Gallus have never been ones to look away from the mess around them. On new album Life Is Bliss, out now, the Glasgow band channel anxiety, urban decay and the disappearing character of their home city into 12 sharp, restless songs — without losing the gallows humour that has long defined their sound.
We caught up with the band to discuss the changing face of Glasgow, working again with producer Blair Crichton, the symbolism behind the Finnieston tree and why their biggest hometown headline show yet feels like the perfect place to launch the record.
Life Is Bliss is described as a record about trying to find stability while everything around you is changing. What were the biggest personal or social pressures feeding into the writing this time around?
Our studio (where we wrote it all) is bang in the middle of the city, so it’s hard not to be influenced by that. Glasgow city centre is in a pretty bad way at the minute, it’s hard not to pick up on the rot around the place.
Buildings burning down left and right, huge swathes of shops boarded up. I wonder if we would have written something different if we’d moved to the Highlands for a month, but I’m glad we’ve written what we have.
The album looks at anxiety, stagnation and disappearing communities, particularly through the changing face of Glasgow. How did you turn those big, outward-facing issues into songs that still feel personal and funny?
I don’t think we really know how to do it any other way. I sometimes half-jokingly say it’s cause we’re jaded and don’t know how to confront anything without humour and taking the piss, which I think is quite a Glaswegian/Scottish way to be.
That’s exclusive to where we’re from, but it’s definitely a common way of dealing with things up here. I suppose we also want our music to be escapism without being wilfully ignorant. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry, and we’d hate to be one of those bands that refuse to be seen happy or enjoying themselves.
Blair Crichton produced and mixed the album after working with you on Cool To Drive. What did he bring to the sessions that helped define the sound of Life Is Bliss?
We’ve known Blair for years and are good friends, so I think the biggest thing he brings that others can’t is comfort to be honest with each other. If something’s shit on our end he’ll tell us, if we want him to do something different, we can tell him without worrying about upsetting him. That friendship also brings a kind of investment in the project – we want this to be something special that we achieved together. He also introduced us to Chilos, the burger place that fuelled the entire recording process.
Sick Bastards is funny, frantic and fairly brutal about a character refusing to take responsibility. Was there a particular moment, type of person or situation that sparked it?
Aye and naw. Everyone is capable of being this way, and everyone has been like this at least once in their life. I know I have anyway. We don’t really write songs about any one person, more try to capture a universally felt or experienced thing. It’s just more amusing to get in the headspace of someone being a prick. I also like the idea of writing a song that you’re not really supposed to agree with and exploring those things.
The Finnieston tree on the cover represents something constant amid redevelopment. Why did that image feel like the right visual statement for Life Is Bliss?
It’s a constant. Been there long before us and will be long after. In such an urban environment I also think it’s cool that there’s something so enduring. Resistant to whatever we throw at it and refusing to budge. That tree has seen the best and worst of the city and it still dominates the skyline of Finnieston. The dreamy sky behind the branches in the artwork and the harsh tenements below it felt like a good visual metaphor. Through the good or bad, the tree survives.
You’ve got a 12-track record with titles such as Au Contraire, MK Des (Miss Out), Donnie Murdo and M8. Are there any songs fans might not expect from Gallus, either sonically or lyrically?
The album closer M8 is a bit of a departure sonically. It has an interesting structure and has a constant tension with no pay off, unlike the other songs. Probably my favourite on the album.
Your October headline run includes your biggest headline show yet at Glasgow’s Art School. What would it mean to celebrate this album in Glasgow at a venue with that kind of significance?
With everything that building and part of the city has been through I suppose it is quite fitting to launch an album about the ever-changing city there. It’s somewhere we’ve never played before too, so it’ll be fun to tick it off.
Gallus shows have always had that sense of live catharsis and shared chaos. With a new album to bring on the road, is there anything new or different fans can expect?
The same, but better.
We like to end with some random questions: Would you rather write music but not be able to play it, or play music but not be able to write it?
Probably write but not be able to play. I think being doomed to just replicate music over and over again would be like a cruel punishment in the afterlife for me. Probably a fitting punishment for all my sloppy live performances. Fuck that, no thank you!
You could have written any song in history, what would it be and why?
Seven Nation Army. The song is kinda meh whatever, but I’d be loaded. I don’t care if that’s a shallow answer you can’t tell me that wouldn’t be class.
You can have dinner with any three people – dead or alive – who would you pick and why?
Anthony Bourdain, Norm McDonald and Stevie Nicks, and they would all be alive for dinner, preferably.