Sound Of Guns
Liverpool, England, United Kingdom | MAJOR
Music
Press
“Smelting coming-of-age heart flutters into nuclear-strength weapons of uplifting potential, SOG could recite Middle Eastern ceasefire agreements and come off mildly chirpy. In epic British indie’s greatest traditions, the Liverpudlians transform all before them into Soccer AM-ready hugeness. Beneath well-heeled exteriors, though, polite protest songs bubble under; Collisions even sabotages airy cheer with defeated nihilism. Granted flickers of open-expanse rock – see ‘106 (Still The Words)’ – are so pro-Bono you half expect frontman Andy Metcalfe to don comedy wraparounds. If that’s a pointer toward imminent enormo-dome success, however, Sound Of Guns wield adequate ammunition to fire there with economy. 7/10” - NME
Hometown: Liverpool
The lineup: Andy Metcalfe (vocals), Lee Glynn (guitar), Nathan Crowley (guitar), John Coley (bass), Si Finley (drums).
The background: New Liverpool band Sound of Guns are good old-fashioned purveyors of anthemic indie rock. You will either find their big-chorused songs rousing or blustery, majestic or bombastic. Their music has about it an air of grandiloquence, although some might just describe it as windy, the sort of gusty stadium squall U2 made heavy weather of in the 80s. Andy Metcalfe – described as a "mad scientist's genetically engineered hybrid son of Jim Morrison and Bono, with vocals to match" – sings each song as though he has one hand gripping a flag, even if it remains unclear what the flag represents. Every sentence, every utterance, is imbued with meaning, or rather, a sense that everything he sings is meaningful. It all seems Important with a capital I, the implication being that Sound of Guns' audience, still small but growing by the day, needs to hear whatever it is they have to say.
In terms of ringing guitar lines and insistent riffs, too, SOG are all urgency and clamour, and you get the impression Bono and Co's I Will Follow made quite an impression on these young men. Elementary of Youth, their new single, even has a rapid artillery-fire drum motif halfway through, as though SOG are going into battle on our behalf, waging war on – what? The mediocrity of their peers? X-Factor chart pabulum? Labour's tax policies? "The more you see, the less you feel," warns Metcalfe, hardly answering the question. Nevertheless, the driving, surging music provides a kind of response. SOG are one of those bands who make their fans feel they are part of something big, a community of likeminds who passionately believe in, well, the power of faith. Manic Street Preachers man Dave Eringa produced one of their tracks, Lightspeed, and they do indeed remind you a bit of Design for Life-era, triumph-over-adversity Manics. Another track, Alcatraz, makes you think of those nu-gloom bands like White Lies or Editors, only not gloomy. Instead, they sound terminally positive, fuelled by an unforgettable fire.
Formed out of local outfits Freemaker, the Vagabonds and the Veras, Sound of Guns are not a normal Liverpool group. For the last two decades, bands from England's sixth city have been jangly and jolly (the La's, Shack) or psychedelic and quixotic (the Coral, the Zutons). So they're atypical, but that's OK. Plus, they look good, which helps. In fact, they all appear to have modelled themselves on Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian, all beards and dishevelled cool. They have their own fanzine called Retail Rodeo, which will be included with their forthcoming EP, and they play every gig, as yet all at small venues, as though they were headlining Wembley – see tonight's one at Camden's Barfly if you don't believe us. Oh, and they have form, crime-wise, even if they weren't really guilty, yer honour – they were arrested in Wakefield after someone overheard a bunch of Scousers discussing guns and called the police, assuming they were armed raiders. They're not, but they will rob a certain type of rock fan of their breath.
The buzz: "I have not felt like this about any band since I saw Oasis in 1994 in a tiny venue in north Wales."
The truth: 68 guns will never die.
Most likely to: Ring alarm bells about 80s rockers the Alarm.
Least likely to: Go back to Wakefield.
What to buy: The Elementary of Youth EP is released by Distiller on 26 October.
File next to: U2, Red Light Company, Manic Street Preachers, Then Jericho.
Links: myspace.com/soundofguns
- The Guardian Newspaper
Discography
'ARCHITECTS' Single (Distiller Records)
#1 HMV 7" Singles Chart. Playlisted by BBC Radio 1 daytime, playlisted by XFM daytime, BBC Radio 1 'Single Of The Week' (Greg James), XFM 'Single Of The Week' (Steve Harris). Used frequently by Sky Sports, ESPN, etc for sporting
Video on MTV, MTV Rocks, NME TV, Q
'WHAT CAME FROM FIRE' Album (Distiller Records)
'ELEMENTARY OF YOUTH' Single (Distiller Records)
BBC Radio 1 'Hottest Record In The World' (Zane Lowe), XFM evening playlist, airplay on BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 music, Kerrang
Video on MTV, MTV Rocks, NME TV, Q
'ANGELS AND ENEMIES' Album (Distiller Records)
'ANTARCTICA' Single (Distiller Records)
iTunes 'Single Of The Week' (75,000+ downloads), Playlisted at XFM, Q, Kerran and more. Synch with Sky Sports for Champions League Coverage Season 2012/13
In total 141 regional radio stations have supported all single releases in th UK.
