I first met the Glyder guys on the most
appropriate day of the year - St Patrick's Day - when they were supporting Fish
on the ‘13th Star' tour. Over a Guinness
or two, guitarist Bat and I got to talking about the music scene in general and
setting the world to rights - a fairly common occurrence when two like-minded
Irish people get together. With two
great albums to date, and very respectable sales generated throughout the UK and Europe,
the band nevertheless appears to be criminally ignored by the music press.
Having seen them play at Swedenrock to a
packed Gibson tent, witnessed the adulation of legions of new fans, and with
the knowledge that they are touring with Y&T in the UK in September, I
thought it was an ideal opportunity to speak to Bat and get the lowdown on all
things Glyder. Thanks to Skype
technology, and with cold beers in hand and more in the fridge, we sat down at
our computers for a long chat, and naturally the first thing I wanted to know
about was the new EP.
What have you been up
to recently? I understand you have an EP
coming out soon called ‘Weather the Storm'?
Well, the first track that we recorded for that was ‘Fill
Your Head with Rock' for the Swedenrock Festival CD. Then I got thinking that with the tour coming
up in the UK with Y&T in September, I'd like to have something else to
offer people that already had ‘Playground for Life' and the first album. There was a bit of material that I wanted to
record anyway, and having something new to go with a tour always creates a
better buzz.
Do you own your own
copyright to your material so you can sell your CDs at the shows?
Yes, we do. The music
business has changed over the years. I
don't know how it works for other bands, but we pay for all the recordings
ourselves. As no-one else is involved on
the finance side, we own everything we do.
It's great when we go on tour because we don't have to buy the albums
off the company beforehand, and we can make more money back that way. At Swedenrock we sold out of all our merchandise.
That must have paid
for a few beers for you guys?
Yes, and more. We actually
paid for the mixing of the EP out of it (laughs).
Would you like to
talk us through the tracks on the EP?
I don't know if you know ‘Brewin' Up A Storm'. There was a band called The Stunning from Galway who had a hit single with this in 1990, so that's
actually a cover. We play it in our
covers band so we decided to record it. It's
got a kind of Doors vibe with the keyboards and Tony's voice in the low
register.
I understand ‘Love
Never Dies' was inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula?
Yeah, I wrote that song around 1999 with a friend of mine. Glyder played it in the early days, but we didn't
do anything else with it, so we decided it should go on the EP. I used to play in a thrash metal band when I
was a teenager, but I gave up on the rock ‘n' roll dream and started playing in
a covers band. I still continued to write
bits and pieces here and there, and every now and again I'd get inspired to do something
original again, because for me that's where the buzz is. I had an idea to make an album based around
Bram Stoker's Dracula and recorded two songs - ‘Love Never Dies' and ‘The Dead
Travels Fast'. I then forgot about them,
but when Glyder happened a couple of years later I brought a few songs and
ideas with me - even some of the riffs on the first and second albums are
things I wrote from years ago. The
Dracula thing was just a crazy idea at the time but nothing ever came of
it.
Are you a bit of a
film buff or do you just get inspired by horror movies in general?
Actually, I'm not a film buff and I don't like horror movies
(laughs)! It was just an idea. I liked the remake of the film in the
nineties and that inspired me to write a couple of songs.
I love the title
track ‘Weather the Storm'. The guitar
solo on that is almost homage to Jimmy Page.
I gather this is your "epic" track?
Yes. That was the
last track we wrote before the first album was recorded, but Chris Tsangarides
didn't pick it in the end. I'm really
proud of that track. It's nearly seven
minutes long and it's kind of reggae in the verses; there's a Pink Floyd trippy
vibe and then at the end it really builds up into a big hard rock epic
ending. It just didn't fit on the second
album, so I'm glad that it's on the EP and I think it holds its own and is in
its right place now.
Who is the ghostly
sailor?
Aha, that would be Mr Phillip P Lynott.
‘Lay Down' seems to
have an Elvis Presley/ Rory Gallagher thing going for it. Was this the intention?
Yes, it's kind of a mix between Elvis and Rory. The reverb on the vocal makes it sound very
Elvis. It has a kind of 1950's country
rockabilly vibe, but Rory had a bit of that vibe as well.
What are your hopes
and expectations for the EP, given that it's a collection of five songs that
didn't really have a home on the previous two albums?
Personally I'm on a buzz about it at the moment. I'm really proud of the title track, but
besides the music it's an exciting time because we're released it ourselves
through the website and the response has been phenomenal. With no specific advertising it is really
selling well, in fact I'm shocked at the number of people that are buying
it. As far as economics go, we recorded
it locally in Wicklow and produced it ourselves, so really the only outlay was
for mixing and artwork. Mark Wilkinson did an outstanding job on the artwork
again and he really believes in us, too.
