Ahead of their shows in NZ in November, I called up Alex, of the band Great Gable, to have a chat:
Kia Ora Alex!
*Funny discussion about how the call program works*
How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it?
I guess I’d call it like indie rock. Just easy listening as well. My mum likes it so it’s fit for all I think.
What inspires your lyric writing and what’s that process like?
Usually when I’m coming up with a melody, I’ll normally spit out a couple of random words that fit and we kind of go from there. We work as a band and turn it into a song that makes sense and means something to us. I don’t sit down and go I’m going to write a song about this. It just kind of happens subconsciously. And you can always relate it back to something that happens in one of our lives so that’s cool.
So it’s not like a Taylor Swift moment?
*Laughs* No no no. Sometimes Matt the guitarist will jot down a couple of lyrics, after I’ve written a few things myself. But yeah it kind of changes every song. We just go along with it. We don’t want to stop the flow of everything coming together. When we go to record the song we’ll go over it again just to make sure it makes sense and yet still leaves a few things unanswered. But you know we still don’t really know what we’re doing yet, we’re just trying to figure it out for ourselves.
You had a great time when you were in NZ last, are you excited to come back?
Oh we can’t wait. We can’t believe we get to hit NZ twice in one year.
It’s already half way through this year!
I know! You never know we might get there again before the year is over haha.
With your last tour you played 7 shows here, 2 in Auckland alone, why only 3 this time around?
I think it’s because we’re playing bigger venues and we were there not too long ago. It’s one of those things where we want to go but we couldn’t hit the North & the South Island in one weekend and it’s quite expensive for us to stay over there. So just a few things I guess.
Well something is better than nothing.
Exactly. We love going to Wellington. So if you’re going to ask what my favourite show was (I was), Wellington by far. It was the best show I’ve ever played in my life I reckon. That was the funnest thing in the world. I couldn’t have asked for something better. The venue and everything was so nice, Meow I think it was. The crowd was beautiful. Everyone was so nice but that is just NZ in general. We all just had a great time, no dramas and it was a beautiful vibe. I don’t know if that answers your question haha.
With this tour you’re donating $1 from every ticket to FEAT, what made you want to do this?
Our manager Kelsie, who is awesome, is constantly looking out for organisations or programmes. She’s just got a good soul in general so she’s always putting things forward to us. Now that we’ve got a platform we want to invest it in things we’re passionate about because people might listen. So if we can donate a $1 from every ticket to FEAT, who donates money to lowering carbon emissions from touring, then yeah we will. Kelsie brings it up and we just pick the ones we really like that we want to be involved in. We’re playing a show this weekend that is run by this programme called 20Talk (show already played), which is about mental health for people mainly in their 20’s. We’re playing that gig with a handful of great WA artists and Kelsie has basically organised the whole thing which is awesome.
Your last NZ tour sold-out. Do you think that is what has influenced you to come back?
Yeah, with the last tour they mentioned NZ and we were like oh yeah okay. But as it got closer the shows started selling out and we couldn’t really believe it. And we’re still really lucky that NZ is a place that we can go tour. And people aren’t just coming to check us out, they really know our music. It’s beautiful and we just love the country as well. We just had such a good time over there.
I heard you went to Hobbiton last time.
I’m actually in a Lord of The Rings t-shirt right now. We were lucky to have a few days to chill and were playing a gig not too far from there. There were a lot of tourists there but I mean what did you expect. It was beautiful. So much fun!
Did you go anywhere when you were in Wellington?
I’m pretty sure we only had 2 days in Wellington. We got there on the day, played the show then flew out to Christchurch the next day.
I recommend going to Weta Workshop next time *explains Weta Workshop tour*
Oh that’s so cool! I’m a big fan of that Director. He did Boy and Hunt for the Wilder People. Oh Taika Waititi! Yeah that’s it! And he did Thor Ragnarok. That guy seems so nice. I haven’t met him but I’d love too.
What are some items you HAVE TO have on tour? A part from your LoTR shirt.
*Laughs* Oh I was actually going to say my shirt. I’d say we always take a footy with us because the boys get restless. Oh and noise cancelling headphones so I don’t hear the boys snoring.
If you could start a rumour about yourself, what would it be?
Oh wow. Alright okay I’ve got the answer. I would start a rumour that I’ve got a really good vege patch. Excellent broccoli, some great cauliflower, a bit of kale in there and a bit of corn maybe. Yeah we’ll just go with something like that. I’ve got a bit of a dream. I enjoy looking after my plants. But because we’re going away quite a bit I haven’t got around to getting a vege patch going. So I want people to think I’ve got a really good vege patch.
Do you have anything to add?
We’re just really looking forward to getting back to NZ. We really appreciate the people over there listening to us and giving us the opportunity to play. Because you know we’re just 4 boys from Perth having a bit of fun. It’s picking up a bit for us and we can’t really get our heads around it to be honest. So yeah thank you New Zealand.
When we went over there they made us feel like we should have been there for years or something. It really felt as though they appreciated that we made the trip over. New Zealand is also so close. Similar to Australia, but more lush. It’s also cooler. I run hot because I’m English so it was perfect.
*we then had a little random conversation that discussed temperature comparisons, how he loved Whammy Bar and he recommended everyone check out Psychedelic Porn Crumpets!
Thank you to Alex for having a chat with me!
