{"id":11586,"date":"2013-07-31T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=11586"},"modified":"2013-07-28T21:38:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T01:38:37","slug":"blowin-wind-with-gypsyhawks-eric-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=11586","title":{"rendered":"Blowin Wind with Gypsyhawk\u2019s Eric Harris: \u201cMusic is powerful in that it can take you over, jolt your brain, and make you feel things.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gypsyhawk\"<\/a>Gypsyhawk is one of those bands that when I first heard them, I knew I was hearing one of my new favorite bands.\u00a0 Their songs are infectious, fun, have tons of melody, and twin harmony guitar face attacks that would have the late, great Phil Lynot sneering over his pint of Guinness in the sky.\u00a0 After putting in a few years of shuffling around as an independent band, Gypsyhawk was finally recognized when they were signed to Metal Blade records to release their 2nd<\/sup> album Rivalry and Resilience.\u00a0 The album showed a significant growth in both the playing and songwriting and really seemed to open up some doors for Gypsyhawk.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gypsyhawk has been kicking it on the road pretty relentlessly as a support act for bands such as The Sword and most recently Valient Thorr.\u00a0 I had the opportunity to talk with lead singer\/bassist\/songwriter Eric Harris before their performance here in Atlanta which was a really cool treat.\u00a0 Eric was such a cool guy to talk to and we talked about everything from why they don\u2019t play much off of their debut album Patience and Perseverance and his hatred of making music videos to why he\u2019d love to play in Deep Purple for just one night if he could.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This was a really fun interview and I hope you all enjoy getting to know Eric Harris of Gypsyhawk.\u00a0 Cheers y\u2019all!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Thanks for doing this interview.\u00a0 I know doing press is kind of a drag but we\u2019ll make it fun.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] No problem man.\u00a0 You\u2019re cool man.\u00a0 We\u2019ve known you for a long time so I don\u2019t mind it at all [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Last time you guys were here, you were with the Sword and Rivalry and Resilience was a brand new record.\u00a0 How long did it take for you to feel totally comfortable with these newer songs in a live setting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like that shit happens immediately.\u00a0 Some of the songs we\u2019ll play and just kind of gauge the reaction of the crowd.\u00a0 Right now we\u2019re doing a brand new song that\u2019s not even recorded so what we do is we just play it over and over in a live setting and then we feel like we get to a point to where we\u2019ve got it down so by the time we go to record it, we\u2019ve already played it and tested it out so we don\u2019t really have to get used to playing new stuff on the road.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that you\u2019re touring for the new album, is there a reason that you \"Gypsyhawk-PatienceAndPerseverance\"<\/a>guys don\u2019t play much from the Patience and Perseverance album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because Patience and Perseverance is our first album and it was like any of those first albums where you\u2019re like, \u201cDid we do this right?\u201d\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t listened to that album in so long but I revisited it just the other day while I was driving and I was like, \u201cGood God.\u00a0 All these songs are so slow.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019re probably not slow to the listeners but to us we might feel like those songs could\u2019ve been sped up a bit.\u00a0 That was just a very experimental album and I try to keep with what I feel are the most cohesively written songs on the album.\u00a0 Songs like \u201cPlanet Former\u201d which was almost kind of proggy where were like, \u201cLet\u2019s just keep riffing.\u201d\u00a0 We want to write stuff that\u2019s straighter to the point with some kind of pop hooks in your face that makes people say, \u201cThat\u2019s rad.\u00a0 I remember that.\u201d\u00a0 I think we\u2019re getting better at doing that, especially with the new stuff.\u00a0 From that album we do play \u201cCommander\u2026\u201d, \u201cEyes of Ibad\u201d, \u201cGypsyhawk\u201d, and \u201cBlack Haven.\u201d\u00a0 Those are the four that we feel like we harvested as the cream of the crap [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

