new one and we’re all looking forward to going into the studio.
So is that going to be done in a similar way to how it was done for the previous record, involving you in the recording and mixing process and working things transatlantic-ly?
No this is gonna be us in a studio for a month pretty much. This was a very conscious decision for us to take that opportunity that we now have that we didn’t have in the place and see how that goes. It’s normal for some bands to do, to have that amount of time in a studio – but it’s still quite difficult to do so, as everyone has their own personal lives and working lives to work around. So it’s a nice chance for us to be playing in a room together for an allotted amount of time, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what comes of that. Having produced several records myself, it’s a different way of approaching production, writing and recording, and arguably you have a more cohesive sound, over doing things sporadically. Though you’re under some pressures and you either react well or not, so we’ll see how it goes – but I feel we’re all very excited about that time.
Is there any specific direction you’re taking with this new record or is just solidifying the sound you guys have got?
It’s to say in all honesty, when we get into the studio we’ll see what happens really. Obviously we’ve written the songs, but how they fully form will be different and will change how they come across completely. One thing that we’ve done from the first album is that we wanted to basically record an album which was as live as possible, whilst still having a larger than life production. So things like the guitars and drums not being edited, it’s not a super polished recording process, but the playing will hopefully come across tight of course! We’re not trying to make a pop perfect record and what you hear live will be a very good representation of that. This concept is definitely going to be held onto the next album, and probably more so, as we’re trying to go more for rock sounding production, and less of a ‘polished’ sound. Bands like Thrice have a much more raw sounding production, and we’d like that to be a direction we take. I think that specifically with the musicians that are in the band that we can get away with that whilst still appealing to that certain audience. So it is going to be interesting and there will be quite a lot of experimentation going on, and we’ll see what works and perhaps you might have to scratch this interview if everything goes out the window haha!
Well thank you for taking your time to speak to me, it was a pleasure and I’m looking forward to the show!
No problem at all!
Good Tiger’s debut album A Head Full of Moonlight is available through all major digital outlets.
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