GUN – Windsor’s Newest Noise Rock

There is a new name floating around the social media sites, one that has had me very interested since I first started noticing it.

Being as curious about these things as I am, I used TWZ as a front to get some answers regarding the project, and figured I might as well share them with all you lovely folks as well. If you aren’t interested already, perhaps you will be after this.

Adam Craig is a name not unknown to Windsor music aficionados, after time spent in a number of popular acts. Now, he’s started up a new solo endeavour to  let out his “feelings” in a way that doesn’t fit into any of his other projects.

Every so often you’ll find a link to a new song posted on Soundcloud, and very shortly there will be another one up there.

This Song is Called Anderson Lunau Even Though It Has Nothing To Do With Him is an aptly titled, brooding track that is what I imagine Trent Reznor on a terrible terrible shroom trip might come up with. Equal parts Massive Attack, Ministry, and Dysleksick  this is a song that entices feelings of boreboding, constantly making me look over my shoulder for the serial killer surely lurking behind the curtains.

Now, not all GUN tracks are quite so…Frightening… But they are all most definitely strange, so be prepared for that going into it.

So with that, let’s get right into Adam’s own words on the project.

-Let’s start off with your musical background, as an introduction.

The two things that people might remember are the band Measured in Angles where I was playing drums and Poughboy where I sang. Measured has been done for a long time, and Poughboy exists in limbo at the moment since we haven’t really played since we released our last album.

More recently I was involved in the This is War album and live show, and that was the first time I had played drums on stage in something like four or five years. That led to me playing drums and writing with a band we’re calling ‘ends.’ We’ve been looking for a singer for many months now and we may have found someone. It should be cool when it’s ready. Sex rock. Groovy.

The other thing that’s going on right now is BALLS, which is an AC/DC cover band that I’ve been doing with the guys from FiftyWatt Head. I can not overstate the amount of fun that doing this has been. Of course, two years ago I would have laughed at the idea of playing in a cover band, but this is great.

I’m incredibly lucky right now. Being able to play music three or four nights a week has been a real treat. Being in bands with great guys and playing great music, whether that is music that I was a part of writing or AC/DC covers… It doesn’t matter, it’s been an amazing couple of months.

And on top of all this, having the time to make stuff on my own too…Which I’ll wager is why you contacted me in the first place.

-Why “Gun”?

GUN was actually supposed to be the name for a band that i was going to put together with a couple of other guys from around Windsor. Those guys are too busy for me to want to push them into doing something else and frankly, I don’t believe the interest level was all that high in the first place. I just thought that the name GUN was too good to let go.

I started recording things on my not long ago and thought it would be stupid to call it “The Adam Craig project” or some such thing, and I think that hearing that word has certain connotations.  Whether the music matches what you would expect to hear from something called GUN I suppose is up to you. I just like the sound of the word. Go ahead, say it to yourself: “GUN”. Now say it slowly and with a deep voice: “GUN”.

- From reading your Facebook posts, I gather that time is of the essence with this project, everything done as fast as possible. Why is this? 

I don’t see the point in wasting too much time on one thing. The whole reason I make any music at all is because I’m a ravenous consumer of music, and the handful of groups that I actually enjoy don’t put things out fast enough. So I have to make things for myself to listen to.

I don’t expect anyone to enjoy a single thing I’ve been a part of. It would be nice, but I don’t expect it. The only thing that really matters is that I’m happy. And thus far I haven’t needed to spend any more than a night or two on any one GUN track to be pleased with the results.

And besides all that if I fall in the tub and break my neck tomorrow an album’s worth of unfinished tracks won’t be any good for anyone.

-You’ve collaborated with Scott Warren on a few tracks, including the one posted above, why him, will this continue, and do you plan on bringing in anyone else?

I’ve known Scott for a long time and really enjoyed playing on his This Is War album. He and I couldn’t be more opposite in terms of the way we write music. For instance, he is a musician who knows about things like notes and keys and things, and I more or less slap a bunch of sounds together and call it music. I thought it would be kind of neat to throw some things at him that might have been outside of what he is used to doing, and the results were very cool. I’d like to make more music with Scott, maybe more of a ‘collaboration’ thing I guess, instead of just him singing over something I cooked up at home.