The whole package with the songs and the artwork, the fact that we're
doing it ourselves and not relying on any record labels, and knowing there are
enough people out there who are willing to buy it - well, for the first time we
might even cover our costs (laughs).
With our previous albums we didn't make anything back, but we didn't
mind because we knew we'd have to build things up, but this is looking a bit
different, and it's really exciting to have our own online shop and do
everything ourselves. I've discovered
that you can't rely on people doing things for you; there's no incentive for
them to do so because there's no money in the business these days, so the best
way forward is to do everything yourself.
On the subject of
producing it yourselves, did you have any squabbles about whose parts should be
louder in the mix?
Well, we left the mix to Peter Brander. I trusted him to mix it correctly and I made
a really good decision to use him because he did an amazing job. On the production side of things in the
studio, we wrote and arranged the songs ourselves and did all our own guitars,
drums and bass. We all agreed on where
the keyboards should come in, adding a female voice and stuff, and to be honest
I think we have what it takes to produce our next full album ourselves.
Who has Peter worked
with before and how did you get involved with him?
Well, he's very much involved with Cornerstone and he's done
a lot of White Lion albums. He has also
done stuff for Royal Hunt - he was their sound engineer and recorded all of
their albums. He's a guitarist and
singer himself and he just knows how to get it right. I met him in Sweden after Royal Hunt played, but
I'd met him before that too. We were
doing some gigs with Gotthard and we did a gig in Amager in Denmark. There is a studio right next to the venue and
we were offered the chance to make a live album, so the gig was recorded in the
studio. We had an instant rapport with
him and I kept in touch with him and really liked the sound of what he got for
our live recording, so when I met him again at Swedenrock I handed over the EP
masters to him.
The keyboards add the
last piece of the jigsaw puzzle for a full on classic rock sound. How did you get John ‘Fist' Mulrooney involved? Are you good friends?
Well, I didn't really know him before. A friend of mine sings in a covers band
called Knucklehead in Ireland. He used to sing in a band with me a few years
back. He had a keyboard player, and he
suggested we get him for our second album.
I decided not to because I didn't know the guy. Then the keyboards on the second album turned
out to be something of a nightmare which we got sorted in the end. I'd heard John playing and said we'd get him
in for the EP. I mailed him a copy of
the title track and he planned out his keyboard solo, came in and did it in
half an hour. He had never heard ‘Love
Never Dies' before and within ten minutes he had all the keyboards for it, same
with ‘Brewin' Up A Storm'. He's a real
professional, an amazing musician. I
think he's going to start doing some gigs with us as well. Between the four of us and the keyboards I
just know it's going to sound amazing live.
Which gigs will he do
with you?
He's going to do the EP launch night in Temple Bar in Dublin, and he's going to
be with us at Hard Rock Hell in December.
He has another band also, and work commitments, so it's going to be down
to whenever he's free, but he's going to be involved on the third album as
well.
What will you do when
he is not available?
Well, we never used a keyboard player live before, so at the
moment it is not an issue. It if comes
to the stage where we do a couple of gigs and then suddenly the keyboard player
is missing, and we feel the sound isn't right, then we'd have to reconsider. At this moment in time, however, we're used
to playing as a four piece with no keyboards.
The keyboards in Glyder are like a little bit of spice in the
sound. They're very prominent in
‘Weather the Storm' but I don't think we'll play that song live in the future
unless we've got a keyboard player with us.
The rest of the tracks don't have such prominent keyboards, so it won't
make any difference to our live sound.
Would you ever
consider using click tracks for the keyboards in a live setting?
I'm sure it's an option, but I don't think it would be cool
to have that keyboard solo on a tape; it would be like Deep Purple on stage
with Jon Lord in a metal box. I believe
that live should be live. I like the
whole idea of a band being able to set up in a corner of any room, pub, club,
arena or wherever and do what they do. I
think once trickery comes into it, it takes something away from it.
How was it you caught
the attention of Phil Lynott's mum?
