Short and Sweet: WMSE Talks to Eagulls POSTED:: March 6, 2014
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Interviews
FILED UNDER:: Interviews
Eagulls, a Leeds-based guitar band, has unwittingly jumped into the long shadows cast by fellow post-punk Brits, Killing Joke, and crafted a likeminded sound of intensely hollowed out post-punk that is filling a void in a modern world of music dripping with self-aware languidity. The welcome contrast has held the States’ notice; Partisan Records (NY) signed the group for their debut, taking due note of what the Guardian UK recently wrote (“there’s a sense that something exciting is on the verge of happening in British guitar music.”). Hopefully, that exciting guitar sound will continue its waves, worldwide. Guitarist Mark Goldsworthy took the time to talk to WMSE about the new record (just out as of this week), guitar heroes and Bill Murray.
What was the first band or musician you that set the light bulb off enough to make you want to play music?
Personally, I think the first musician I heard that made me think I was capable of creating music myself was Greg Ginn. His outsider/wrong, but right, style of playing made me feel as a young, untalented musician that I was able to do something along the same lines too.
You told Pitchfork that your first guitar was an acoustic and you were frustrated because “I couldn’t make it sound angry or loud like all the music I was listening to” – how old were you when you got to the point where you were creating sounds that were closer to how you felt?
It was only until I joined our band that I felt I was a part of an established sound that I was capable of showing my thoughts for.
What is your most angry-sounding song that actually isn’t angry at all?
Perhaps the most “angry sounding” that isn’t, is “Nerve Endings”; this song projects itself as angst, yet really it’s more worry than anger.
What’s Leeds like – easy life or tough life? Who are you playing to/writing to at home?
Leeds is a basic city. I feel it’s a normal British, multi-cultured sense of life. Whatever background you come from, people can end up finding it easy or tough. When we play in Leeds, we are playing to all kinds of people like anywhere else we play in the world. Obviously a lot of our friends come to our shows as were based here. When writing at home, I write for whatever reason I feel like. Usually whatever happens, happens.
You met Bill Murray on Letterman? And there were tattoos involved?
Yes, one of us got a Bill Murray tattoo to remind us of the trip. Tom who got the tattoo approached Mr. Murray after his interview on Letterman and Bill immediately kissed it. It made a semi-surreal day rise to a Salvador Dali surreal day within seconds.