Ms Mayonnaise trawls the internet for new blood and fresh meat (musically-speaking, natch) but sometimes new posisbilities are closer to home. Or so it appears – but in the case of Glasgow Coma Scale, all is not what it sems, geographically at least…
1. OK so Glasgow Coma Scale, who are you and what are you?
Summarized in one sentence : An instrumental rock band from Frankfurt / Germany.
Few words more? After several years in different bands, my brother Marek (bass) and I (guitar), we had this idea of finally playing together in one band. So, starting this band was already a fulfillment of a wish.
Last but not least, we needed a drummer in order to start playing. A small advertisement in the local music store, selection procedure according to the principle of „first come first serve”, and the third man on board, Helmes, was found! 🙂
Yes. It’s true.
We never planned to play as a trio but it was too hard to find an adequate person (whether for vocals or electronics) so we decided, not least because of practical reasons, to leave it as it was / is.
2. With a name like that you are going to attract attention around here, in this country we like to call Scotland. Can you explain the name and what impact you were aiming for, if any?
We’ve been looking for a name and a friend of ours had this idea. It sounded good to us for at least 3 reasons:
It sounded good to us (as just mentioned)
It was related to Scotland and an association with your best band (…) was suggested – though I also love Travis J
The meaning itself (a scoring system used to describe the level of consciousness in a person following an injury) Well – maybe it does not fit 100% but it gives rise to many associations and interpretations. Like our music.
3. Your music is fast, furious, in your face – does it ever slow down?
You think so? Each one of us has a different background. If you look from a perspective of a classical musician (I played the violin for 8 years when I was a kid) – it might feel like “in your face”. If you play in a hardcore or death-metal band (that I also did after closing the chapter “violin”) it feels more like easy-listening J
I think that we try to express ourselves through the music. And since there is no lyrics, the expression is even more pronounced.
4. Musical influences – can you give us a few?
The range is wide: Kyuss, Devin Townsend, Daft Punk, Tom Waits, Mogwai, Alice in Chains, Kraftwerk… there is no schema.
5. Where are you guys based and would you consider a house-swap with a Glasgow boudoir (it does come complete with 3 cats, 2 budgies and a hamster, although he is on the run at the moment)? You could experience the “real” Glasgow!
Two of us are based in Frankfurt while my brother is currently living in Berlin. Not an easy situation in terms of rehearsals but we do our best.
Glasgow? That would be awesome. I’m in! My fascination for your country started with “Trainspotting”. Then I discovered Irvine Welsh and read everything I could get. Unfortunately I’ve never made to visit Scotland – but I definitely will.
6. Touring plans – let us hear any, for 2017 and beyond?
First, there will be our record release show in February in Frankfurt. As of today we are already booked for festivals in Romania and Germany in summer. We are in contact with some booking agents at the moment, so, there is much more in the pipeline. Hence, it is always a good idea to visit our Facebook fan page, where all the news are being posted first. We’d love to play in Scotland, but to be honest.. I can only imagine it as a sequence of fortunate circumstances at the moment.
7. Is the live GCS set-up different to how things work in the studio – do you enlist other people to get these clattering symphonies across to the masses, in concert as it were?
In my opinion our music works best together with all the samples and electronics. I consider them equal to other instruments in our band.
So, playing live means to us playing with in-ear monitoring providing us a click that is put on the backing track (obviously audible for the band only).
We also work with visuals which create a unique atmosphere. So as you can see, we put some effort in order to deliver a good show to our audience.
8. Have you heard of Buckfast? (may need a supplementary question depending on how that answer goes!)
I have to admit, I’ve just googled it. But to be honest, never heard of this before. I just wonder – wasn’t Welsh mentioning it in his books? Was I just an inattentive reader??
9. Can you give BM some hope, (in general) for 2017 and what are your hopes, and ambitions for the year as a band?
We appreciate your work very much and wish you fast growing readership (that goes hand in hand with increasing fame and getting rich! J) in 2017!
As for us – our goal for 2016 was to record the new album and release it on vinyl. And we did it! For 2017 we’d like to reach as much music interested people as possible with the music we play. By playing gigs or spreading our new record – doesn’t matter.
10. Cheesy question I know, but what was the first record bought, and if you can’t admit to that (BM’s was Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by The Middle of the Road!) what would like your first music purchase to have been?
I think the first record I ever bought myself from pocket money was Michael Jackson’s „Bad“ – on tape!
‘Enter Oblivion’ is out now – more at www.facebook.com/glasgowcomascale