HOW was the recording process this time around?
We went on holiday to write this record. We spent two weeks last year at Joe’s (Joe McGuigan, bass) house by the sea in Omeath, Co Louth. The real difference was how much we relied on demos this time. We put the songs together digitally in each of our houses, then went to Joe’s and tweaked and re-worked them over again to get the right ideas in there. Each day for two weeks we’d get up, write and record all day, then watch kung fu movies at night and drink ourselves to sleep. It was quite idyllic, actually – we’d go for walks, get down to the shore when we were taking a break, cook dinner, that sort of thing. It was a bit like Stand By Me crossed with Spinal Tap.
You've been taking opera singing lessons, did that help with the vocals?
A few years back I really screwed up my voice – I ended up with a polyp on my vocal folds and had to undergo surgery. It was a real knock to my confidence and took a long time to recover from, so I wanted to take my singing seriously for a change when we approached Untouchable Glory. So yeah, I’ve been seeing an old-school opera singer in London; she’s literally never heard any popular music in her life. She has no idea who Bruce Springsteen is. However, she does have inside-out knowledge of the skills you need to become a great singer. She taught me that it’s physical and psychological, being a good singer. I’ve got a long way to go, but it turns out a lot of the skills needed for opera are the same skills you need for extreme metal. I mean, these are people who sing to thousands of people without using a microphone. And generally they’re screaming about being murdered, or how they’re going to murder someone. So y’know, a lot of crossover there. Also, it’s helped my shower singing out a lot, which is vital.
Untouchable Glory sees a swerve away from the band’s sci-fi/horror obsessions towards the action and martial arts oeuvre. What prompted this?
We’ve got the weird privilege of having made five albums about b-movies now. The first four kind of leaned into horror films – like Zombie Flesh Eaters, Rats: Night Of Terror – and sci-fi like Robowar (a rip-off of Predator) and of course RoboCop. With this record though, we’ve been watching a lot more kung-fu movies. We highly recommend your readers acquaint themselves with the works of Godfrey Ho. He used to chop up multiple existing movies, splice them together with new ninja footage, and release them at a rate of knots. I think that naturally just bled into the music, and it fitted in with this kind of classic rock / metal aesthetic, the Thin Lizzy vibe we wanted in the songs. Kung fu and Thin Lizzy - what’s not to like?!
What’s your favourite song from the record?
Right now it’s probably Drinkers, Inc – because it’s inspired by all the true stories about me and Joe being teenagers in Newry and doing stupid stuff like drinking Malibu beside a canal in the middle of winter. Just really young, silly lads without a clue about the real world. And this song says 'Yup, do what you have to do when you’re young, because pretty soon you’ll be in your 30s and would rather just watch Amazing Spaces with some nice tagliatelle.' Both are cool, but one is more songworthy.
Tell us about the video for Ninja Untouchables/Untouchable Glory.
It’s a splice of classic kung fu movies Street Fighter and Sister Street Fighter, which had a big impact on Quentin Tarantino. They star Sonny Chiba, who was like an evil Bruce Lee. Check it out – we’ve made it look like a scuzzy old grindhouse movie trailer. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.
What was it like touring with Nuclear Assault earlier this year?
Nuclear Assault were our idols back when we started the band: it was a dog-eared copy of their album Survive on cassette, from Newry library, that kick-started the whole thing. It’s hard to explain how much finally playing with them meant to us: after the show, we got to hang out with their bassist Dan Lilker and just have a few beers, and it ended up in this massive heart-to-heart where me and Joe told him all about how much they inspired us. He’s a super cool guy and it was kind of a big 'tick' off the life-list there: `Hang out with teenage metal hero’.
You've been at this for 13 years, so what's been the secret to Gama Bomb's longevity?
I think it’s because we’ve always kept our ‘real’ lives in focus. A lot of bands who came up at the same time as us have vanished because their expectations were out of whack: they thought they’d be rich rock stars within a year or two and shuttled off back home when they didn’t get the Rolls Royce in the post. We’ve always kept up our own interests, our own careers and education, alongside the band. I think that means we’ve never been disappointed by it: we’re not here to get rich, or be the biggest band in the world. We don’t rely on it to survive – it’s a thing we do because it’s a rad way to live.
Is it hard to combine your hi-falutin' day job as digital director of Comedy Central
with your alter ego as a thrash titan?
Not really. I think if you really want to do things in life, you can fit a lot into the time you have. Working is daytime, thrashing is nighttime. You sleep when you can – that’s worked for me so far.
So how are things shaping up for Gama Bomb in general?
Amazingly. We’re just so stunned to now be a band with five albums and 13 years of gigging under our belts, who are still mates and still keeping ‘er lit in general. Imagine telling those lads in Newry they’d one day be considered survivors - they’d laugh you out of the garage.
:: Untouchable Glory is out now on AFM Records