You were in Skeletonwitch for some time which musically compared to Gypsyhawk is like night and day.\u00a0 Why the change in your style of playing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Skeletonwitch, we had a lot of the shared ideas.\u00a0 I was getting to just exercise my bass playing and writing some more melodic shit with those dudes.\u00a0 I played all that stuff with them but then I started listening to shit like Uriah Heep, a lot more Thin Lizzy and I feel like I found a whole new world.\u00a0 My bread and butter was really just a lot of punk and old dirty hardcore shit and then I heard At The Gates and I was like, \u201cOh!\u00a0 Metal!\u201d [laughs] \u00a0I delved into the metal thing and then I discovered that old rock n\u2019 roll and that was my jam.\u00a0 I just wanted to play in a rock n\u2019 roll band.\u00a0 Things got so oppressive with Skeletonwitch that when everything came to a head, I felt like I could start a band where there\u2019s not one asshole telling everybody what to do\u00a0 where everybody can have fun and do what they want.\u00a0 Playing rock n\u2019 roll is just way more fun.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we covered shit like \u201cRock N\u2019 Roll Hoochie Coo\u201d and \u201cBlack Betty.\u201d\u00a0 I want to play music that everybody knows.\u00a0 You\u2019re mom knows it, your dad know it, you\u2019re fucking brother knows it.\u00a0 We try to be universal about it because that\u2019s the only way I feel that you\u2019re going to get any kind of accolades or success as a band.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to reach out to everyone instead of just one small sect of buttholes who only listen to one record from 1980 something that only had 5 copies pressed.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

I have to say that it sounds like what you\u2019re doing is trying to create timeless music as opposed to music that you can like now, and then years down the road be like, \u201cWow.\u00a0 I liked that?\u201d\u00a0 I mean, when I was 12 I thought Krokus was awesome.\u00a0 Now, not so much but then bands like Maiden and Dio, they still have it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Krokus.\u00a0 You mean AC\/DC junior? [laughs]\u00a0 But yeah, some things stand the test of time.\u00a0 Dio, Sabbath.\u00a0 Those bands had hooks.\u00a0 They had songs that will always be amazing no matter what.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

So now that we\u2019re on to the songwriting topic, I have to ask when did the Game of Thrones obsession start to bleed into the song writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was cool to me because when I started Gypsyhawk I said, \u201cWell, I guess I\u2019ll sing.\u201d [laughs]\u00a0 I had no idea what I was going to do.\u00a0 As far as lyrical content, I feel like a political stance on anything is so futile and stupid to write about.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m traveling in a band.\u00a0 I\u2019m just entertaining people.\u00a0 I\u2019m not trying to change the fucking world so I just think it\u2019s so pretentious a lot of times.\u00a0 Books and stories are fucking rad.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019ve always loved about Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple and any other band where there\u2019s a story going on through the song.\u00a0 You\u2019re already getting a rad song and then you\u2019re getting the added bonus of it being a story.\u00a0 I try to encompass that.\u00a0 I had read the Ice and Fire series of books a long time ago and I just thought it would be some awesome shit to write about.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t want us to be a preachy band.\u00a0 I mean, we like to party and all but I didn\u2019t want it to be like Andrew W.K shit [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

\"549501_502043083162014_768794927_n\"<\/a>You guys recently released a video for the song \u201cSilver Queen.\u201d\u00a0 That was pretty far out dude.\u00a0 Can you tell me about how that all went down?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was kind of fun [laughs].\u00a0 It was fun for like half of it.\u00a0 I fucking never want to make a music video ever again.\u00a0 It\u2019s the worst.\u00a0 It takes so long.\u00a0 The director and the camera dude would be like, \u201cGive us 5 minutes\u201d and then they\u2019d go off for like 45 minutes and you\u2019d be like, \u201cWhat the fuck is going on?\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019d figure out the shot and then give you 5 seconds to do it.\u00a0 You\u2019re running around doing dumb shit and you\u2019re super tired.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like what you would think.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have wardrobe and catering at this level [laughs].\u00a0 The excitement was there when we started out but it just all died out immediately.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s what the director was going for though.\u00a0 The opening shot in the video when I was sitting there was actually the last thing we shot.\u00a0 I was so fucking tired.\u00a0 I just wanted to go home and eat and not do anything [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Ian Brown plays a very convincing weird guy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Surprisingly that little fucker is really good at acting except for when you have see his gross little naked body [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

I know you guys were playing \u201cSilver Queen\u201d live but it\u2019s since been dropped from the set list.\u00a0 What gives dude?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] We just released a video for \u201cSilver Queen\u201d and our management told us we should be playing it on the road.\u00a0 We did that song four times and people just didn\u2019t seem to dig it.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to listen to on record but it\u2019s at one of those tempos that just seemed to slow things down a bit.\u00a0 It\u2019s just so slow and most of the shit we play onstage anyway that\u2019s already upbeat feels slow to us [laughs].\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t translate well live.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