Every 4th January, which is the day Phil died,
there is a show that Smiley Bolger runs called Vibe for Philo in Dublin. We were a covers outfit at the time, and
Smiley knew we played Thin Lizzy songs, so we were asked if we would open the
show in 2004. It was me, Tony and Davy
(Pete wasn't in the band at the time) and two other guys, so we were a five
piece with three guitar players - like Thin Lizzy songs done Lynyrd Skynyrd
style. We got a real buzz playing in
front of 2,000 people instead of 100 people in the local pub, so we were
spurred on to play our own material. It
also seemed like a good time to do it because the Darkness was having success
with ‘Permission to Land' and that classic rock sound seemed to be making a
comeback, so we started Glyder. Pete,
who's actually a neighbour of mine, came in shortly afterwards - he went to
school with Davy and Tony. The following
year we got the Irish tour with Sykes/Gorham Thin Lizzy. We made an EP and sold it at those
shows. We were starting to make a little
bit of an impression because people were saying we sounded like Thin
Lizzy. Smiley is also good friends with
Philomena Lynott, so she came along to our album launches and she always flies
our flag anyway. She's a great
lady.
There is no doubt
that the music industry has changed drastically and the big cash advances of
the 70's and 80's don't exist any more.
How is Glyder able to keep alive financially?
We kept the covers band going to keep the money coming in to
pay our own bills and support our own tours as there's no label willing to do
that for us. So we have basically financed
Glyder through playing cover gigs in Ireland which is something that we
kept secret for a long time because we felt it might go against us, but now I
don't really give a shit. What's the shame
in saying that we play some cover versions and we make good money doing it
rather than flipping burgers down at McDonalds?
There's no difference. It's just
another way to earn a living. We play
the music we love, we get paid to do it and it keeps Glyder going. Glyder seems to get more recognition now and
we have a good fan base built up. We're
proud of the fact that this is how we do it, because it has all been done
through hard work, travelling around the country and getting in at 4.00 and
5.00 in the mornings. As we gig every
weekend, we know each other really well as musicians and it's made us really
tight as a band. We're running Glyder as
a cottage industry now and we're slowly getting to the stage where we can make
a living being musicians rather than hoping that some label's going to come
along and save the day for us. Of course,
if a label wants to help us along the way, that's always another option. A lot of bands out there at the moment have managers
and labels that have a lot of financial backing behind them, but we're proud of
the fact that we're doing it for ourselves and not relying on anyone else.
I understand Helena
Larsson is your new manager, and she has a rather unusual pet that you met
recently?
Well, nobody knew about us in Sweden, so I wanted to build up the
Glyder name because it wouldn't have been good to play at Swedenrock with no-one
watching. We hired Helena
to do our PR in Sweden and she
arranged a couple of gigs for us with Gotthard and got us a gig with Dio and a couple
of gigs in Stockholm. She booked us lots of interviews with radio
and TV, magazines and everything. She's
such a hard worker and so good at what she does and she'd be able to get us
into places that we couldn't do ourselves.
I hinted in a roundabout way that it would be great if she was managing
us, and she was thinking along the same lines anyway, so she'll be taking over
the management in a couple of
weeks. She has a snake called
Pythagoraz. She told us that the snake
was loose around the house and because I'd never seen a snake before except for
in a zoo, I was a bit freaked out going to her house with a snake loose! When we got there and saw that it was in a
cage, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
How did the
endorsement with Cort Guitars work out?
What do you think of the new axe and how does it compare with your
Gibson Les Paul?
Cort Guitars are distributed in Ireland
and England
from Carlow which isn't too far from where we live. I brought a guitar there a couple of years
ago and asked them to fix it for me. I
enquired about endorsements at the time but nothing came of it. Then one day on the Fish tour I got an email
asking if I would be interested, so I went to have a look and played a couple
of guitars and they offered me a full endorsement
which means that the guitar is completely free as long as I play it live. I really like it; it's very light and it sounds
great. Les Pauls are great, but I don't
know anyone else that's playing the Cort model that I'm playing, so it's a bit
unique in that way. It's something
different, and it'll be great to play on stage because I get to run around a
bit more rather than be encumbered by a big heavy guitar. I've been wearing black on stage for quite a
while now so I got a black guitar too.
It's more rock than bright yellow (laughs).
Can you say anything
more at this stage about the live album?
I have all the masters and it sounds great, but I don't know
how good the material is. It might be used
as bonus material or downloads or something in the future, or maybe I'll wait
until after our third album and release it then. I'll do something with it but I'm not in any
major rush to make a live album at the moment.
You had somewhat mixed
reviews of the debut album? What's your
feeling towards it now?
I'm still really proud of the first album; it's a very high
energy album. Mostly we got good press, but
some people didn't like the idea that we sounded like Thin Lizzy. We got a bit of flak because Tony doesn't
sing like a typical rock vocalist with the high range, he sings more in the
style of Phil Lynott. I didn't mind because
you're never going to please everybody.
