GUNNER -Interview (2014)

 

 

Desire
Keep Fighting
Release Year: 2011
Release Year: 2013

 

 

GEORGE: Welcome to BeRock Radio guys, the most melodic place! I am George, please make yourself comfortable!
We’re glad to have you here. In the beginnings of your career, you started off with the name Gunner Six, but changed
it to Gunner later on. Were there any copyright issues with the name Sixx, can you tell us what happened?

GUNNER: Hi George. First of all, Thank you so much for including us in your radio, we're glad to be here!.
That's right, in our early days the name was Gunner Sixx (that's Nikki's son name, we chose it as some kind of tribute to Nikki).
Later in 2011, we were invited to play at The Rocklahoma Rock Festival, sharing stage with Motley Crue, someone asked Nikki
if his son was playing in the Festival too, because of our name in the list, so he went upset and demanded us to change our
band name. Unfortunately, we had to change it to only Gunner. and cancel our show in the USA, because we didn't want to
have legal problems with Mr Sixx.

GEORGE: Rodrigo and former drummer Mariano formed the band in 2002.
Tell us how many changes there have been to members from then and what's your current line-up.

GUNNER: Yes, actually Rodrigo formed the band in 2002 and through the years, we've changed several members, until finally
achieving this stable line up, which consists of: Oscar Muguertegui (Vocals) - Rodrigo Bugallo (Guitars) - Pablo Ansaldi (Bass)
Marcos Prevalil (Keyboards) - German Calero (Drums)

GEORGE: Before releasing "Desire", you played in a lot of live shows in Argentina with many names.
It's known that Argentinean Rockers in lives are some of the best crowds in the world.
How did they react to your lives?

GUNNER: Yes, indeed, we're one of the best crowds in the world Hahaha! And the first record to promote usually takes hard work
to an under band. and we have worked hard. Of course, in some cases the crowd is harder to win than in others, but generally,
we had a really great reaction to it!

GEORGE: In 2009, you started recording your first album "Desire" and signed your first professional contract with the
American Retrospect Records. In 2010 you finished the recordings. What difficulties did you face writing this album?
Can you tell us your impressions from the result and if you're satisfied with the direction it's headed?

GUNNER: For our first album we took those lyrics we had already written from previous years.
We didn't face difficulties at all, indeed, we remember it as really fun times.
The hard work came once it was done. But we're really happy with the final result.

GEORGE: In 2014, you've released the excellent album "Keep Fighting".
Are you happy with the reviews and the reactions of the Rockers around the world?

GUNNER: We are very proud of this album. When we released ‘Desire’, it took us a year to sell 300 copies.
With K.F, we sold 500 copies in only three months, ran out of cd’s and had to order more stuff so,
we couldn’t be happier!

GEORGE: Will you tell us some information on the album? Was it hard composing the tracks?
How long did the recording sessions take?

GUNNER: It wasn't hard to compose due to the really good musical chemistry we had, and still have, between us.
So, one of us would bring an idea of a riff, or something and we all started working on it, music and lyrics We did it
sometimes together, or on our own, but we always worked as a group. "Keep Fighting" took almost a year to finish
because of problems with the sound engineer, so we had to take all our material to other studios, but it ended to be
an awesome album.

GEORGE: You've released an excellent video clip from "Keep Fighting", the “From Heaven”.
Do you have any plans to release another video clip, if so which song do you have in mind?

GUNNER: After that one, we released the ‘Strikin’ till surrender’ video. That was the last one.
But we’re not planning to make any other video from this album for now.

GEORGE: What are the band's plans for the future? Thinking of doing a tour?

GUNNER: We have some good tour offers from the US and Europe but there’s nothing confirmed yet.
We are writing new songs, and taking our time between shows.
We’ve been working really hard and we need to take a little break too.

GEORGE: Argentina has given us numerous good hard rock bands, such as Huom, Bravo, Alianza and of course Rata Blanca,
but most bands from there choose to play Heavy Metal, Symphonic Metal, Power Metal and Progressive Metal.
How come you chose to play Melodic Hard Rock?

GUNNER: is mostly because is the kind of music that influenced everyone of us, and what encouraged us to start a band,
we also like heavy metal and other styles. But as you said, there are plenty bands that play those styles in here, and not
everyone wants take the risk with another style. So that is what we wanted.

GEORGE: For the past 3-4 years, we’ve been seeing a bloom in Melodic Rock\Melodic Hard Rock.
Do you believe that rockers want more quality in the music and listen to more of this centre?
What is your opinion on this?

GUNNER: Yes, indeed. There's a reborn of this style lately. A big wave of new Hard Rock/ Melodic AOR/ Sleaze bands
that keeps growing, coming from Europe, especially from Sweden.

GEORGE: The music industry in the recent years has changed. We see that a lot of people prefers digital purchases,
which is more convenient, faster and accessible. What is your thoughts on the future of CDs?

GUNNER: Well it’s all part of the inevitable technological evolution. CD's are cool and they have the extra charm of the
pictures and design but the internet makes it easier to put your name on the charts so, we see it as a pretty useful tool
for new artists.

GEORGE: As previously mentioned, you released an amazing video clip, "From Heaven". Truly, the result is something special.
Was that because of the director’s work or is it because of something more that the band demanded?

GUNNER: A little bit of this, a little bit of that hahaha ! Both, the band and the director worked on the idea to make it possible
and express the lyrics, through images.

GEORGE: How hard is it for an Argentinean band to make a tour through Europe?
And I'm not talking just about the great distance, but also the economic matter.

GUNNER: The hardest thing in fact is the plane tickets. We have good proposals, but in general no one wants to take
risks with new bands, and it would be impossible for us to afford the tickets for all those places.

GEORGE: Thank you for your time, I wish you all the best for the future! The last words are yours for this interview.
Feel free to say whatever you want to all BeRock’s Radio minizine readers!

GUNNER: Thanks to you guys and thank you for sharing our music!
We're updating all the latest news on our website so stay tuned!




George "Snaki" Lane
For BeRock Radio MiniZine (2014)
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