We caught up with the awesome guys in Booze & Glory to talk about their new album and touring.
You’re currently getting ready to release your fourth album Chapter IV. Can you describe the writing and recording process for it?
We’re continuously writing, but we spent about a year getting the songs together in a way that we were happy with. The recording took around two months & it was recorded and produced by Pat Collier (original member of The Vibrators) at Perry Vale Studios and mastered by Audiosiege, Portland, USA. We’ve worked with Pat for a few years and have always been happy with the results. Having worked with him so many times now, he knows exactly how to get the best out of us and knows how to push us creatively.
Did you do anything different when recording Chapter IV compared with when you recorded your last three albums, or did you take largely the same approach as you did before?
We spent a lot longer this time on the writing part of the process and much longer than usual on the recording. We’re really proud of these songs and spent a lot of time on small details to make sure that the overall sound did the songs justice.
We’ve also used some more instruments than in the past. We’ve added things like Banjo, Mandolin, Accordion, Piano -and even a string section! They’ve added an extra depth to the sound and give a more textured, sophisticated sound to what we do. The essential core of what we do hasn’t really changed too drastically, it’s just matured a bit -as have we!
Were there any songs that were more of a challenge to get right, or did everything go to plan?
There aren’t too many things in our history that have gone to plan. It’s just the nature of the beast. We tried a few different things with this album which took a bit of work to get right as it was relatively new territory for us. However, as i mentioned before, Pat Collier knows how to push us and what we’re capable of, so he definitely helped with that. We recorded a different version of For The Better Times with a special guest on piano It wasn’t actually Jerry Lee Lewis – it was our friend and label-mate Buster Shuffle!
Which track are you most proud of?
Thats a bit of a difficult question to answer, really. We’re proud of the album in it’s entirety. we spent a long time after recording had finished deciding on the running order because we wanted it to flow properly and be seen as a single piece of work.
There are a few stand out points for us: Days, Months, Years is one, mainly due to the instrumentation i just mentioned. Back On Track is really fun to play and we cant wait to see the reaction to it. It’s an extremely uptempo feel-good sort of song and we do tend to be particularly energetic while playing it. Other than that, Violence And Fear is something that is an important one for us. It has a particularly strong message. It’s sadly, still relevant because of the pretty scary political climate at the moment.
You’re also going to be touring a lot in support of Chapter IV. What can fans expect from a Booze & Glory show?
For anyone who’s seen us before – more of the same, but with added vigour! For those new to the B&G live experience, we are not the sort of band to stand there & do the inaudible pop star stage waffle. I believe Joe Strummer said something along the lines of “people have busy lives and things to do, so we’re not gonna waste your time listening to us talking”. We like to fire out as many songs as we possibly can in the time we have. People are coming to see us play, so we do exactly that -everything in quick succession, with minimum time wasting. It gives for quite an energetic, hot and sweaty gig!
What do you most like about playing live?
Audience interaction first and foremost. Yes, it’s great to play to huge festival crowds, but there’s nothing quite like those club gigs where it’s all right there, so immediate. Our last London show at The uUderworld was one of those -hot, sweaty, a bit mental -but what we thrive on. Repeated stage invasions are a regular occurrence and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
Is there anything that you find difficult about touring?
We’re not going to start whining about how miserable touring is. We’re getting to travel the world doing what we’ve all wanted to do since we were kids. Sure, there are downsides – we do miss our families and friends and washing your pants in a hotel sink isn’t exactly living the rock n roll dream, but hey – we get to do this!!
What’s the best show you’ve ever played?
It’s hard to pick one particular show, but highlights have been Brazil, Russia and Indonesia – we got to go to places we’d never been before and that’s something we really love to do.
What about the strangest or weirdest?
We played boats twice: once in France, once in Belgium. They certainly weren’t bad experiences, just a little strange, as everything kept moving while we were playing.
Is there anywhere you’d like to tour that you haven’t visited yet?
Australia and New Zealand. Other than that, Canada. For some reason or another we’ve never managed to make it there. This is something we are trying to remedy as soon as practically possible.
And finally, if Booze & Glory could put their name to a product, what would it be and why?
As it happens, we’ve has some interest from a few directions since we mentioned that we might, at some point, think about having our own line of craft beers “Glory Booze”. If it happens, then it’d only be of the quality we’d expect ourselves. Plus, our name does have Booze in it, so we’re not exactly going to be bringing out a line of lingerie!
