Young Guns are a bright, youthful band hailing from High Wycombe. Forming less than 2 years ago they are already quickly making a name for themselves after shows with the likes of Funeral For A Friend, Aiden and We Are The Ocean, and the release of their debut EP ‘”Mirrors“.
The band are also nominated for ‘Best British Newcomer’ at this year’s Kerrang! Awards. We caught up with them to talk all things Guns.
You just released your debut EP ‘Mirrors‘. What’s the feedback been like so far? Have you had anyone you really admire / look up to say that they’re into your band?
The feedback so far has been pretty awesome – we’re a bit overwhelmed with how well Mirrors has been received. We’re all really proud of the songs but to get the response we’ve had is definitely amazing. We’ve always looked up to UK bands that were good enough and dedicated enough to break out of the scene and be something more, so having bands like Lostprophets come back to us and say they’re down with our music is rad.. Having said that, there are some awesome bands around in the UK, people I really admire as musicians like the boys in Deaf Havana, Outcry Collective and all the other bands we always name check (haha!) so that they genuinely like our music means a lot to me/us. Oh and Malcolm Young!!
I heard an interesting story about something that happened during your video shoot for single ‘In The Night’ involving you guys performing on train tracks with a train fast approaching. What happened exactly?
Ahh… Yeah that was our first video experience. We got the brilliant Lawrence Hardy to shoot the video for us but were really strapped for cash, so found a cool disused train track in the middle of nowhere that we could film on. Getting all our gear over fences and down muddy banks in the dead of night is not a fun experience, but was definitely topped off by it turning out the the tracks weren’t actually abandoned at all which we only realised when a freight train came flying down the track towards us! It was while I was filming so I had the lights in my eyes and couldn’t fucking see anything, all I heard was John scream ‘train!’
We definitely set a record for shifting a whole stage set-up of gear, we got everything off the rails in about 5 seconds haha! The train rolled to a stop in front of us sitting in the shadows under the railway bridge and the driver went mental at us… Luckily we managed to avoid getting arrested and squeezed in a bit more filming after the train had gone on. Very clever.
You guys are nominated for ‘Best British Newcomer’ at this year’s Kerrang! Awards. How does that feel? The Awards ceremony is renowned for its endless supply of free alcohol. Are you planning on taking it easy to avoid potentially making a fool of yourself in front of some of the biggest names in rock, or are you going to go all out and party?
Are you kidding? It feels fucking awesome! We didn’t push for people to vote for us as we didn’t think we stood a chance, which makes getting nominated even better for us… We’ll probably try and keep ourselves under control for as long as possible, but in all honesty, win or lose, it’s the Kerrang awards man!! I’m sure we’re going to end up pretty messy. I WILL meet Corey Taylor no matter what happens. This is my aim for the night.
Have your live shows changed since you’ve gained recognition in the press and been nominated for awards? Does there seem to be more people who know who you are and sing along? Or even more people turning up in general?
Yeah, you know, we haven’t been together all that long and there’s definitely been a shift of late, but we work hard and have managed to get ourselves around a fair bit off our own backs but there’s definitely a better response happening lately. All this other stuff that we’ve got happening to us right now is so fucking exciting and we do love every minute of it, but at the end of the day playing shows is the reason you start a band, and having people turn up sing along and get involved means 10,000 times more than any award or bit of press will ever mean. It sounds a bit cliched but it’s true, seeing people getting involved when we play is literally the best feeling ever.
Who do you think will be nominated for Best Newcomer at next year’s awards? Are there any bands who have caught your eye already and you feel deserve it?
Deaf Havana, Outcry Collective, Out of Sight, All Forgotten…. tough question, there’s shit loads of wicked bands around right now.
What award would you most like to win if you could be up for all of them? Some bands would feel more honoured to win best live band rather than best album, how important is putting on a great live show to you? would you rather be better live or on record?
Yeah I’m gonna go with popular opinion with that one, definitely best live band. Putting on a live show is the most important aspect to us really, I’d like to think that we’re good on record and good live but in different ways! Being in the studio and bringing a song to life is something I think we’re really good at doing, but we’re always trying as hard as we can to bring the best live show that we can bring as well, I’d love Young Guns to be one of those bands that people talk about for being a real experience live.
You recently played at Download Festival. How was that? Is that the most prestigious show you’ve played so far? Do you feel more pressure before a show like that or do you face every gig the same way?
Download was unbelievable.. DOWNLOAD!! We stayed there as long as possible to soak up every last ounce of the experience haha! Definitely the most prestigious, there wasn’t any real pressure but it was definitely a new experience playing a show like that, I could see Staind from where I was on our stage, all the way over on the main stage which was pretty surreal. We try to approach every show in the same way at the moment, try to bring the energy and intimacy of a small stage show to a larger stage. Standing at the foot of the gangway going up to the back of the stage was definitely a little moment for us.
What are your plans for the rest of the year? Any tours we should know about? Have you started working towards your next release yet or are you still focused on the current EP? Would you consider including any of the tracks on ‘Mirrors’ on a full length or do you want a completely fresh record?
Ah, well our plans pretty much consist of tour, tour and then tour some more, plus we’re going to keep one eye on writing material for our first full length which should (hopefully!) be out first half of next year, with a single maybe around the beginning of the new year. We start off our own headlining tour which begins on the 18th of July which is gonna be awesome, plus we’ve obviously got some shows with Lostprophets in August which are going to be mental!
We’re also playing Sonisphere so there’s no excuse not to see us! We’ve got a lot lined up for this year but I’ve got to be a good boy and keep that stuff under my hat for now… As for the EP/Album thing, it’s a tough one ‘cos you don’t want to just recycle the same old shit, and moving on is important, but at the same time those songs mean a lot to us and I’d like to think that they’re good enough for more people to hear than in all likelihood will ever hear our EP, so who knows..! If we did I doubt we’d put all four on though.
Young Guns’ EP Mirrors is out now on Live Forever Records and you can find them at MySpace here.