Gallows : Interview With Lags Barnard




Gallows are a Hertfordshire, England punk band was founded in 2004 by Laurent Barnard of My Dad Joe, Stuart Gili-Ross of Winter In June and Lee Barratt of Never the More.   Their debut album, Orchestra of Wolves, was released independently in the UK only, but re-released nationwide in 2007 through Epitaph Records after landing in the lap of Brett Gurewitz.  The band also won a Kerrang! Award for “Best British Newcomer” later that same year.

The band’s bruising follow-up to Orchestra, “Grey Britain,” was released this past May through Warner UK.  Their claim to fame to date is being banned from performing at the Anaheim House of Blues by Disney after execs listened to “Orchestra.”

Gallows is:  Frank Carter on lead vocals, Stephen Carter and Laurent “Lags” Barnard on guitar and vocals, Stuart Gili-Ross on bass, and Lee Barratt on drums.

I was very excited to grab a few moments with the much-in-demand Lags prior to their incredible set at their second Warped Tour run, right behind the headliners on second stage.

So, do you think we can get you banned from anything again this year?

I’m pretty sure we’re getting banned from stuff, completely.

Awesome, what’ve you been banned from so far?

I don’t know, um…(their tour manager steps in to state that they’ve been pretty good so far.)

Aw, that’s disappointing!  You need to step up your game a little bit!

I’ll bet Frank’s working on that.

 (chuckling) Okay, good!  When can we expect to see the first of the six short films that you’ve got planned for “Britain’s” singles, and do we know what they are?

Well, that’s already out in the U.K.; we put out a cd/dvd.  It should be coming out in the States pretty soon.  It’s supposed to be like all the videos mashed together to be like one video, sort of like a concept album.  It’s a visual presentation of “Grey Britain.”

That sounds amazing!  “Grey Britain” is definitely one of the best releases so far this year; I’m enjoying the hell out of it.
Oh cool, Man, thank you!

Frank has stated that one of Gallows’ goals are to make enemies.  Do you think that the bands who try too hard to please the masses are actually what’s wrong with society today?

Well, it’s like my friend, Chris (he’s not really that into hardcore, but) he’s been walking around, and he’s telling me that every band says exactly the same thing.  They’re all like “Oh, thank you so much for being here,” which is nice, I mean, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but can you find another way of saying thank you?

Yeah, it becomes formulaic.

Whereas Frank just gets on and says “Yeah, we bang the shit out of the audience.”

And if you don’t like us, you can get fucking kiss my ass, too.”  Gallows has never been known to stick to the typical four-chord simple song structure.  It’s never really been about being catchy for you guys.  It’s more about really bringing each song into its own, right?  Do you feel that “Britain” reinforces the message that you don’t have to walk to the beat of anyone else’s drum?

What, “Grey Britain” the album, or…

(laughing) or Great Britain, the country?

Yeah.  

Well, that would be another matter altogether (laughing.)

Yes, definitely.  When people think “punk rock,” it’s about having fun and not thinking about it.  So I think with this album, we just did everything we could to make it big; to make it stand out and have an impact.  With the string and piano parts and the heavy mood; the way that the songs were strung together, I think it could become like a cult record.  Like if people don’t get it now, hopefully over the years, they might check it out.

It’ll evolve into that?  I think there’s a really good chance of that, actually.  How do you feel about the slow death of the record industry as we know it?

Yeah, it’s pretty scary, actually.  The whole financial situation takes everybody, you know?  People think that it doesn’t affect you, that you get to tour and all that, but it does affect us.  Kids don’t come out to shows as much because they don’t have the money to pay for it, which means that we’re losing out on a lot of our income, so it affects everything.

Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t realize that.

Besides that, a lot of kids are downloading tunes for free, so the record companies investing in our band aren’t seeing the revenue; it’s just a tough time.  Downloading music definitely affects bands in both good and bad ways; the good being that lots more kids can check out your band and work out whether they like you or not.  The bad being that no one’s buying records, so you can’t register how well your band is actually doing.  The record sales are so low, there’s no way to gauge how popular Gallows is.

That’s very true; do you care how popular Gallows is?

 I don’t care that much, but I’d be interested to know, do you know what I mean?

We could take like a poll instead.  So, who are you excited to see this tour?

Well, I’m always excited to see Alexisonfire, POS, the AKA’s, and mostly NOFX and Bad Religion.

Oh yes, always a good show.  Thank you so much for your time, it’s been a pleasure.

Thank you so much, and you’re welcome!

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