Sound Of Guns have performed live sessions including a coveted Radio 1 Maida Vale session aired on BBC Radio 1,
XFM sessions and interviews
TV appearances include live performance on Channel 5 (prime time), Channel 4 Album Show 'Spotlight'.
Many tracks are used by BBC, ESPN, Sky and Channel 4 for TV
Photos
Bio
(Gig highlights: UK tour with the Stereophonics July 2012, 7 headline tours of the UK, sell out shows in England and Scotland, Festival appearances at Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading Festival, Radio 1 Big Weekened, Latitude, Ibiza/Mallorca Rocks, Sound City Dubai, many more. Support shows/tours with: Stereophonics, Miles Kane, Adam Green, The View, The Courteeners, Pulled Apart By Horses and more
BIO...
The Sound Of Guns story starts with three big
problems - tests, if you will - and begins in a
disused social club on a street you may have heard
of: namely Penny Lane, Liverpool.
Glamorous, to begin with, this place is not. There’s
no water or electricity to speak of, but it is here
that singer Andy and drummer Simon, having been
donated the space and fresh from the disintegration
of their previous band, slave for months over
converting it into a rehearsal and recording studio.
Soon, they begin working on new songs. They invite
along their friend Nathan, who plays guitar. Things
go well, quickly, and they put together a song called
‘Alcatraz’, which will turn out to be a key moment
in the formation of their sound: it is big, powerful,
unashamedly epic, melodic and beautiful. After this
everyone is excited, not least Nathan’s Australian
friend, Lee, who comes down shortly afterwards
for a jam and adds his own guitar parts. Things are
clicking, but there is the first of the problems. That
being that Lee has a ticket booked on a plane back
to Australia.
“I was literally leaving when they asked me to come
down,” he remembers. “But I was so into it, I sold
my ticket and stayed on in Liverpool, put my life in
turmoil, all for this band...”
This should be adequate evidence of the conviction
that lies at the heart of Sound Of Guns. They are an
all-or-nothing kind of band. More evidence of this
comes shortly after this turn of events and some
suitably intense rehearsals at the foursome’s first
gig, which takes place, not in Liverpool, but at
Oxford Street, London’s now-deceased Metro club.
In attendance that night is the final piece of the
puzzle, Coley, a friend of Lee’s who has come down
for the gig and watches the band play the show with
bass parts programmed on a laptop. At this point he
is in another Liverpool band who are more focused
on getting wankered every single night rather than
rehearsing or writing world-beating songs. On that
stage, he sees his future, and the next day he keeps
texting and texting his friend, asking whether they
have got a bassist.
“Basically,” he says, “I knew that if I didn’t join their
band, I’d be fucked.”
‘Fucked’ is one way of describing what happens
to Sound Of Guns next when they encounter
Problem Number Two. One night, after a particularly
productive writing session, the band lock up and
head home, with only Nathan taking his instrument
with him. On returning the next day, they find the
door busted open and all of their guitars gone.
Every single one of them. This is not good news,
and not the last bit of not good news either. Shortly afterwards, the studio is completely burned to the
ground by local hooligans. Many bands might by
now be thinking about taking the hint, but not Sound
of Guns. In fact, if you look at the cover of their
debut album, ‘What Came From Fire’, the pile of
rubble to the left of the offices you can see is what
remained of their studio.
A permanent visual reminder that nothing - nothing -
will get in the way of this band getting where it needs
to go.
Problem Number Three arrives again in Wakefield
in May of 2009. The band are readying themselves
for a show when, on returning to their van, they
find themselves surrounded by dozens of police,
including armed response officers with guns. They
are ordered out of the van with their hands up, and
informed that there have been reports of a bunch
of Scouse lads talking about guns, and the sound
of guns. Which is true, of course, but takes some
explaining. Fortunately, this will be the last time this
mistake is made.
Soon, the world gets it first chance to talk
about Sound Of Guns rather than the sound
of guns, thanks to a four-song EP called ‘The
Elementary of Youth’ on Distiller and a packed show
at their hometown’s Barfly. People have hooked in
quickly because the sound is undeniable: giant, bold
music that feels as though it should be reverberating
around stadiums, played with conviction. This may
all be being created on Penny Lane but, Echo & The
Bunnymen aside; there is little trace of the lineage
of their home city.
“One of the first things people say about us is that we don’t sound like a Liverpool band,” says Andy.
“But we didn’t have any boundaries. I
love The Coral, and The La’s and bands like that,
but in terms of the music we wanted to make, that
sound didn’t really appeal to us. We were all right
into The Walkmen, for example, who make a big
noise. The others are all big on Led Zeppel
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