You guys have been landing some great tours since the release of this album.\u00a0 What other bands would you love to see Gypsyhawk touring with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wish we go out with Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats.\u00a0 I like that band a lot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think our music is the exact same style but I\u2019d love to tour with Graveyard.\u00a0 I want to do some of those more laid back rock n\u2019 roll tour.\u00a0 That tour with The Sword was very chill.\u00a0 A lot of times we get put out with these crazy metal bands.\u00a0 The Ramming Speed dudes are great but it\u2019s so weird to have a thrash band with like death metal vocals going on before us.\u00a0 It just makes me hope that not everyone is expecting us to sound like that and having people yell shit like, \u201cMy dad listens to this.\u00a0 This shit sucks!\u201d<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

GET OFF THE STAGE UNCLE PETE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Yeah.\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 But it\u2019s been cool going out with Valient Thorr.\u00a0 So many people had been saying that they wanted to see us tour with them and it\u2019s been really rad.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

So would you say that making that jump from independent DIY band to being a signed \"46190_10151306732615943_155619281_n\"<\/a>band with agents and management has been beneficial for Gypsyhawk?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh definitely.\u00a0 It\u2019s huge.\u00a0 We have people working for us who have invested interest in us.\u00a0 First off, without them we would\u2019ve never been able to get on any kind of a package tour.\u00a0 We just don\u2019t have the contacts to reach out and do that.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Eric, let\u2019s get to know you a little bit.\u00a0 At what point did you know that you wanted to be a musician?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was 15 I got my first bass guitar.\u00a0 It was a Crate.\u00a0 It was so shitty [laughs].\u00a0 I got it for Christmas.\u00a0 Prior to that, I was listening to a lot of pop punk.\u00a0 When I was in Lafayette (Louisiana), I was about 18 and I went to this local punk show for a band called Killswitch who I ended up playing for.\u00a0 When I saw them, I was just blown away and thought it was the coolest fucking thing.\u00a0 That was the first moment where I thought, \u201cYeah, I want to play music.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know that I wanted to tour because I didn\u2019t know what touring was but once I found out what touring was, I knew that this was the life I wanted to live.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

You are a huge Thin Lizzy fan.\u00a0 What was your thought on Thin Lizzy today with a bunch of new dudes who now call themselves Black Star Riders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not Thin Lizzy.\u00a0 That\u2019s a shitty Thin Lizzy cover band.\u00a0 I was in a Thin Lizzy cover band in Ohio.\u00a0 The guy who was my singer in that band went and saw this new Thin Lizzy band and he said, \u201cMan, we were way better than them.\u201d\u00a0 It sucks so bad when your shitty Thin Lizzy cover band is better than the band that is going out as Thin Lizzy.\u00a0 You can\u2019t replace Phil Lynott and just got about it like its fine.\u00a0 That\u2019s just one of those things that you can\u2019t do.\u00a0 It\u2019s like having Megadeth without Mustaine.\u00a0 Nobody would go see that shit [laughs].\u00a0 That person is just the band so yeah, fuck that.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

What is the on your mind the minute you take the stage?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So much nervousness that I can\u2019t even keep track of it.\u00a0 I\u2019m just trying to get set up, making sure everyone\u2019s ready, hoping that I\u2019m not going to fuck up.\u00a0 I always get nervous.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really have any coherent thoughts or anything.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

\"Gypsyhawk-RevelryAndResilience\"<\/a>I\u2019ve seen you guys live a few times now and I always feel like you have this intense connection to the songs when you\u2019re performing.\u00a0 Do you feel that when you write the songs, it\u2019s kind of more intense and driven then when you\u2019re just playing the song that someone else wrote?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah.\u00a0 When you\u2019re playing someone else\u2019s songs and you\u2019re just playing your parts, it\u2019s one thing to enjoy that song and like playing it.\u00a0 When you write a song and you\u2019ve had an agenda behind it and you\u2019ve got lyrical content that means a lot to you, it gets to be a soulful experience.\u00a0 On the last tour, we played a new song that I had written about some personal stuff and our merch guy Art told me that when I when we played that song, he could hear a wavering in my voice like I was about to cry.\u00a0 Thin Lizzy taught me that.\u00a0 In their song \u201cGot To Give it Up\u201d which is about him having to quit his heroin addiction, there\u2019s this one part where he\u2019s singing \u201cTell my mama I\u2019m comin\u2019 home.\u00a0 Mama I\u2019m comin\u2019 home\u201d and you can hear his voice break like he was about to cry.\u00a0 That shit just goes right into my ears, down into my arms, and I get goose bumps and I feel it.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to sing something like that, you got to fucking believe in it.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t always have to be showmanship thing.\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to be real.\u00a0 That in itself can be entertainment.\u00a0 You can\u2019t fake that shit.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