The only thing with the first album is that Chris picked the ten songs
out of 18 tracks that he felt would make a solid album, and he did the right
thing. It meant, though, that people had
expectations for the second album that we were going to deliver something
similar, because as much as Thin Lizzy is a part of the band, it's not exactly
what we're all about. ‘Playground for
Life' has some tracks that are a completely different Glyder sound even from the
new EP, where some of that material goes back to the first album, but that side
of us wasn't shown at the time.
How did the reviews
for ‘Playground for Life' compare?
I think it got better press than the first album, but we
were let down in terms of publicity. It
did well enough in England
because we promoted it ourselves, but it didn't do as well in Japan as the first album because
it's not so heavy metal sounding. We
gained a lot of new fans with ‘Playground for Life' and I think it's great that
people could hear that we're developing our own Glyder sound and gradually
moving away from the Thin Lizzy vibe. A
lot of people commented on the standard of the songwriting, too, so
‘Playground' was definitely a progression for us.
How do you feel about
the constant comparison to Thin Lizzy?
I think it's great; I'm very proud of it. A lot of our material does sound close to
Lizzy, but I don't have any shame in that.
There are a lot of bands who
sound like Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden, so to us it's not that we're trying to
sound like Thin Lizzy, it's just a natural thing. We're all huge Lizzy fans and it's not
contrived, it just happens to be the way that we sound. If you look at AC/DC back in the 70's they
were looking to Chuck Berry, then they put their own stamp on it. Even early Lizzy was like Hendrix and they
got criticised for it at the time.
Aerosmith got flak about sounding like the Rolling Stones. Every band starts off sounding like somebody
that they admire, or they make the connection.
As the band develops, say over four or five albums, they find their own ground and establish more
credibility.
You've toured already
with some heavyweights - any good stories?
Not really, to be honest.
Some of those rock star stories are just myths, and some get glorified
and over dramatised, but to be honest playing in a band means a lot of time waiting
around doing nothing. OK, there might be
some drinking and partying involved, but most bands that stand the test of time
are usually quite sensible because they wouldn't be around if they
weren't. Obviously rock'n'roll has its
casualties, but I think most of the bands we've toured with are fairly
sensible. Your Viking friends with the whips
at Swedenrock was probably more rock and roll thank half the f**kin' rock star
stories that are going around (laughs)!
I do have to mention that Fish is a pure gentleman, though. He let us stay at his house; he'd put his arm
around you and give you a big hug, but not everybody is like Fish.
What are your
expectations for Hard Rock Hell on 5th December?
I'm really looking forward to it. It will be the most high profile show we've
done in the UK
so far. I get the feeling that we get
overlooked sometimes, because we don't have people involved with us who are
part of the "in" crowd, so we don't get to go to all the "in" things, so to be
doing Hard Rock Hell is great. It'll
give us a chance to play in front of the UK industry as well which is a great
opportunity for us because we come across a hell of a lot better live than we
do on record.
Speaking of live,
were you surprised at the Swedenrock crowd's reaction?
I was blown away by it.
It's a weird experience when you look out in the audience and you see
people you don't know singing the words of your songs. We felt like a headline band because we were
the headliners in that tent for that hour.
It wasn't full of people who were there to see the band after us, they
were there to see us which was mindblowing.
Are you looking
forward to the Y&T tour in September?
Well, I know I'm older than the other boys in Glyder, but
Y&T are still a little bit before my time, so I never really got familiar
with their material except ‘Mean Streak'.
I'm really looking forward to it, though. Jill, Dave Meniketti's wife, looks after the
whole show and she seems like a really
nice person. I think it's going
to be a great tour. I'm looking forward
to meeting Dave too - they recorded with Chris Tsangarides as well, so we have
a lot in common there.
If you were promised
the ultimate support slot who would it be with?
My life's ambition is to open for Iron Maiden. I don't know if it will ever happen, but that
would be my dream. Thin Lizzy are my
favourite band, and my second favourite band is Iron Maiden. We've already toured with Sykes/Gorham Thin
Lizzy, which was like a dream come true in itself, but Iron Maiden would be one
hell of an achievement for me.
I believe your
download sales have now exceeded your European CD sales. You must be excited about that?
Yes, it's great. The UK has
definitely been the best for us. We have
a lot of support in the UK
now and really getting a name. The new
EP has been mostly UK
online sales. We've worked hard on
building our name in the UK
and it's really exciting.
Is there anything you
would like to say to the UK
fans?
We get a lot of messages on MySpace and I'm constantly in
touch with people in the UK. The UK's been really good to us and I'd
just like to say a huge THANKS for all the support. Hopefully we'll see some of you on the
Y&T tour and at Hard Rock Hell. You
won't be disappointed.
Glyder are on tour with Y&T in September. Dates are below:
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