All Gunns Blazing

That started as nothing but a mess-around side project for The Growl's Clinton Oliver is now beginning to be set in stone as one of the Perth's most unique-sounding contemporary bands. Gunns, a four piece surf rock/pop group that many listeners have succinctly labelled “beachgaze”, have been around for more than three years now, but the project was kept under wraps by guitarist/vocalist Oliver. He found himself at a crossroads where he wanted to create a band with an abundance of reverb and heavy distortion, but filtered with spawning melodies and hooks. The by-product of such has seen Gunns release two singles in 2013, and most recently the Live By The Sea 7” and a recent tour with Australian grunge kings Violent Soho that has put the band on the map, earning them a spot for the upcoming Southbound festival. All four of Gunns' members have come together from previous bands, and still have numerous projects stringing along between them. Oliver recently left Allbrook/Avery but is still a member of The Growl, which has taken a slight break given Cam Avery's hectic touring schedule with Tame Impala. Drummer Michael Jelinek bides his time between Gunns, Drop Macumba, The Growl and The Silents; bassist Jennifer Aslett now solely focuses her efforts to Gunns; while the newest member, guitarist Hamish Rahn joined only six months ago.

“We've always been able to float [through all of the bands], it's just always worked,” begins Oliver. “And it wasn't until about two years ago where I decided I wanted to do something with it. It just started as a bedroom thing, I guess.” But this was his vision; to create a complex new sound that would attract a vast range of listeners. The whole Beach Boys meets Nirvana comparison seems hard to comprehend given such a vast juxtaposition between the two bands, their sounds, and subcultures. It was a challenge that he embraced openly, and it seems to be paying dividends. “But that's how I hear it in my head,” Oliver contemplates before he offers, “I love the grunge, reverb, the pop and they're [The Beach Boys and Nirvana] two of my favourite bands. I can try and make music that meets them both in the middle and mesh them together, and I think I'm getting there.

“I just love reverb man, and I guess it's kinda built around that, and I guess that comes back to the whole Beach Boys thing, the happy melody drowned in reverb,” Oliver continues. “I love sounds that make the listener think of the water and fun mainly.”

The idea to create a band with this sound wasn't exactly too challenging for the talented songwriter, who brushes off the idea of creating a new genre as just a process of thinking critically and following the same steps he has in his bands before Gunns. “It was pretty much the same as everything [I've done before],” he offers. “I just had an idea and basically just started recording it and editing it myself and took it to the band to figure out the live side of it. [The genre] our mates have called it is “beachgaze”; it's just like beach rock. I don't know, I guess it's still that noise pop thing but there's a surf influence through all the reverb. But I don't know, we'll just make up a genre.”

While lately there has been a surge of bands trying to emulate the grunge sound of the early '90s, Oliver isn't too sure why this has been the case. “Yeah, I've felt and seen that but I don't know where it's come from….nah, I've got no idea,” he laughs. “Maybe people have realised how good it was and is. I mean, look at Violent Soho: they do it really, really well.”

Gunns were recently the featured artist for triple j's Unearthed programme, which saw them gain radio airplay consistently for the week, and the response they have received has been enormous. “Yeah [the reception has been] really good,” Oliver says. “I mean they played us almost every day I think. We've had a couple of songs [played on air before] here and there but that was the biggest thing that we've had.” The band was also a part of the recent Violent Soho tour, where they played both shows in Perth, to what was also a humbling response. “Oh man, it was so wild – they have got some crazy fans,” Oliver relays with gusto. “I'm a big fan of them actually, I remember seeing them at Southbound one year, about four or five years ago, and nobody kinda knew who they were and they blew me away; with just the mega grunge sound, that no one was doing at the time. I take influences from [Violent Soho], I love grunge, especially the more dirtier live shows. Maybe not so much as in the studio, but the live and dirty component.”

The quartet have been hard at work writing and beginning the recording process for both a split EP to be released early in 2014 with HAMJAM and a debut full-length album set for mid-2014. Oliver will be the first to admit that only having two singles released has probably hindered the band's direction, but he's keen to put that to rest within the next 12 months. “That's the thing; half of the writing [of the record] is done in the recording studio, you know,” Oliver muses. “We'll write something in there and then just build around it. Like, I won't write a whole song and go and record it, I'll just record the ideas as they come.”

In a word, Oliver is experimenting. “I don't know, I just like abusing gear; it's how you do it,” he chuckles. “We use instruments and recording gear how they're not meant to be used, it's just the sound that I really like. Yeah, [experimenting] is the whole point. Just turn shit up and make it do something weird.” They will also play to their biggest live audience since their inception at the upcoming Southbound Festival. Oliver even lets slip that Gunns will be opening the Big Top stage on the Sunday of the festival. “Yeah man, it's awesome. We were worried we were going to be on some little local stage or something, so to get the Big Top, it's gonna be awesome.”