Ben Gomez Talks Exclusively To Us!
Raft: How’s it going?
Ben: Not bad not bad!
Raft: Cool. What have you been up to?
Ben: Well, err, a lot of drinking over the weekend, which was good. Um, yeah, and we’ve been working on some b-sides for the next single.
Raft: That’s brings us onto new single ‘Silence’ quite nicely. It was released yesterday (Monday 10th May) wasn’t it?
Ben: Yeah that’s right.
Raft: It’s a bit of a bluesy rocker...what’s it all about?
Ben: Ah, it’s kind of like a rock’n’roll anthem to escape I suppose. Like so many things before it I guess.
Raft: Escape what? Is it about suburban living?
Ben: Yeah, kind of I think. I didn’t write it you see; Tom wrote it. He thought it was just a throw away thing, but then we all really got behind it, and yeah it’s a good tune. I think it’s just about escape really. Getting away from boring places and situations.
Raft: Is this album the sound of a new, different Gomez?
Ben: Yeah, I mean, this album is fairly different from what we’ve done before. But the thing is with us. I don’t think any of our records sound the same, and we try not to. I think the main difference with this record, as opposed to the record before it, is that it’s more of an extrovert. It’s more of a direct rock record. Which I think, kinda comes from us playing a lot of live shows. You see, with ‘In Our Gun’ we took a big break just before we made that. We didn’t really see each other for about six months.
Raft: That long?
Ben: Yeah, we just went away for a while. I guess ‘In Our Gun’ was just a getting to know each other again record, kind of experimentation in a lot of ways, and there’s just noises! Whereas this album is much more direct, and about the songs and more upbeat.
Raft: What are the influences on this record? Do you find yourself influenced by the things you’re listening to at the time?
Ben: Not really no. It’s just about where your head’s at, and that’s kind of a general, mysterious things. I mean I was listening to a lot of Bonny Prince Billy and Smog when we were making this record, and I think some of the other guys were listening to a lot of Kraftwerk...y’know. It’s never a kind of direct thing. Although, ‘Loaded’ by The Velvet Underground was one of the albums I rediscovered while making this one...and some stuff by The Kinks, so maybe that, but; you never can tell what really affects you. I think mainly it was just wanting to capture what we did live over the last few years, which has been the kind of thrust of the band.
Raft: Did you do that?
Ben: Yeah. I think so. |
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Gomez Get Their Guns Out
