Gaffa Tape Sandy: Interview

Gaffa Tape Sandy: Interview

Before their headline show at Heartbreakers Southampton, I sat down with Kim, Catherine and Robin from Bury’s finest alternative rock band, Gaffa Tape Sandy to talk all things music, starch and shrimps.
You’re from Bury, one of the most uncharismatic cities from looking at the Wikipedia page. Does coming from there help motivate you in terms of your music?
K- In a way because there is sort of a very isolated, small music scene and it’s very intimate, I suppose. There’s a lot of people there to bounce off but I think part of the reason we moved to Brighton was to expand as a band.
Some of the selling points of Bury I found on Wikipedia were:
-          Charles Dickens gave some readings there
-          The largest land mark is the British Sugar Factory and sometimes a smell of burnt starch is noticeable from the plant,
-          And finally, Radio 1 Dj, John Peel lived near there,
K- Oh yeah! The smell changes!
R- Yes, all those facts are depressingly true.
C- It’s how we know we are home.
How are you going to compete with these ground-breaking stories and help put Bury on the map?
K- We will smell a lot and really stink out the place.
R- We are going to smell starchy.
Can you smell the starch?
All- Oh yeah!
Have you not become immune to it?
K- Oh no, you don’t become immune!
You had a new vinyl come out on Friday of ‘Meat Head’ and ‘Beehive’, how has the reaction been so far?
C- It’s been great! We put pre-orders on two weeks ago and I think it sold like over 70. We did a load of signed ones and then we had more pre-orders than we had time so, we had to go back and do some more which was really nice as we didn’t think there would be that many.
Are these going to be limited edition?
C- Yeah, we got I think 300 printed. And I think all the pre-orders come with some extra bits.
You have a CD reissue of Spring Killing EP officially out in November which has new artwork and a couple extra tracks making it an 8 track,
K- So yeah, its basically the original Spring Killing but it’s got two extra tracks. So now it’s like a short album I suppose with 8 tracks.
What made you want to do the reissue?
C- We sold out the first batch of Spring Killing and instead of pre-ordering the same batch we decided to alter it a bit. The first release we ever did was ‘Smart Dressed Guy’ on a single and we thought we could also add that as well.
As far as recording processes go, would you say you guys are rather DIY with your approach as your sound would suggest?
K- Not so much actually. No, it’s like, we have this engineer we work with and we go to a studio. It’s a pretty run-down studio but they’ve got great equipment. I get really involved in the recording process and it’s something I really enjoy.
C- We use a recording studio and stuff, but we try to keep the live sound with songs. We want them to sound more live and we try to keep that energy.
There is a new single in the works for November with an EP coming out early next year, what can you tell me about it?
K- It is coming out as soon as it’s ready really.
Can you tell me the name?
All- No *laughs*
C- We do not have a name yet
K- We have a lovely picture of a dog and some songs to go towards it.
How many tracks are on it?
C- Six
K- Six or seven
R- We’ve struggled to write though as we’ve been so busy gigging and doing all these festivals that we haven’t really found the time.
C- We’ve got three of them recorded so ‘Meat Head’ is going to be on there and so is ‘Beehive’. Um, and we’ve got one that we’re doing live quite a lot which we haven’t released yet. That’s ready. We just need to decide which one will be the next single.
The lyric, “I like a smart dressed guy and I like it when he beats the shit out of me”, has that originated from a specific incident? Have you ever been beaten up by a man in a suit?
K- No, but I have had many, many, many scary fantasies about it.
C- But you’re a small guy,
K- I am a small guy and where we used to live in Bury, there was this guy on the same street that I always used to walk past just when I was leaving the house. He always looked at me like he wanted to do me in. And that’s sort of inspired by that man I never met who really threatened me without even talking to me.
Not going to lie, I was hoping for a more extravagant story than that…
K- Sorry! I stay out of trouble!
C- No, you’re just scared of trouble.
K- Yeah, that’s what the song’s more about. It’s more about being the little guy. But maybe next time I’ll lie. I’ve only just got out of hospital.
As far as comparisons go, you get Pixies and The Oh Sees from a lot of reviews, are they bands you strive to sound like or has that just happened by default?
K- I think that’s more coincidence. I grew up listening to a lot of Pixies so I think that sort of comes…
C- …naturally.
K- I don’t think we strive to sound like anyone, do we?
R- We don’t really have an aim to sound like anything other than being noisy. We all have similar interests in music and some completely different ones. We all like the Pixies but I wouldn’t say they are one of my, well, I don’t love them personally. Kim probably loves them the most.
Apart from the EP that you could barely tell me anything about, what is the near future holding for Gaffa Tape Sandy?
C- I think just the EP. Our main focus is to just get the time to get it done in the next year hopefully. And do more festivals.
And finally, you’ve got to tell me, the name Gaffa Tape Sandy. Where did that sprout from?
All- *laughs*
Why the giggling?
R- He [Kim] is just coming up with a story
C- We usually just come up with stuff as it’s just a bad pun to be perfectly honest. Because gaffa tape is handy. *to Kim* Why didn’t you make up a story?
K- When I was 16 my Uncle basically started…
C- Oh god.
K- No, listen. My Uncle started a restaurant called the Giggling Tickling Shrimps and obviously that is G.T.S so you get that and on the restaurant it even said G.T.S. and I was like oh, Gaffa Tape Sandy. Giggling Tickling Shrimps now Gaffa Tape Sandy.
C- That was a good one. That’s new.
K- But finally, the restaurant shut down as it turns out a whole restaurant menu filled with shrimps just doesn’t work.

Keep up with all things Gaffa Tape Sandy here 

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