Gibson Exclusive: Q&A with Gallow's Stephen Carter
The U.K.’s own Gallows may have only formed four years ago and have only released two full-lengths, but they’ve already made a name for themselves as one of the most exciting hardcore acts around. In May the band released their incendiary second album Grey Britain and they’ve been wowing audiences Stateside all summer on the Vans Warped Tour. We caught up with the band’s guitarist Steph Carter to talk about his love of Les Pauls, the band’s latest opus and their plans for world domination.
What kind of Gibsons do you play?
I play vintage Les Paul Customs and vintage Les Paul Artisans. My guitar collection consists of around 26 guitars—and I think 15 of them are Les Pauls and around eight are customs.
What do you specifically like about Gibsons? Why do you think it works for Gallows' sound?
Les Pauls are my guitar of choice because the double humbucklers give a well-rounded full tone and you can play any style of music and it will sound good; I’m also partial to heavy guitars, so the customs are perfect for me. I think these guitars work so well for Gallows because they are so versatile. Our music varies from track to track: We have some thrash metal parts and some melodic progressive parts as well as dual harmonies. For us to play all these contrasting styles we need good instruments that can stand their own and deliver. I've tried many different guitars in my life and I will always go back to my Black Beauty... it’s the only thing that can take a beating and still be there the next day!
How are things going on the Warped Tour? It seems like there are a lot of more mainstream-minded acts on this year's tour, so how do you think people are embracing Gallows?
Warped tour is a strange tour to say the least. There are so many bands playing out here that sound exactly the same that you don’t have a clue who’s playing half the time! Warped tour began as a huge Punk Rock tour and I think its lost its way slightly. Thankfully the people who come to see Gallows play are there for music and are there to see a real punk rock show. We did this tour in 2007 and people were not quite sure how to take us as it was our first American Tour and the crowds were between 10 people to 300 people. This year the crowds start at around 200 people and go up at 1500 people, so we've definitely made our mark.
What's the hardcore scene like in England? How did you get exposed to this type of music initially?
The English hardcore scene is very elitist. I think the hardcore scene died here along time ago, and now there are new bands trying to bring it back, but all these new bands just sound like poor versions of American Nightmare, Throwdown and Terror. I got into heavy music when I was 14 or so and the scene here was good then. [Vocalist] Frank [Carter] and I spent a lot of time playing in bands together when we were growing up. There were lots of local bands playing every weekend and as we got older, the venues began to close and the bands began to disband. In the U.K. it’s really hard for up-and-coming bands because there are no small venues willing to put on cheap shows anymore.
How would you say your new album Grey Britain is a progression from your debut Orchestra Of Wolves?
The songwriting on Grey Britain is a definite progression from Orchestra Of Wolves, for one [guitarist] Laurent [Barnard] and Frank pretty much wrote the whole of Orchestra Of Wolves whereas Grey Britain was written by all five of us as a collective. The song structure on this album is a lot more straightforward, we're taken the spazzy riffs and the off tempo rhythms and laid them over the top of simpler drumbeats that were able to hold a steady groove. Also the guitar riffs on this album are something we've not done before. The songs have intros and outros as well which is new to us; take “Queensberry Rules,” which is the longest song on the record but if you cut out the intro and the outro the song is only about two minutes long.
What's the title Grey Britain mean exactly? Is a statement on the state of the country or is it more universal?
When we look out the window at home all we see is grey, cloudy skies. So you can take the literal meaning, or you can look at our country on a whole. It used to be a very proud powerful place and over the years it’s started to fall apart. The recession hitting hard, the generation gap getting closer and closer and the fact is that nowadays it’s easier for kids to go on the dole [receive government assistance] than it is to go and work hard for a living. Our country has been hit recently with all of the above, but Grey Britain hits home all over the planet because we're not the only country going through tough times right now.
How did you achieve such a heavy guitar sound on "Grey Britain?" What was your secret?
Old Gibson Guitars and old Marshall Amps—and lots of them cranked as loud as I could get them! It helped having Garth Richardson produce the record; we went with Garth because before he produced records he engineered them, this way we knew he was able to get what ever sounds we were after. We double-tracked each guitar line with two different guitars: Laurent recorded his parts first using my 1974 Black Beauty and his 2008 Studio then I recorded all my parts with my 1978 Artisan and my 2006 Standard. Finally we went over lead riffs with a 335 and a Silverburst custom. Also every guitar track was put to tape to open it up and give it that classic sound and Garth made us hit every single note as hard as we possibly could— after recording guitars for the record I didn’t want to touch a guitar for weeks!
What's next for Gallows?
We're coming home after Warped Tour to play Reading and Leeds festival and then we're off to Japan and Australia and then hopefully we'll be back to America and Canada in October/November then we finish the year off with a smaller venue U.K. tour in December. Then next year same again, we'll keep pushing Grey Britain until we've taken over the world!
