Glory Glory Man United are performing in Moncton tonight.
Glory Glory Man United finds itself in Moncton at Plan B tonight playing a CD release show for the Halifax band’s full-length debut, ZOMBIES!! Tomorrow night, they play The Capital bar in Fredericton and on July 16, they’re in Dartmouth at CD Heaven.
Comprised of music school friends Adam Warren (vocals, guitar), Gavin Maclean (bass, vocals) and Ryan Brown (drums, vocals), GGMU recorded and produced the album themselves, but leaned on friend and sometimes bandmate Andrew Watt (of The Heavy Blinkers fame). GGMU acted as Watt’s backing band for his solo debut, First Day Of Summer Life, recently.
This week, Adam Warren joins us to talk about the new album, working with Watt and more …
1. Tell me about Glory Glory Man United. You formed in 2006 … but how did it happen?
We formed after the three of us moved to Halifax. Ryan and I had played together in a semi-terrible but really fun punk band while we were in the music program at St. FX, so upon graduation had sort of tentative plans to continue playing together but couldn’t make it work for almost a year, as he lived on P.E.I. and long-distance is tough. We knew Gavin through the music department at St. FX as well, and we were working together so we started jamming and it just clicked. It’s the first band that I think any of us have been in where it seemed like from the beginning we all had the same sort of idea about how it should sound, or at least didn’t constantly argue about what things should sound like, and just had fun playing the tunes.
2. You guys recently worked with Andrew Watt on his solo project as Andrew Watt & The Glory Glory. Apparently he hired you as complete strangers? How did that happen and why did you decide to work with him?
Andrew’s studio was across from the Rock Garden, which is where we do most of our rehearsing, and the owner Rob is a good friend of ours (he actually put out our EP Friends of the Seen on his label, From Here to There). I believe he and Andrew became friends due to proximity and the fact they both worked in the same field, and I think Andrew must have heard of us that way. We hung out once or twice, and he asked us about playing on his album in exchange for mixing/studio time in Common Ground. For us, it was pretty much a no-brainer, as he’s worked with SO MANY people around that we like and respect, and besides that, it sounded like it would be a challenge musically as what he does is very different from what we do.
3. Watt went on to mix Zombies! so obviously the working relationship panned out. How has your relationship with Watt impacted the band?
Very positively! Andrew Watt is one of the best people we have ever met in the music industry — he basically started pushing our band on everyone he knew as soon as we started hanging out, and Andrew knows everybody, so that helped us get to know more people in town. Because none of us grew up here, or went to school here, it was tough at first to meet people and Andrew helped to change that.
4. It’s been two years since your last release. How has the band or band’s sound changed in that time?
I tend to think we sound like a very different band now — the music is more layered, more “pop,” more danceable (less weird rhythmically, at least) and more sonically ambitious. We rehearse a lot, so having played together for a few more years makes a difference as well as to the overall tightness of the band, the performance.
5. Now that Zombies! is in the can and out there for folks to hear, how do you feel about the record?
Pretty good! We’ve been getting really good responses, which is exciting. We’ve been sitting on it for months and months, as we tried to figure out how/when to release it etc., and I have to admit that I would throw it on every once in awhile and just freak out inwardly that people would think it was amateur, generally crappy and we would look foolish … but so far that hasn’t happened and we’re happy to finally have some people outside of our friends and family to hear it. We recorded it ourselves for almost no money, so I think what we ended up with is pretty cool — tone-wise it can stand up to recordings that cost well into the tens of thousands of dollars and we’re proud of that.
6. You’ve just completed a quick tour of Ontario. How did that go, and has it been difficult to take the band outside of the Maritimes?
This last tour was easily our best — got to see some old friends, and family, which is always nice, and played with some great bands (our Out of Sound friends, for example) to some of our largest and most enthusiastic audiences! It has been somewhat difficult to take the band outside of the Maritimes, financially, and otherwise. As an example, on this last tour we were on a rural highway in between Guelph and Hamilton when our muffler exploded because of a misfire in the engine of our minivan, and we had to bend the muffler back together using a jack and drive to the gig that way. The next day we had it fixed, but what we thought was something minor of course wasn’t and all of a sudden you’re out a thousand dollars.
There’s also the struggle of convincing people who’ve never heard of you to come out to a show, stay at a show when their friends are all leaving, book you for a show, etc… Our first tour outside of the Maritimes consisted of a show in Montreal and Toronto, and a stop in Fredericton on the way home. However, we have made a lot of new friends over the last year and a half, going to Ontario every few months or so and hitting Montreal if we can, and it is gradually getting easier and better.
7. Now that the album is out … what’s next for you guys?
Writing new songs! We’ve been playing a lot of the material on ZOMBIES!! for what feels like a while, so it will be good to be able to focus on being more creative again. Also, lots of touring — we plan on returning to Ontario and Quebec at the end of October.
8. What song(s) or album(s) have you been listening to most lately?
Wilco — Wilco. Blank, Blank, Blank — Contrived.
9. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?
I often ask myself the same question when I’m frustrated with the various difficulties (lack of money being a big one, ha….) with being a musician, but can never think of anything I’d rather be doing, or could do instead. This has been what I’ve wanted to do for a long time.
Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Petunia
