Interviews: Interview with GLYDER guitarist Bat Kinane
Posted on Sunday, July 18 @ 11:16:55 EDT
Topic: Interviews
|
Bat Kinane
Here Comes Tomorrow
by Tommy Hash
Wearing their influences on their sleeve, Ireland's Glyder which entails a lineup of drums, twin lead guitars, & a bass playing vocalist, invokes not only the spirit of where Thin Lizzy might have left off, but the spirit of true to life hard rock as well. With a total of three releases met with critical acclaim abroad & heavy rotation on Bruce Dickinson's BBC-6 radio show, their latest album Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is their first to get proper distribution in the U.S., as they are long overdue to reach the American hard rock an metal masses.
Originally formed in 2004 under them name Hollywood, Glyder has a historical roadmap that includes touring with the likes of Thunder, The Answer, & Fish, even snagging an opening slot for Metallica with still more musical festivities being on the eve for this band. Half of the dueling axe attack, Bat Kinane speaks about this hard rock powerhouse.
"The first album (Glyder) is an album with upbeat and up-tempo hard rock songs, the second album (Playground for Life) was somewhat more progressive, so I suppose this album is a mix between those two albums. I think the new songs are stronger now than they ever were," begins Kinane, "A lot of the songs came from our own experience, the songs that I wrote were inherent traditions from family, influenced by bands that were around a long time ago and recreate the hard rock sound and pass it on to another generation. Then a song called "Knockout" is about a 'rumble in the jungle' - a fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, the songs tells the story about the fight, but it also has to do with being the underdog and coming out on top - personally I feel that we are all the underdog, and when you are the underdog, you are more determined to fight a little harder. "Jack Strong" is about a fictitious character, who is just sitting at a bar having a drink and some asshole comes in starts talking shit and Jack Strong just kicks the shit out of him, kind of about a barroom brawl. The other guys wrote lyrics too, so I can't really talk about their lyrics - but a lot if the lyrics are about everyday life and things around us, just a mixture of themes - there is not a particular theme of the album, just particular ideas.
Their new deal with SPV Records will no doubt see this band reaching a much broader audience abroad, "I sent SPV two tracks from the album," states Kinane, "which I felt were very strong. One of them was "Innocent Eyes," which I thought was a catchy tune and "One of Us," which also had a big catchy chorus. I knew that if you are going to get an A & R person's attention, you have to 'throw out the name' with good material on the first listen. The A & R guy at SPV heard them and offered us a deal."
And touring alongside a laundry list of prominent bands in the metal and hard rock field has given this band several different boosts, as the guitarist explains" They have definitely been a great experience, the more you go abroad and the more you get to open for more experienced bands, you know that stuff is going to rub off on you - many of the guys we opened up for are in their 40's and 50's and these guys have been around for a long time and they are survivors, surviving the music business and there is a lot to learned from that."
As playing tour dates can lead to high expenditures, the band is looking at ways to go out on the road, although there isn't anything on the horizon or in stone at this point, "Nothing has been booked yet but we are talking about doing some dates," hints Kinane, "We never have had an agent working for us to get us tours, I think now it's time to get an agent so we can get more tour dates. When we go out on tours with bands, we usually see if we can play some dates and we go out o tour, but that's self-financed and you have to sell enough merchandise to get you from one town to the next; there comes a stage in your career hat you can't go out and do that forever, you have to get out there and start standing on your own two feet."
Even riding on the strength of both Kinane and Pete Fisher, a special guest did appear on the record, "We toured with Y&T in the UK, and Dave Meniketti is a really cool guy and a great guitar player. I made demo for the title track, which was inspired by Y&T and (our bassist/frontman) Tony Cullen said that the solo on the intro reminded him of Dave Menketti's paying so I said it would be really cool to get him to play on the song and we contacted him and he said he would and that's pretty much how that happened. He did his part over ion the states and e-mailed it to us - its amazing what you can do with modern technology, you don't have to be in the same studio to record.
In the meantime, the band is in constant writing mode where material for the follow up is starting to take shape - Kinane also bodes him time with other projects as well, "We are working on material for a fourth Glyder album, because we aren't doing any tours at the moment," concludes Kinane, "I thought if I am going to do something with my spare time I am going to write songs, some are for Glyder and some aren't. I have decided to make an album of my own material, I have just finished recording and mixing it and now I am making a blues album with a friend of mine who lives down the road who is a is a singer, so I have those two projects working for me. I feel as musician and a songwriter, I need to make as much music as I can and if Glyder does get tour dates booked, we could be on the road for a year, it's not so easy to write on a tour. When you are off tour you can collect your thoughts and you have a lot of time to think."
Copyright and Publishing: 2010 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com
CLICK HERE to read a review of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Please Visit:
Glyder Website
Glyder at Myspace
SPV Records at MySpace
|
|
Find more news in our archives...
Advertise on Ytsejam.com
| |
Share
|
Video Channel
Shout Box
The Staff
Archives
