When it comes to being an independent band, you have to seize every available opportunity to work on your craft and the promotion machine behind it.
For Glory Glory guitarist and vocalist Adam Warren, this means silk-screening band posters during his child’s nap-time. Not that he minds, however because the truth is, the Halifax band – performing at Moncton’s Tide & Boar Saturday evening – has much going for them.
This past Tuesday, the group released So Long, a three-song EP that sees the group diversifying their sound to incorporate new wave, indie music along a heavy reliance upon syncopated dance rhythms.
“Things are going fantastic,” Adam says. “It feels like a new beginning for the band in a way. The response given to So Long has been really encouraging so far. It is awesome to have this attention because the material on So Long is so different from what we have done in the past, it is almost like a complete reboot for the band.”
Their new EP is a welcome return for the Halifax-based group. Following the release of their critically acclaimed album Zombies!!! in 2010, the band released an EP, You Need A Heart To Live the following year. Then, they just kind of disappeared for a little while.
“I had gotten married around the time of You Need A Heart To Live and then my wife and I began tearing a house apart that we had purchased. Glory Glory was still performing, writing and rehearsing, just not in a focused way that we had been doing in the years prior.”
Adam looks back upon those “quiet” years of the band as beneficial in helping strengthen their chemistry and desire to make new music.
“The time away was good for us, even on a personal level,” he says. “We lived together for a year around the time that we were making Zombies!!! and while it strengthened our friendship in one respect, it got to be a challenge to step into our practice space to rehearse and write new material. Now when we get together, everyone is truly excited to be there and be a part of what we are creating.”
Although the three songs on So Long might fall short in terms of the actual quantity of new music fans might have wanted from the group after their layoff, there is indeed a method to their madness.
To mix the EP, the group enlisted Justin Gerrish whose impressive resume includes work with The Strokes, Vampire Weekend and Muse. From an independent group’s standpoint, it simply wasn’t economically feasible to have Justin mix a complete record from the group.
Rather than focusing upon what they couldn’t have, Adam says they picked the three songs which they felt demonstrated the most cohesive and definitive statement on their new musical direction. More importantly however, Adam says that the group was also curious to see what kind of impact hiring a world-class mixer would have upon the end result.
“We kind of made this an experiment of sorts. We thought we would get a heavy hitter to mix the material and see if it makes a difference sonically. And to that point, it was crazy worth the money spent. Justin has worked with a bunch of different rock groups but has also worked alongside jazz legends. That diversity was really appealing to us because it is how we approach the music that we make as well.”
Along with their new EP the Glory Glory trio, including Ryan Brown and Gavin Maclean, has expanded to quartet status with the addition of former We’re Doomed member Nick Jones on guitar.
Thanks to the heavy layering of guitars heard on So Long, Adam says that adding a second guitarist was a decision as practical as it was necessary to help translate their songs in the live setting.
“We found that our live sound was sometimes feeling really empty. Adding Nick into the band has definitely helped fill that emptiness that we were noticing. But perhaps even more significantly, we had been playing some songs live for more than five years. After awhile, you just fall into a rhythm and start playing the songs the same way each and every time. Bringing Nick into the band has gotten us to go back and think about our songs in a different kind of way. It is exciting to have some new blood among us.”
As Glory Glory prepare to head to the United Kingdom for their first-ever performances at the start of May, Adam feels fairly certain that they will be following up So Long in the not too distant future:
“We are already talking about the next EP. I love the album format and hopefully within the next few years, we will be at a point where we will make another full-length record. In the meantime, it is nice to focus on releasing EPs. With releasing EPs instead of full-length records, we like to hope that it leaves people wanting more. Either way, regardless of the format that our next releases fall into, we do not want to wait three years until our next release.”