There is a list longer than my arm of people who I would like to make music with. Most of those people are too busy and quite honestly, I wouldn’t expect anyone to actually want to be a part of making this kind of music. I’d love to try locking a bunch of guys in a room for an evening to write and record as much of this as possible, but I realize that this is unlikely.

-Where do you take inspiration from for these songs?

If you’re asking what I’m listening to, I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who cared about what’s on my iPod.

If you’re asking where the music is ‘coming from’ it’s more or less dumb luck. I might be playing around with a synthesizer or drum loop and hear something that has appeals to me and then try to create a song around that. I’ve really enjoyed trying to push the machinery a little harder than it’s supposed to go. The equipment that I’m using is meant to create goofy dance music not generate the kind of noise that I’d like to hear. I haven’t gotten to what I have in mind just yet, but it’ll get there.

Like I alluded to earlier, I’m really not much of a musician, so it all really just sort of happens by chance. And then I try to slap something that resembles singing on top of it. I guess in a roundabout way the inspiration comes from recognizing my own limitations and trying to work inside of those.

And most of the words come from my utter contempt for everything and everyone around me.

(that’s a joke (mostly))

Oddly enough, and despite the haphazard way that this music is put together, there seems to be a pleasant consistency to it. It’s definitely the noisiest, most atonal and possibly the darkest music I’ve been a part of making. My wife would only describe the last track as ‘depressing’. Which I guess is a fitting term for this stuff.

-Currently, you’re releasing tracks one at a time via Youtube and Soundcloud, do you plan on a compilation at some point?

No. I’d rather just keep putting out a song or two at a time and leave it at that. Everything is and will be available for free through soundcloud, so I encourage you to download stuff as I write and record it and then make your own playlists. If there was to be an album or a compilation, that would be a little too close to me taking this seriously.

Hey kids, music is a hobby at best and the more you take it seriously in the ‘career’ sense, the more you’re going to look like a pathetic sucker when you get old like me.

Like I mentioned earlier, I started doing this to have something to listen to in my car on the way to work. I decided to start posting things online because I thought there may be a handful of people in my Facebook friends list who might enjoy it. It won’t go any further than that, and for those handful of people this is my gift to them. Above and beyond that is the realm of the stupid man, and the realm of the naive man.

The idea of doing an album, trying to get financial support from somewhere for touring, trying to build a fan base and all that is laughable to me. What people seem to fail to realize is that living comfortably and supporting yourself making original and interesting music is done; the market is dead. And you’re a shortsighted fool if you think otherwise.

Once you give up on the dream of doing something musically interesting for a living, the process becomes exponentially more rewarding. When you’re doing this for the sake of doing this and not ‘trying’ anymore, it feels better, more relaxed and somehow more honest. Basically, I recommend giving up. Not quitting, but giving up on the ‘dream’

-Is this a project that is meant to go live, eventually?

No. To do this live and be faithful would be me with a laptop and a microphone. And that’s called karaoke.

That being said, it would be kind of neat to take some of these ideas and translate them from synthesizer to extremely loud guitar. I’ve wanted to put together a big band for some time to play material like this but again, people are busy and I’m done with asking for or expecting anything from anyone. I’ve learned that playing in bands with people can be extremely rewarding, but also extremely disappointing.  Finding people who are on the same page can be difficult, but finding people who want to get the same sort of experience, or who have the same kind of desire to make music for music’s sake can be even more difficult. The higher you set your expectations of people (and I’m not just talking about music here), the more likely you are to be disappointed. This can be particularly problematic when you play with friends.

That’s the beauty of writing and recording at home, without the band environment; I have no one to be disappointed in but myself. I don’t have to schedule practices, or worry about having to cancel practices for things. Don’t get me wrong, I would take a bullet for any of the guys I play with now, and luckily the group situations that I’m involved in are extremely low maintenance, but that’s not always the way it works out with bands.

-Closing remarks?

I recommend listening to these tracks either on headphones or on a decent sound system. I’ve tried hard during the mixing to play around with creating a ‘sonic environment’, i.e. your tiny computer speakers are not going to cut it if you want the full effect. In fact, without the right equipment, this is going to sound like garbage.

Thanks for being interested. And thanks to the twenty or so people who have been listening to GUN.

May 8, 2012 | Categories: Emerging Artist, Profile | Leave A Comment »