It’s already been an incredible couple of weeks of what we’re dubbing our Three One G summer – we got to premier Fuck Money, we got to chat with Deaf Club, but now we get to drop what just might be our favorite from the batch: meet Guck.
Guck is a Los Angeles band that pulls from a host of noise and post-punk adjacent sounds to create a chaotic strain of post-everything you can’t quite put your finger on, yet could recognize immediately.
Rather than keep you guessing, let’s just cut you in with this exclusive cut from Gucked Up, their upcoming full-length. “Blue Collar Crime” constantly coils around itself, winding a tighter and tighter feel into the song until it all bursts. But for Guck, it’s also an exercise in restraint:
Full disclosure, we’ve been listening to the advance of the record pretty frequently, and “Blue Collar Crime” explores a particularly interesting corner of its post-apocalyptic sound that’s slightly darker than some parts, but also not as dark as others. The song also makes for a great intro to April Gerloff’s uncanny observational wit. Gerloff’s vaguely unsettling drawl takes the band’s already potent chemistry to unexpected places, yet somehow always grounds it in something real or relatable.
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It’s kind of a lot, and much of it is hard to explain, but Guck was actually available for a QNA, and we’re honored to introduce post-punk and noise enthusiasts to the band below:
FB: Gucked Up is a eupohric dissent into madness and cataclysm, but to describe it as post-punk, sludge, or no-wave would only be addressing a fraction of the music. What are some words you would use to describe the sound of the record?
April: With a gun to my head and I had to pick one, I would probably just say noise rock.
Chappy: Electric Anxiety Attack, Unchill Beats to Worry to.
Kyle: Feel-wise, frenetic and chaotic. genre-wise, it’s easiest to just say noise rock.
FB: It seems like the band originally bonded over the excitement of possibility rather than playing a specific genre – were there any shared influences or appreciations among members of the band that helped shape the project?
April: Sam had been the one I knew the best, and I had seen Prized Pig. So I knew I wanted to ride whatever wave they were already on when putting this band together.
Chappy: I think the excitement of possibility is the perfect way to describe it. I had just moved to LA and didn’t think in the slightest this would be the band I would be in, or how fast I could find the people. We all like the same sort of things, and that is a BIG grab bag of influences, but no one ever stopped and said “Let’s sound like this”. I had never been in a band that had no ideas going in and I don’t know if I ever want to try hard again.
Kyle: I (and I’d say this is true for all of us) listen to so many different styles of music from every decade that for me it feels like if we had tried to pick one genre we’d be neglecting all the other ones and that would get old really quick. it’s fun to follow our instincts and ride whatever wave we happen to catch when we get together.
FB: Is it true the band essentially got to know each other due to storage space?
Chappy: If I didn’t have a place to play my Crate combo I bought from Goodwill two days before I was gonna hang it all up. Well not exactly… but I needed a space and friends and Sam, Kyle and Andrew were old friends I needed to reconnect with anyways so two birds one stone.
Kyle: Sam and I connected quite randomly via facebook in 2019 and the rest is history.
FB: So, April’s vocals are also a defining factor here, who almost acts more like a medium, channeling different characters, aspects, and demons. It’s obviously an impeccable match – what was it like hearing their vocals for the first time?
Chappy: It was an immediate resounding “yes” as soon as we started playing. We just improvised for a while but had the skeletons for Taz and Human Caterpillar ready to go so we recorded demos with April singing and I would listen to those two tracks over and over knowing our puzzle was complete.
FB: What was it like hearing the instrumentals for the first time? Did you adapt your style to the music or was it a natural fit?
April: They were getting together and I was out of town and told Sam to send me whatever they were working on so I could see if I could fit into the project. Once I heard TAZ, I remembered that in many stages of my life I had wanted a band like Guck, but it is hard to find the right freaks for it. I also imagined I would play synth or strings, maybe doing backup vocals… but sometimes you gotta let the instrument choose you. I know Sam and Andrew both come from a guitar background and are playing different instruments than their usual bit as well.
FB: Once the lineup was solidified, what was the first song you all collaborated on / wrote together?
April: The first one I remember would be GUBAR. I asked for a song that basically has a synth breakdown the whole time—kinda like ‘In Miniature’ by The VSS, which is overall a huge inspiration for me to do this kind of music. Anyways, the rest of the guys can probably remember the timeline better.
Chappy: April may be right but I remember it being Taz. But really, who knows. Maybe Kyle.
FB: Sometimes when you capture something special it’s hard to trust outside parties with it – how did you figure out who you wanted to help with getting Gucked Up recorded, mixed and mastered?
April: First off, I love this question because it gives me a chance to highlight some engineers and men that don’t annoy me with the best attitudes ever. I really loved working with Josiah at The Cave when doing a Sprain album with him. I think his drum tones are great and he’s the most kind person. He’s a bit of a rock ’n’ roll angel and has a great ear and outlook on the recording process. Sam (our synth player), who is a professional sound engineer, was kind enough to offer up mixing services. He drove the console while everyone yapped over the tracks telling him what to do, and we’re so proud of how well he did. His engineering allowed us to produce the record together as a band.
Last but not least, I am so excited to talk about my dear friend and someone I would consider a mentor: Scott Levitin, the Chief Mastering Engineer for WMG. He’s got a Discogs full of cool mastering projects he’s done for Ornette Coleman, Devo, Sepultura, and Serj Tankian. He also helped mentor us into sending him the best mixes we could to preserve the dynamic range in the mastering process so the pressings sound great. Anyone who has mixed a bunch of distorted instruments knows what I’m talking about. Thankfully, Scott takes care of his ears and knows when to hone us in a bit with the production. I had not been able to select him as the mastering engineer for anything before, so getting to do a record with Scott is a bucket list experience. He’s a gem of a human being, and his emotional intelligence and audio engineering go hand in hand, always respecting the integrity of the music.
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FB: Was there a song or idea on Gucked Up that proved difficult to develop or finish?
Chappy: I went through a lot of drafts on how the track listing should end up. We didn’t write these with a specific sequence but knew the whole time they were part of the same piece of work. Keeping the flow and having an exciting specific way to listen that an artist works on is very important to me, and I am very happy with how it turned out. Looking at it as a full album and as a Side A and Side B separately, it makes sense it takes time to make these things.
FB: Is there anything about being based in or around Los Angeles that you think reflects in the music of GUCK?
April: I think Guck is pretty embedded into the LA life. We actually love the beach and the parks around here. Then there’s the other part where you’re up one week, then down the next. Some of us and our friends have been affected by the writers’ strike, for example, and there’s been less industry grunt work for us. For now, I think we all know we’re one bad day from ending up like our friends on Skid Row.
Chappy: LA is dynamic, nasty, beautiful, grimy, harsh, stinky, oily, nice, moving. Maybe Guck could be like that someday too.
Kyle: there’s a wild energy in LA. most everyone has to grind super hard to stay afloat let alone pursue their various crafts. like april said, it’s a tightrope walk but it’s inspiring to see people.
FB: Members of the band have played with Gnarwhal, Pile, Sprain, and more. With Guck, are there any particular rules or traditions that you want to transcend / break as a band?
April: I think this band is a place for each of us to take up as much room as we want.
Chappy: A band is a collection of minds and separate lives lived come together, not just an ego. Guck will always be a group not a singular entity. Also no punk time.
Don’t forget to pre-order the record here via Three One G.
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