The Goddamn Gallows are back! With a four year gap between their last album, The Maker and their newly released The Trial, the Detroit bluegrass/metal infused punk rock band has taken the time to refine and redefine their incredibly unique sound on their new release. The result? Something that they’re proud to be touring on this month and for the remainder of the summer.
Since 2007, The Goddamn Gallows have been pushing the boundaries of genre with their music. The band has been described as “hobocore”, “gypsy-punk” and “americana-punk”, while constantly allowing their sound to evolve and change, and The Trial is no different. By tapping Exodus’ Jack Gibson for this release, The Goddamn Gallows have created one of their most confident releases yet.
With The Trial out now and an incredibly busy year ahead of the band, we caught up with them to talk about their growth over the last four years, their goals for the new album and what lies ahead.
Interview by Shannon Shumaker
The Prelude Press: You guys just recently celebrated the release of your 6th album, The Trial last month. Now that it has been out for a little bit and you’ve had some time to look back on it, what are some of your favorite things about the album?
Mikey Classic [guitar/vocals]: Personally I’m proud of everything. The artwork, the production, the whole process of recording a good chunk of it at Fishgutzzz’ house in Warren, MI. I think we’ve really pushed ourselves musically with this album. As the years go by, our sound has morphed so much and I think this album really reflects that.
A lot of artists don’t even make it to 3 releases, let alone 6. When you guys were first starting out, did you ever imagine yourselves where you are now?
Well if by “where we are now” ya mean still living out of a van eating truckstop food and spending hours in side of the road fixing axles/tires/breaking down etc, I’d have to say yeah. We’re right we’re we expected to be by now. But, we finally get hotels! Feels like hitting the big time at point.
There’s a four year gap between The Trial and your last album, The Maker – how do you feel you’ve grown as people and musicians in the time between releases?
Well we’ve had some lineup changes. I left the band in 2012, right after recording The Maker, to do a solo project and Joe Perreze stayed in the band. I returned in 2016 when Joe and his wife had a baby. In the meantime all of our musically tastes have leaned towards more heavier, darker more melodic stuff. I think anytime a lineup changes it’s gonna affect the writing. Touring with more punk and doomier bands then we have in the past is also a factor, considering we spend more time on the road then we do at home trying to adult. I think after marinating in these flavors over the last 4 years, our meat got juicier.
We took almost all of these new songs on the road and tested them out, and through that we really seemed to add or subtract elements as needed. It really helped fine tune what we wanted out of the songs before hitting the studio.
What was the most rewarding thing about working on this album?
Working with Jack Gibson from Exodus was great. He really seemed to understand who we are and personally I think he’s captured what we’re going for, better then anyone else yet. I don’t think any of us cringe nearly as much when we go back and listen to it.
With The Trial out now, you have some tour dates lined up throughout the month of April. What are you looking forward to on this run?
Well we’re almost halfway through right now. This entire run has been a lot of fun. We’re out with the Koffin Kat’s and Against the Grain who are also all from the Detroit area. A lot of us are old friends, we actually like all the music everyone plays and there’s a lot of camaraderie on this tour. And the shows have been great. It’s always great to see all of our crowds mixing and reacting to all our friends’ music.
What would you like fans to take away from your upcoming live shows?
Merch. Buy some shit people! We got rent to pay!!
Do you have any other big plans or goals for 2018?
Just more tours with more great bands. The rest of the year we’ll be hitting the road with Gallows Bound, Murphy’s Law, Days n Daze, Gutter Demons, Viva Le Vox, and others. Really looking forward to it.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Check out our website www.thegoddamngallows.com and check out the other bands on our new label Sailor’s Grave Records
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