We had the chance to sit down with the awesome Gorilla Riot ahead of their set with Asomvel the other night (review here). Check it out below!

How’s the tour been so far?

This is the fourth show we’ve done upto now. Glasgow were cool. Weirdly enough it’s took us 10 years as a band to get up there, which is a bit odd. But it was good man, good vibes, definitely want to go back there. Then Newcastle, same again. Then Blackpool, played there a million times before but it was sweet!

And what can we expect from the show tonight?

Just some good old-fashioned rock’n’roll. It’s just a 30-minute set so just a power half-an-hour. Well, whatever Arj can sing, which is everything!

You’ve not long added a backing vocalist, what’s it like to be/have that in the band?

Luci: It’s really nice! I’ve known everyone for a long time; I’ve done a lot of Arj’s solo stuff and the acoustic side of things, and it’s been really nice to join in the rock band! We have fun, we have a good laugh!

Yeah, hearing you guys at sound check it all sounded to mesh together perfectly!

That’s good, it’s all downhill from now! That’s probably the best soundcheck we’ve done on this tour. It’s a great venue here, we’ve done it once before and that was cool!

And you guys are on the last week of the album crowdfunder, right?

Yeah, around that. 26th, so it’s close! We’re over it [the goal] now anyway. Which is mega. I didn’t think we’d get that response that quick. Everyone just rallied in and helped for the cause. It’s like us, you’re gonna get it done so get it fucking done. And within a week it was done! No fucking about or bullshit.

Is the album all written, then?

It’s all done, recorded and ready to go! We started recording it like two years ago and the recording process took a while. It’s been ready to go for a little while to be honest, but it’s just releasing it that we needed the help with.

Have got a rough idea of when we might get some new music?

It’ll be the back end of the year. I think we’re trying to aim for autumn, not winter. That’ll give a bit of longevity for the back end of the year to get on the road and work it. The album launch is booked, though! Not 100% set on dates but end of September, early October time. The plan is to be on the road for most of October, we’re still finalising gigs at the minute, and that will probably extend into November and December too.

We have Rock the Peak, and a few Stripped Back shows through the summer time to keep us going, too.

How did the Stripped Back shows come about?

We’ve always done it, to be fair. There’s a lot of influence running through the band and instead of just putting it into one we kinda separated it. People make the mistake of thinking it’s acoustic, but it’s not. It’s just less loud. Arj plays acoustic on most tracks, there’s more backing vocals, slightly different arrangements… it’s nice for us to hear the songs differently. If you look at our last record, Peach, it’s a full-on grunge album, while if you go back to the American Honey EP, it’s more soulful. It’s just good to separate on them and focus on it.

I don’t know, I’m just excited for the new stuff. As soon as we did that we did a couple of gigs with the Stripped stuff and I absolutely loved it. But then you do five or six shows of that, and you get a little bored, and you wanna do the rock stuff again. Who is anybody to tell you what the fuck to do? I’m gonna get paid anyway!

Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?

It’s one of them I’m gonna be honest, I’m fucking sick of rock music! I don’t know, I’m pretty happy to just go with it and see what happens. I don’t really have a dream tour or situation. I’d like to play at Manchester Apollo at some point. That was the first gig I ever went to there. In regards to all that stuff though I’m just happy to ride the wave and go with it!

I like Gary Clark but they have a stint and then drop off. If Temperance Movement were still about that would have been cool. Skindred would be cool because they’re nice guys. I’d love to open for Keith Richards. Not the Stones, just Keith! At the Ritz or Royal Albert Hall or something like that.