GANG OF FOUR INTERVIEW
Gang of Four are an English post-punk group, formed in 1977 in Leeds. The band consists of the members Andy Gill on Guitar, Thomas McNeice on Bass, John "Gaoler" Sterry on Vocals and Tobias Humble / Jonny Finnigan on Drums. Gang Of Four release their boundary breaking record in 1979, the record is titled Entertainment! has subsequently been the source of a continual stream of copies and copies of copies, but even as the imitations continue, GANG OF FOUR’S debut remains singular, a powerful call to arms and out of apathy Entertainment!
We got to speak to Andy Gill about his up coming tour and more
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
AG - Basically we are going to do all of Entertainment which doesn't take too long and our new album Happy Now will be out by the time we are out there. We will be playing three or four songs from the new record and we will be playing a bunch of our hits from over the years. One of the things I like is I can play a song from Entertainment app play a song I wrote six months ago and they sit next to each other really well we are still picking the setlist.
TM - What's your favourite song to play off your entire discography?
AG - I like playing I Found That Essence Rare because I like the feedback and the general Vibe of it but I also like playing the song I prayed myself because the words and the music complement each other in a certain type of way.
TM - A lot of your music covers political issues do you think it's easier to write about political issues now or back in the 80's?
AG - The thing about Gang Of Four it was never about a party political line it was never to try and make people think in a different way like you should be socialists. It was never pushing a party political line but it was much more observational describing our lives and the lives of people around us describing the way we receive information. The news in a sense describing something or did it just naming it is the first part of political action, that was the way we always operated I think.
Now that we have got some very interesting stuff going on talking about populism by which people mean which made people want brexit in this country what ever It Is, that made people vote for Trump. Whatever it is those things are immensely interesting and cannot be ignored. Those things are somewhere in the background in some of those new songs now and then I address them directly.
There is a song called Ivanka my name's on it and it's just quotes from Ivanka and you write remember early in the presidency, she was installed in the White House and someone said isn't this nepotism to Trump. Trump said nepotism is a good thing and Ivanka was trying to describe the Trump policy and someone said to Ivanka Trump, so your complicit and she said, well I don't know what it means to be complicit so I basically quote parts of her speech in the song. Politically speaking Ivanka Trump should be getting some of my songwriting royalties.
TM - Ivanka Trump is also on your Digital EP cover have you had any backlash from that?
AG - It was interesting we got a image of her that was copyright free morning. I open my emails and get messages saying "Andy do you know you are in the Washington post today because they've written an article about a British post punk band who have Ivanka on the cover" and pretty much every single news outlets in America repeated that story in various ways I wasn't expecting that in any way.
TM - Do you reckon social media face the way you write?
AG - I don't think it affects the way, I write but the whole media thing has been a complete Revolution in the past three had newspapers and got people who had the facts checked although not everything was true. At least someone was attempting to look at it but now people make their own your views and that shared by algorithms and you get to see the algorithms you want to see. We are in the middle of a strange time and who knows how this is going to end up I think Spotify in courage is people to release trucks more as singles rather than albums so it dose affect that aspect.
TM - You have been on the website pledged music three what makes you want to go on this website and what are some of the experiences with your fans?
AG - That's difficult because you can come to the studio then listen to my records made or have a glass of wine with me. I have had people who have flown in from america to do that, but we only put Britain for practical reasons but also when we go on to a people can meet us at the gig sometimes.
TM - If you could have any bands play one of your songs which band would it be which song would it be and would it be in your style or their Style?
AG - Any band doing else answers good the more different it is the better
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
AG - Australia and New Zealand a special places for me and we can't to get down there.
TM - Thank you so much for this interview today, we really appreciate it. Hopefully we get to see you in Sydney.
