Gun Street Girls are nothing if not hardworking. Less than a year after their debut album dropped, they’re giving birth to another one tomorrow. I caught up with the band’s vocalist and guitarist Dave Larkin to chat about the album Adult Loose, cool band names, and the band’s upcoming tour.
It’s not even been a year since you released your debut album, yet you’re already about to release album number two. How did it come together so quickly?
Well, we’re always working on new songs, and we kind of figured it’s best to have new material out there in the public stratosphere as opposed to sitting dormant in a hard drive or tape machine. We had a really good bunch of songs and just thought, “right, this rocks – let’s do it!”
What can you tell me about the new album, Adult Loose?
It’s definitely more of a refined collaboration between three guys than album number one. I think the songs are stronger and more considered production wise. You can hear a band coming together a lot more on this one, and finding their own thing.
How do you think you’ve developed as a band from one year to the next?
We definitely have a crystallized understanding of what Gun Street Girls is now. We’ve spent a bit of time on the road, and a lot of time discoursing about what’s important in music and what’s not. We don’t really give a stuff about trends, and being considered one of the “in” bands, because we know that’s all vacuous crap that means nothing in the long run. Rock’n roll music doesn’t go in and out of fashion for us because it’s always been cool. It’s like Levis jeans Coca-Cola and Converse sneakers – one of those things that transcends the ages.
You worked with Wayne Connolly, who’s been behind so many great albums from You Am I to Josh Pyke. What did he bring to your sound?
Wayne’s a really great engineer for nailing performances in their purest form. He’s all about the right mic, and the right amp, and is a bit of an ambassador for all things vintage. He’s got an acute understanding of the recording process and brings a raw honesty to the final product.
Your band has got such a distinctive name. Where did the Gun Street Girls come from?
It’s named after a Tom Waits song from the Raindogs album. It was no particular homage or anything like that, we were just on the search for a cool name and started out by trawling our iTunes playlists to trigger an idea. Turns out though this song just came on the radio and Dave B called me to see what I thought. When I scribbled it down on the page it looked cool. A band name’s always gotta look cool when you write it!
I believe you’ll be announcing a tour soon. Do you have any idea yet where you’re going to visit and when?
We want to try and get right around this time especially to Perth and Brisbane where we’ve only really dropped by on someone else’s bill. I guess we’ll decide how many in betweens as we go. It’ll be mainly focused on the capital cities at this stage.
What’s life like on the Gun Street Girls tour bus?
Same as any other tour bus I’d say. Lots of long hours behind the wheel, plenty of crap jokes and not enough room to stretch your legs. We try and fly wherever possible these days but sometimes the claustrophobia of a fully packed Tarago is unavoidable.
Are you itching to get take these songs to the people and get out on stage again?
Absolutely. Playing live is like the ultimate reward for all your hard work. For us, it’s really the place where we sell the record. Not to take anything away from the album or anything, but if you’re not going to like Gun Street Girls after seeing us live, you’re probably not gonna like us at all!
What can audiences expect from your live shows?
The only way to answer that is to come and see us play! I’d like to think we don’t disappoint, but that opinion really lies with the beholder.
Other than the tour, is there anything else in the pipeline for Gun Street Girls?
We’re very keen to head back to Europe in 2011. We’re just in the middle of setting up release and tour there as we speak. Having a small band means we can travel light, so we want to make the most of that situation as we can. It’s a pretty awesome place to tour I must say.
Gun Street Girls’ sophomore album Adult Loose hits good music stores everywhere tomorrow.
Image used with permission from Repertoire Publicity