GUNSHIP – Black Blood Red Kiss

By starrymag | December 23, 2020

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

 

 

Q) What artists influence your music?

Dan: Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, The Cure, Type O Negative, Deadmau5, John Carpenter, Mono, A.A Williams, Vangelis.

Al W: Pink Floyd, Deftones, Sigur Ros, The Police, John Williams, Vangellis, Bon Iver, Postal Service, Bob Dylan…

 

Q) What was the writing process like for “Black Blood Red Kiss?”

Dan: I think winter had just struck England… freezing studio, white frosts and dark afternoons. I recall wanting to write something deliberately bleak but transportive. Messing around with the Analog Solutions “FuseBox” synth provided that meandering bassline and arpeggiating verse sequence and things just built from there. I think it took about two weeks of short, but intense sessions to piece the rest together. Putting live bass and distorted guitar parts onto the track was something we don’t do that often, but was fun. Once the track was more or less assembled it went to Alex W for lyrics and vocal melody creation and Alex G for drum enhancement.

 

Q) What does “Black Blood Red Kiss” mean to you?

Dan: To me, it’s something of a parallel to “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but with perhaps more of a lean into commentary on alternative/artistic/people in general. In my opinion those who position themselves outside of convention, i.e., those that may look “different” are often those most capable of deep passion, compelling ideas and exceptional character.

Al W: Lyrically, the song is a metaphorical exploration on the relationship between pain and pleasure.

 

Q) Despite not being able to meet in person, how was working with Kat Von D?

Dan:  It was a genuine joy working with Kat on “Black Blood Red Kiss.” Some people just grow up with music as a deep, deep love, deep enough to where it contributes to their character and the way they see the world. Kat has this deep love of music and as a result everything about the collaboration was fun and creatively easy flowing. I had been listening to a lot of NiN and Type O Negative and Kat immediately understood the references and gist of what we were trying to do with the mood of song, etc. The remote recording went great, we arranged for Kat to pay a visit to our friend and producer Matt Wallace. (We had met Matt when he produced our Fightstar album One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours)

Kat: Working with GUNSHIP on this song was a breeze and a pleasure.  Because this was a long-distance collaboration, we recorded tracks here in Los Angeles with renowned producer, Matt Wallace.  I’d have to say the only nerve-wracking part of the process was recording vocals with Matt, considering he’s worked with some amazing bands including my all-time fav Faith No More.

G: Kat and her entire team are super lovely and professional. She is super kind, talented and generous and working with her has never been anything other than a dream. We’re just really appreciative of the whole thing!

 

Q) How does the music video connect with the message behind “Black Blood Red Kiss?”

Dan: The general concept was to manifest the feel of the music rather than any specific narrative goal. We just wanted to make something a little weird, perhaps something that you might find on an old unlabeled VHS tape in the back of a drawer. We also wanted to riff on Cronenberg’s Videodrome, doing a little merging of captured reality Vs accidental analog/digital artifacts in a surreal and visceral fashion. The video was shot just as the pandemic was starting and so, unfortunately, we had to shoot separately from Kat. However, we had some fun trying to arrange bath tubs and black fluid at short notice. It was awesome to work with Polygon (Bring Me the Horizon, Grimes) on the project. He’s a fun dude! Polygon brought some epic glitch art (processing video signals through analog circuit bent processing units to produce interesting visual textures) to the project as well as doing a bang up job on the edit.

 

Q) What was your favorite part about working on this music video?

Kat: I had such a blast working on the video. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy bathing in a fully body nylon catsuit in a bathtub full of black water for hours?! The only downside to making the video, aside from getting black gunk stuck in every part of my body, was not being able to film it in the same room with the band. I think fans are going to love having the beautiful dark imagery to go with the song and I can’t wait to work with GUNSHIP again soon, whether it’s on music or eventually getting to play live together.

 

Q) Where do you get the inspiration for the incredible imagery that goes into your music videos?

Dan: Personally, I pull a lot of inspiration from film, specifically movies from the 80s. I was a child of the 80s and it felt like that decade had a great feeling of hope, exploration and generally speaking, less cynicism. The creativity going on in music and cinema was idea driven with genuine auteurs at the helm. This era was the foundation of my tastes and so perhaps it’s natural for someone creative to want to tap into early sources of inspiration. They say that you’ll never love music more than the music you find as a teenager, but I think that’s probably true for all kinds of art.

G: We’ve all got a lot of creative influences from film and TV, music and games and we’ve all been involved with production of video games, short films, music videos and visual effects at some point too. So, aesthetically and from a hands-on production perspective, we are familiar with and love all kinds of video mediums – stop-motion, live action, CGI, game engines, etc. So, it basically comes from the three of us smashing all that together and spit balling ideas until we find something that excites us. We want to try new things and keep pushing creative boundaries, but we also don’t have all the money in the world to spend. We basically get a seed of an idea and then force certain creative constraints upon ourselves and then have to think our way around them rather than spend to solve them outright. So, that breeds creativity in and of itself and we’ll also always try and work with a talented director like Lee Hardcastle or a team outside of Gunship like Counter656 to leverage their talent and excitement to create something they are personally interested in working on. It’s fun to facilitate other people’s creative ambitions into the bargain and works well if you can engineer it into your own ideas. It’s usually possible to connect with like-minded people very quickly as we often share all the same creative touchstones as far as references go (Tech Noir is a great example of that) and we can rapidly get a great shorthand going.

 

Q) Who would you like to collaborate with next on a song or music video?

G: We are very much focused on finishing new material for release at the moment and that involves some exciting collaborations yet to be unveiled. I’m looking forward to collaborating on the music videos for the songs that are already written, but of course we can’t talk about that yet! 😈

 

Q) Will there be a full album or EP coming in the near future?

G: Oh yes, maybe both!

 

Q) Is there a specific place or venue you’d like to play at once you can tour?

G: I’m a sucker for grand old buildings so I’d love to play a show at the Royal Albert Hall. But that said, I’m excited to make a craft a cinematic live show that will be awesome no matter where we’re playing!

 

Q) What do you want your fans to take away from your music?

G: For me, I want them to be transported – to another world, to a different emotional time and space. We’ve always strived to create a sense of atmosphere and tell a story in the music and I think there’s great value in getting a little time away from reality just to wallow in reverie and dream a little. My favorite way to listen has always been lying in the dark with headphones on! Of course, driving around at a night is a close second 😉

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who are fans and supporters of you and your music?

Dan: We really do have the most amazing fans, so many amazing creatives and talented individuals. Every time we do something with the fans, be it practical things like when fans made vocal/video contributions to a song like “When You Grow Up Your Hear Dies” or when we did our Ready Player One style Easter Egg competition…We’re always blown away by everyone’s commitment, ideas and talent. Thank you, you guys are the best.

G: We’ve always felt a great deal of love and support from fans of our music – in some ways more than we could ever have hoped for. We would like to say thank you – the general sentiment and all the many heartfelt messages we’ve received mean a great deal to us. It’s hugely motivational and inspirational to us and knowing what our music means to people fuels us deeply. Speaking of which, buckle up! We have been working for years now honing and preparing all new material and we are edging ever closer to putting our next album into its final form. We aren’t the fastest, but we promise it’ll be worth the wait!