I know exactly what you mean.\u00a0 When Graveyard was here earlier this year, they were doing \u201cSlow Motion Countdown\u201d and I was in tears.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah.\u00a0 I get physiological reactions to songs like that too which coincidentally most of them are Disney cartoon songs [laughs].\u00a0 Music is a spiritual thing.\u00a0 People always say things like, \u201cMusic is powerful\u201d but I feel like that term gets lost.\u00a0 It\u2019s not powerful as in it can change things.\u00a0 Music is powerful in that it can take you over, jolt your brain, and make you feel things.\u00a0 There are songs that I can hear that will have me fucking weeping.\u00a0 Not because I\u2019m thinking of sad things but I\u2019ll just be crying and not really knowing why.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the inflection of the tones that\u2019s fucking with some sort of chemical in my head that\u2019s making me feel this.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

So with that being said, the live performance is a pretty intense and emotionally exhausting thing.\u00a0 How do you come down from that every night?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of those things that you just kind of ride out.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely more of a living in the moment thing for me.\u00a0 I\u2019m here right now, in this song, this feels awesome and then when the set\u2019s done, I just have to go do something else.\u00a0 My brain is just always ticking and clicking.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Man, I totally feel you.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t shut my fucking brain off for anything.\u00a0 It\u2019s just always on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, me too.\u00a0 I fucking feel cursed [laughs].<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

I started going to a therapist every few weeks just because my head is so full of shit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man, I need therapy so fucking bad but man, smoking weed and listening to music is my therapy.\u00a0 If I\u2019m feeling bad or I just can\u2019t stop thinking, I just have to find an album that I want to hear, I\u2019ll get high, listen to that album, and just zone out.\u00a0 That shit is more real to me that God.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

If I wasn\u2019t a musician, I would be ________.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An artist.\u00a0 Like, an illustrator.\u00a0 I used to draw all the time and used to do cartoons and what not.\u00a0 When I was in school I used to draw caricatures of all the faculty and staff [laughs].\u00a0 Yeah, so if I was doing music, I would definitely be doing some other art form.<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

If you could play for any band, of any era, for just one night who would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not Thin Lizzy surprisingly [laughs].\u00a0 I think it would be Deep Purple.\u00a0 I love the bass lines that Roger Glover used to hit and I think it would just be awesome to jam with those dudes.\u00a0 Playing with Ian Paice would be a dream.\u00a0 I\u2019d just be like, \u201cStep aside Rog, let me try this out for a second.\u201d [laughs]<\/p>\n

==========================================<\/p>\n

Ok, I\u2019m going to ask you a few questions and I want you to tell me which member of Gypsyhawk this would match:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Who\u2019s most likely to go to bed with a \u201cshe\u201d and wake up with a \u201che\u201d?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ron Houser.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Who\u2019s mostly likely to win $1,000,000.00 off of a scratch and win lottery ticket?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Fucking Ian [laughs].<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Who\u2019s most likely to wake up and find that the band has left him behind accidentally?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Ian [laughs].<\/p>\n

        ==========================================<\/p>\n

        What\u2019s in store for you guys for the rest of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

        We\u2019ve got a couple of tours coming up.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be out for most of September and most of November and December.\u00a0 We\u2019re also going to be busy writing for the next album for next year.<\/p>\n

        ==========================================<\/p>\n

        Eric, thanks for doing this interview man and next time you guys come back I\u2019ll bring you another bottle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        [laughs] Awesome man.\u00a0 Thanks a lot Don.<\/p>\n

        \"The<\/a>
        The Brainfart & Eric Harris of Gypsyhawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Gypsyhawk is one of those bands that when I first heard them, I knew I was hearing one of my new favorite bands.\u00a0 Their songs are infectious, fun, have tons of melody, and twin harmony guitar face attacks that would have the late, great Phil Lynot sneering over his pint of Guinness in the sky.\u00a0 After putting in a few years of shuffling around as an independent band, Gypsyhawk was finally recognized when they were signed to Metal Blade records […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[984,656],"class_list":["post-11586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-eric-harris","tag-gypsyhawk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}