An interview with Gambling Hearts
An interview with Gambling Hearts
What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
The name came from a friend, at a time when we were struggling to come up with anything. I thought it was pretty cool at the time. We spent a few years together in the early 2000’s, and then split up. Too many late nights got the better of us. Then, when we got back together a couple of years ago we talked about having a new name, but we decided to stick with Gambling Hearts. We had a lot of fun the first time round, it felt wrong to turn our back on the name. We’re heavily influenced by bands like the Beatles, Neil Young, Oasis, Nirvana, Elliott Smith, Black Rebel…a shared love of angsty, indie/grunge rock has always been our thing. I love a good whinge to music.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Not an approach, no. I never set out to write a song. I just play and, if I have a lyric or phrase or something in my head, it usually runs from there. A few chords and a melody. Most songs are about love or hate, joy or pain…a lot of it depends on what sort of mood you’re in at the time, it’s that that fans the flame, that determines what sort song you end up with. For me anyway.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Not an approach, no. I never set out to write a song. I just play and, if I have a lyric or phrase or something in my head, it usually runs from there. A few chords and a melody. Most songs are about love or hate, joy or pain…a lot of it depends on what sort of mood you’re in at the time, it’s that that fans the flame, that determines what sort song you end up with. For me anyway.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
No idea! I know I’m a slave to it. I find it a bit of a struggle, but I enjoy it. I love playing a new song to Will and Sam (drum and bass). Will has an encyclopaedia knowledge of music, I can’t get anything past him. He’ll spot immediately if I’ve nicked a melody or something from some other song. And Sam’s got great vision. I’ll play a new song on an acoustic guitar and Sam will hear how we should play it, right off the bat. I suppose, on a subconscious level, writing songs has gotta be attention seeking, hasn’t it? Same with any art form; painting, singing, dancing…it’s just showing off really.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We play pretty much everything I write! We put it together as we would play it live. Guitar, drums and bass. Simply played and loud. So there’s nothing really to transpose. The transposition comes in the studio. It’s at that point we thing about adding rhythm tracks, other instruments and harmonies. That’s a lot of fun. It’s great to witness a song take shape, something that started off as some rubbish little song on an acoustic guitar at home to this huge wall of sound. It’s great. I listen a lot to our records, which I gather is pretty unusual, for a band to listen to their own stuff, but what’s the point in doing it if you’re not gonna listen to it? See, narcissism.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We play pretty much everything I write! We put it together as we would play it live. Guitar, drums and bass. Simply played and loud. So there’s nothing really to transpose. The transposition comes in the studio. It’s at that point we thing about adding rhythm tracks, other instruments and harmonies. That’s a lot of fun. It’s great to witness a song take shape, something that started off as some rubbish little song on an acoustic guitar at home to this huge wall of sound. It’s great. I listen a lot to our records, which I gather is pretty unusual, for a band to listen to their own stuff, but what’s the point in doing it if you’re not gonna listen to it? See, narcissism.
What plans do you have for the future?
Difficult to make any plans at the moment. Every time we do we shut back down again. I’ve played a few solo shows, live streamed things (they’re all on the band’s Facebook page)…they’re good fun to do. We were going to stream a full-band performance at New Year, but the tightening of restrictions put pay to that. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick that up again as soon as we can get everyone back together. We’ve a new single out on February 12. It’s one of our favourites, so I hope it goes down well.