Scot rock brothers Dante and Jools Gizzi from Gun are about to take it down a notch with a stripped-back tour.
Last year Gun released semi-acoustic The Calton Songs and were awarded the Hard Rock Cafe Legends award at the Scottish Music Awards.
Currently in the studio recording new material, the brothers are about to head out for their Acoustic ‘23 Tour. Jools took time out to talk about touring and Oasis.
With Noel Gallagher telling brother Liam to call him, how hard is it being brothers in a band?
It has its ups and downs like any family. We argue about the biggest and littlest of things. But in all, we want to achieve the same goals when it comes to our music and the band.
The Gallaghers haven’t spoken since a backstage spat before a Paris gig in 2009 – what’s the biggest row you have ever had in the band and how bad was it?
The biggest most embarrassing argument Dante and I have ever had was one time fans were queuing outside our tour bus for autographs and food had arrived for the band.
I picked up Dante’s food and started eating it thinking it was mine whilst Dante was signing the autographs. He looks at me and goes off his nut screaming and bawling, which caused a huge argument in front of the fans which was very embarrassing indeed. Yeah, we have our fallouts, but we’d never fall out enough to not work together.
It seems Oasis may reunite at last – is that something you welcome or are you not bothered?
Absolutely not bothered one bit, we’re not Oasis fans.
Which of the warring brothers would each of you lean towards? Who is Noel and who is Liam?
Neither, but if we had to compare two other musical brothers to ourselves, it’d be Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC. I think I’d be Malcolm because of his rhythm guitar playing and songwriting, and Dante would be Angus, again because he’s the showman, he’s all over the stage, and he’s got better knees than me.
Is there any advice you would give Oasis as brothers in a band?
They should stop acting like a pair of prats and reform Oasis if that’s really what they want to do.
You are doing the acoustic tour in April then at the end of the month in Perth and at Bon Fest and then in May in Edinburgh and Ayr play full band dates. Is it strange switching between acoustic and electric shows?
It’s not so much strange, we’re still out there playing all the songs, the difference is the electric set is loud, full on and in your face, whereas the acoustic set is more stripped/laid back and personal where we chat with the fans about stories from out on the road.
You’re now working on a new album of all new songs with the full electric band, after the last record being more of an acoustic lookback at your career so far – does this give the new stuff more of a thrill to it?
Personally, we think it’s up there with the best of the Gun albums so far – we’re super excited about this one. We expect late summer or early autumn for the full album, but watch this space for singles because they’ll be dropping soon.
Not many artists, let alone bands, last over time like Gun have – what is the key to staying relevant?
The key is always believing in your music and your ability to try and write good songs, but most important is delivering our music to our fans, without we’d never have managed to continue our career as we have.
You’re all over Scotland this year from the usual cities to more unusual towns like Greenock and Ayr – is it important to go everywhere you can?
Hell yeah! It’s important to get out there as much as you can and to play for your fans wherever they are, be it Shetland or Shettleston.
Gun play Dundee Beat Generator on April 6, Bathgate Dreadnought Rock on April 7, Greenock The Albany on April 8, Paisley The Bungalow on April 9 , Perth Theatre on April 28, Bon Fest, Kirriemuir, on April 29. Tickets and info from: www.gunofficial.co.uk
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