BEST OF 2007: Gallows

Justice

The word ‘incendiary’ gets overused as an adjective to describe live performances, but in Gallows case it is a perfect fit. Arguably the best and most ferocious live band of the year, they stormed their way across the globe, leaving a trail of stunned and excited fans in the wake of each show. Guitarist Lags took some time out to talk with AU to reflect on a year of fun, frolics and Tony Hawk.

What were your highlights of 2007?
Playing Reading and Leeds was amazing. We’d been going to Reading since we were teenagers and it’s one of those things, it’s fulfilling a lot of childhood dreams. I used to buy Kerrang! when I was 12 and now ten years later I’m on the cover, so things like that are pretty mind-blowing. Doing Warped tour was another big one. I was at the first one as a kid. Meeting your goals is a big thing and we’ve met a lot of our goals this year. We were on Tony Hawks and Guitar Hero III, those are the little things that make it all worthwhile. Flying all over the world playing the music we do is amazing. It’s humbling to think that we started this just for ourselves and yet so many people are into it.

It’s incredible to think a band like yourselves have made a crossover to the mainstream, regardless of whether that was the intention or not.
We like pushing people’s boundaries. Being on the cover of the likes of NME or Rocksound, kids who read those magazines aren’t really used to extreme bands, so maybe by us being in there we’re helping to broaden their horizons. It’s mad. I don’t really understand why it’s happened. I think it’s a lot to do with the energy we put into the live shows whereas a lot of bands’ main aim is to sell music.

Has anything disappointed you this year?
Doing so much touring you get to see a lot of places but it really wears you down. I’m just looking forward to having a break. I can’t wait to take some time off for Christmas and letting my body get back to some kind of normal routine.

What’s the plan for 2008?
In January we head out on a tour of the US, and then we’ll be heading out on another headline round of UK dates. So we’ll be playing these songs for a while yet. We’re desperate to start writing the new album. Hopefully we’ll get some time next year to do it. I mean, we started recording ‘Orchestra OF Wolves’ at the end of 2005, so it’s almost two years old for us. I’m just hoping we can write a better record next time.

Did you achieve everything you set out to this year?
More. We’re in video games, on magazine covers, we’ve played the world over. It’s been a nutty year, man.

What’s been the weirdest thing to happen to you this year?
I was driving around the other day and heard us on the Jo Whiley show and just hearing the name Gallows being mentioned so matter of factly before the next song, which was like, Rihanna or something.

Have you made any new musical discoveries this year?
We took Ghost Of A Thousand and Cancer Bats out on tour with us and they’re both amazing bands. Black Hole are another one to watch out for. That’s Frank and Stef’s brother’s band – they’re wicked.

What was your favourite live moment this year?
Playing Reading. It was amazing playing with my family there watching. I’ve see videos of it and the crowd sound louder than the band, which is unbelievable. The whole day was great, we were invited to every party going afterwards.

How do you feel you’ll review this year in your life ten years from now?
I don’t think we’ll ever top it. We’ve come from taking turns driving round in a broken down post office van to being driven in a flash tour bus, with a crew doing everything for us. In such a short space of time we’ve done so much. There’s no way 2007 and Gallows can be matched. The only way it can get better is if next year it’s like Gallows The Movie or something.

Additional Reading:
+Discuss this article in the forum
+Read AUs verdict of the debut album by Gallows here
+Find out how their Belfast live debut went down here
+Read the feature from issue 37 right here

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