Gallon Drunk
Interview by Ashlee Elfman, Leon Catfish, and Christine Dunleavy
Preface by Ashlee Elfman

Gallon Drunk generates music spilling over with all sorts of influences from jazz, funk, punk, no wave, surf and the unique guitar as percussion stylings of Bo Diddley. In the hands of Gallon Drunk, all of these influences seem to interweave with one another until they become something simultaneously recognizable and utterly unrecognizable; an amalgam of pure unadulterated energy. Gallon Drunk takes the primal, lawless spirit that coyly lurks in the background of most things, and plays the shit out of it. Listening to some of their more vein tangling, blood swirling songs like “Some Fools Mess” off of their legendary album “Tonite…..The Singles Bar”, you’ll start to feel much like an Ed “Big Daddy” Roth character. Eyes bloodshot, nerves all on end, limbs moving erratically, and without any warning.
James Johnston, the leader of this outfit spreads his talent thickly over the guitar, piano, harmonica, vocals and organ (the latter of which he also brings to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). Terry Edwards delivers the rich addition of the saxophone, and more organ playing. Ian White pounds the drums until you think the rain might start falling. And Simon Wring beats the life out of the bass. This relatively small band produces a textured, loud sound that can not be rivaled. We can only await their upcoming release with gleeful anticipation.

James, you play both the guitar and organ extremely well. You’re able to go from playing one to the other seamlessly. We were wondering if you’re traditionally trained or self taught? You obviously have an unconventional approach to music.

I’m completely self-taught on the guitar, and the organ although I did learn the violin and piano for a while when young. We developed our playing styles with Gallon Drunk early on, and it sort of remained that way. It’s as much an attitude to playing as it is a technique.

Also, are there any other instruments that you’ve been interested in playing, or that you do play?

Not really…
I play some extremely rudimentary harmonica on some of the Gallon Drunk records but that’s about all. Most of what I play in the band is fairly simple and direct in general, it fits around the live performance, and leaves a lot of space in the music. We’ve never had any form of rhythm guitar, for example…at least not by me.
When we’re writing I sometimes play the bass with Ian, the drummer, to get ideas up…and I love it, it’s the opposite of what I normally do.

You guys formed in the 90’s, a time when there was a lot going on musically, yet you sound nothing like what was happening at that time. What was the initial inspiration that made you want to start Gallon Drunk?

We were living in a shared house, all knew each other, and it gradually developed from there. We were almost completely detached from what was going on, and were a lot better off for it.

Gallon Drunk has had quite a few successful singles in England, what are the sorts of responses you get in America?

It’s been a very long time since we played in America, so it’s hard to say, we’ll be touring with our new record. There’s a live gig from Chicago in 1993 on one of the new re-releases as a bonus…that sounds pretty exciting. I’ve no real overview on our status, or lack of it, in the states though.

Photo By Steve Gullick

As we are writing these questions we’ve been watching your DVD “One for the Ladies” and we wondered when/if you might bring your aggressive, high-energy stage presence to the U.S.? Might we be so lucky?

Christ that dvd is so fucking awful. Possibly our worst ever gig. I’ve got loads of great footage that we may release in due course. There’s a couple of interesting bits of old footage on youtube. The gigs now are considerably more intense and energized that it ever was.
When that video was coming out, the sound was so bad that we tried to stop it coming out, hence the original cover art of a cat dressed as a bishop, and the ridiculous title...which were the best things about it. And why I’m wearing a waistcoat with a short-sleeved shirt is beyond any reasoning. I think we were all a bit ‘tired and emotional’ in that one.

You [James] joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1994. How would you describe going from a three- piece like Gallon Drunk, to a large band like the Bad Seeds? What are the sort of musical and personal differences you notice working with both bands?

I toured with them, but only joined properly in 2002, or 2003. Musically it was initially pretty demanding as far as the organ went, considering my organ playing track record with Gallon Drunk tended to be based around sudden maximum noise. It helped knowing the people in the band before playing with them all. Nick and my brother were friends in the early nineties.

Out of curiosity, is there anything you’ve been listening to lately that you might want to share with our readers?

Balance by Pharoah Sanders…where Jazz meets white light white heat. Blasé by Archie Shepp, and all the overlooked vocal performances by Link Wray such as Girl from the North Country, Hidden Charms, Street Called Love, and his sublime version of good rocking tonight. Oh, and Gil Evans’ version of Spoonful, which is fucking FANTASTIC.

Do you think that “indie rock” holds its own nowadays, or do you still care about the state of current music? Do you think the term “indie rock” has become a mainstream term?

I have no real opinion on it I’m afraid, independence in music is obviously a good thing though.

What’s your favorite album that you’ve produced thus far?

From the Heart of Town and the new one, sadly no title yet…but it’s the first time we’ve captured the live spirit of the band in the studio, apart from on a few of the early recordings where we actually knew the songs before recording them!

Are there any last words/sentiments that you’d like to share with our readers?

Time is a cruel mistress…follow your nose…ladies first…all hands on deck…
Sweet is the sleep of the working man…I’ll have a G&T and some straight answers please if you don't mind… etc etc etc

 

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