Big Shots

Following the success of debut EP Mirrors in 2009 and first album All Our Kings Are Dead the following year, UK rockers Young Guns rapidly became critical darlings in their homeland, being featured on the cover of numerous high-profile publications. Significant festival appearances (Download, Reading, Leeds) and major supports (Bon Jovi, Lostprophets, Yellowcard) quickly fell their way. Then it came time for the contentious second album. We will spare you the usual clichés about second records, because good-natured frontman Gustav Wood is well aware of and openly discusses them. Also, as it turns out, the greatest expectation placed on them to deliver the goods via new record Bones was self-inflicted, rather than antsy record execs calling for a radio single or dedicated fans analysing every minute detail online.

“The cliché of the second album is definitely true,” Wood ponders. “I would say we had, like, all our lives to write our first record and about two months to write the second one,” he laughs. “So there was an awful lot of late nights, a lot of pressure and all that kind of stuff, but we are very hard on ourselves, very critical and rarely happy with what we're doing. So we're so used to kicking our own arse that we kind of always operate under an almost constant state of pressure. We're always trying to be better and I think that's a good thing. But it did mean that the second album was quite painful in a lot of ways. I think we knew that we wanted it to be better, but that was kind of all we knew. It took us a little while to focus in and lock down exactly how we wanted the record to sound, what we wanted to do with it and all that kind of stuff. So the cliché is definitely true, and it did hurt, but the record that we've come out with is something that I'm really happy with and I think that a little bit of pain in the recording process is natural, necessary even. I would be worried if the recording process was pain-free and easy,” he laughs. “I would almost feel like it was a little bit slack in some ways. It should be a struggle, because it's something important.”

Bones was recorded at Karma Sound Studios in Thailand with producer and SikTh guitarist Dan Weller, who offered a key connection to their recorded past. “We had a good relationship with him already and we've done pretty much all of our recorded output to date with him,” Wood explains. “So there was an easy dynamic; he understands us, he knows how to get the best out of us, he knows when to babysit and when to crack the whip. With an album as important as this we really wanted that level of honesty and that existing relationship to be there, so we were happy to go with him really. One of the reasons we wanted go to Thailand was so we could remove ourselves from everything else that we were familiar with; from family, relationships, friends and just the environment. We wanted to go somewhere new so we could, I suppose, push ourselves to be a better, newer band. Having that one bit of history, having Dan aboard, was essential to that.

“I think the first record is a good album, we were happy with it, [but] it's definitely a first album. It's the sound of us just chucking everything in and seeing what comes out. I think this new record, we were a little more focused with what we wanted to achieve. We didn't want to write an album that sounded like perhaps a band that had the stature that we do, we wanted an album that sounded kind of big. We wanted songs that wouldn't sound out of place on the main stage at a big festival and I think that was our goal. We just wanted to write big anthems, and that helped, and I think that we've done that. It's just the sound of a band that is trying to spread their wings and write music that can appeal to everyone.”

Whether it's a case of mission accomplished is not yet determined. Young Guns have played their share of prominent festival slots though, and fittingly now have a new slew of songs they believe are tailor-made for that environment. What they have learned from previous festival experiences? “We were very lucky to play some high-profile shows pretty early in the day, and to an awful lot of people. Looking back on it now it made sense that we were able to do it, because we were so terrified when we started doing those large shows, that after a few of them we were kind of numb to any other fear of playing, you know?

“We kind of feel that we've played some of the biggest shows we will ever play already. It made us a lot more comfortable on-stage. Reading and Leeds are like twin sister festivals and we did the first day at Reading. We walked out in front of so many thousands of people and we were a bit like a deer in the headlights, like, 'What the hell do we do here?' So by the second show two days later we felt kind of comfortable already because we'd already been through it. I think more than anything else we've just learnt how to deal with crowds now, to connect with the audience and you can apply those things you've learnt on the big stage to the small stage, and that makes for a more potent live show.”

The aforementioned ethos of harsh self-reflection also translates to their live performances, which Australian fans will discover first-hand during their upcoming jaunt with Closure In Moscow. It will be their second visit to our shores after last year's Counter Revolution. “I don't want it to sound bad, but in terms of all five of us being happy with a show, that is so rare, man,” Wood explains. “We've done that maybe five times in our whole career, where we've all come off-stage and gone, 'Yeah, nothing to say about that, we nailed it'. We're always like, 'Dude, you could have done that better', or 'I can't believe I fucked that up'. It's not necessarily things that the crowd are going to notice, but we're always pushing ourselves to be a better band, both in the studio and on the stage. I think fundamentally, when you are very passionate about something you just want it to be perfect. You want to be as good as you can be and you want everyone else to be that way. I think it's not necessarily always playing a musically perfect set [though]; it's about creating an atmosphere and hopefully giving everyone something to remember. Wherever we are in the world, that's what we try and do.”