Published: March 28, 2010 5:34 PM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight March 2010 Edition
Silk Tongue Gamblers
Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series
Silk Tongue Gamblers Photo by Anuli Photography
Fans of Indie music are going to enjoy the melodic tunes of the London Rock band Silk Tongue Gamblers. The band certainly knows how to make music that showcases the band's enormous talents. If you want to hear music that comes from the heart & soul and full of passion, then Silk Tongue Gamblers is the band that delivers. Check out what the members of Silk Tongue Gamblers had to say about the band's music, their musical influences, and what fans can expect from their new CD. Here is what formulated. Enjoy!
Isaac: I just listened to songs off your EP "We're In Business". What was the inspiration behind it?
STG: Hi Isaac, from the start this band has always been about the creative tug of - war between the different tastes of the members of the band. We usually tend to have two clear divisions while writing songs; two of the members lean towards Blues based Rock & Roll while the other two grew up on 90's alternative rock. Our fans feel that you can clearly hear these distinct influences on most of our songs.
Also, we tend to approach build ups with the sensibility and simplicity of electronic music, layering instruments and parts on top of each other to create a "wall of sound" which works a treat when playing live.
Isaac: Who are your influences?
STG: Ollie (Drums) and Varun (Vocals) love bands like Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and P. J Harvey while Felipe (Guitar) and Junior's (Bass) playing is heavily influenced by Hendrix, The Black Crowes, Tom Waits, Ben Harper and Government Mule.
Isaac: Brief history about your background plus the style of music you play.
STG: We're a multicultural band with different accents and cultures and all our inside jokes are usually very racist and not politically correct. Varun, Felipe and Ollie met at college and never really thought about playing with each other then. Junior and Felipe are coincidentally from the same town in Brazil but met once they moved to London.
We are a Rock & Roll band at heart drawing influences from more contemporary artists to create our own unique sound.
Isaac: How easy is it to get gigs for you as an artist? What is the live music scene like in your area?
STG: Being based in London, we find it is easy to get gigs at the hundreds of live music venues across the city. The UK in general has a vibrant music scene with most places home to many talented musicians and artists. Music lovers are spilt for choice as most big acts from across the world tend to play here and you literally have at least 10 gigs a month you would love to see.
Having said that, the scene is also incredibly difficult as you're competing with thousands of artists and it takes a lot of work to get noticed. Some of the bigger promoters have adopted a pay - to - play system which in our opinion, is just unethical but there isn't much we can do about it so occasionally we have to play under those terms.
Isaac: What do you think of the state of Indie music at the moment? Has the Internet helped music grow or hindered it in your opinion?
STG: We embrace the growth of the Internet as a means of getting our music heard and that's a sentiment most indie bands would agree with. The advent of technology has made it infinitely easier for anyone to create, irrelevant of the art form, and this can only be a good thing. The best thing about being a musician right now is that you don't really need to be a part of a particular scene anymore in order to be relevant. You can play any style of music and you have a chance as long you work hard, the music is good and you stick at it long enough. I don't think we'll ever have one genre dominating the charts again like grunge did in the 90's.
Like anything else, there will always be problems. With file sharing being so common and the majority paying very little for recorded music, the only way to earn a living is by constantly playing gigs. But then, there's no point in going on a lengthy tour throughout the States without some sort of marketing and people who know the local scene to promote a gig otherwise you'd be playing to an empty room.
Silk Tongue Gamblers
Photo by Anuli Photography
Isaac: Do you listen to radio much at all?
STG: We aren't music snobs, no sir!! If the hair's long, the guitar's loud and the singer an arsehole, we'll listen to it. Seriously though, there's a lot of music that we don't like on the radio but I'm sure those artists could say the same thing about us. So the answer to your question is, none of us really listens to the radio that often but we listen to a lot of contemporary music.
Isaac: If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?
STG: I guess it would be Mike Patton singing, Hendrix on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass and Rob Ellis on drums. Who doesn't like a bit of manic - bluesy - funky - punk?
Isaac: Where can fans access your music, videos, blogs, and anything else about you online?
STG: The best place would be our website, www.silktonguegamblers.com. We are also accessible on most social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, Blogspot etc.
STG: We've been hard at work for the last few months writing new songs for our debut release. The new songs are sounding absolutely amazing and feedback so far has been nothing short of mind blowing. We'll probably have the album ready by the end of June and we'll be playing loads of gigs this summer, including festivals.
