Ever since I first laid ears on California road warriors Gypsyhawk nearly two years ago, I have been a rabid fan. After numerous attempts to try and make it to play here in Atlanta the Hawk finally landed in Atlanta as direct support for The Sword.
Gypsyhawk is out supporting their latest sophomore masterpiece Revelry and Resilience and guitarist (and buddy o’ mine) Andrew Packer took some time out to chat with me. Andrew is an awesome, smart, witty little bastard and it was a real blast talking to him about the current tour, the pros to being on Metal Blade Records, his past passion for Kriss Kross and Naughty by Nature, and the proper order to watch the Star Wars films in. This was a really fun one and I hope you all enjoy getting to know more about Andrew Packer and Gypsyhawk.
Welcome to Atlanta. You guys FINALLY fucking made it!
Hell yeah we did [laughs].
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You have been having quite a few sold out shows on this tour. How has The Sword’s audience been responding to you guys?
I think it’s probably the best fit for a band we could tour with. The Sword has that 70’s influence with a more modern sound kind of like us. It’s been a much better tour than any of the Metal Blade shit we’ve had to do like the SXSW or the Scion shows we did. Those shows had big crowds but they were death metal kids and they couldn’t care less about us. There were a few open minded people who showed up but for the most part we just weren’t their bag.
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You guys have been touring in a van and this is a lengthy run for Gypsyhawk. How do four guys live in a van for that long and not kill each other?
Dude, its tough [laughs]. I mean, we’re pretty good about it. I know of bands that will always limit their tour to three weeks for that very reason. We definitely have very heated moments but luckily we all are pretty good friends and we all have the same goals in mind. We care enough about that goal to bite the bullet and be the bigger man and not sweat the small stuff. Now that we have Bonnie, our merch girl, having that body of estrogen along helps make things a little mellower and not as tense.
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I’ve heard so many bands talk about how their iPods and laptops are their saving grace on long van tours as it gives them a place to just kind of retreat to.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all it is. I don’t want to waste my time dwelling on something that I know is not going to be that big of deal next week if not tomorrow. I do spend a lot of time watching The Simpsons on my laptop with my headphones plugged in and ignoring everyone but in all honesty, we really don’t get on each other’s nerves very much. I think we’re pretty lucky. We work well together.
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Maybe you guys will get a tour bus next time?
[laughs] Man, we were talking to The Sword about tour busses and they were like, “Fuck tour busses. They’re too expensive, you can’t take a shit on them, and you’re always on the driver’s schedule.” [laughs] It’s something that I definitely want to experience at least once just to know what it’s like.
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Maybe you can meet in the middle and just get a Volkswagen Bus so you can kick it down the highway going 35.
[laughs] Cranking it in 3rd the whole way. I’ve had lots of fun adventures in those things.
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You guys recently signed on with Metal Blade Records to release Revelry and Resilience. Has there been much of a benefit if any to signing with a bigger label?
Yes, a tremendous benefit [laughs]. They have the contacts necessary to make things happen. We signed with them in July of last year and then we did a DIY US tour and I don’t think we had any press come out to those shows. On this tour and the one before, we’ve had press on every show wanting to come out and interview us. It’s because of the exposure we’ve had from being on Metal Blade Records. There is a potential of doing it yourself for a long time and building your fan base. We did it and while we paid our dues I feel like we’re still paying them. We weren’t just a flash in the pan that Brian Slagle discovered on MySpace or something [laughs]. We earned the reputation and recognition we got that brought us to Metal Blade. We could’ve kept going in that route to see what would happen but we decided that it was a shot in the dark. None of us are any good at marketing, we don’t’ have enough money to throw in and make another full blown record or make another video. That money comes from Metal Blade when we need it and it’s been a great partnership. A lot more people are paying attention to us and I know that we wouldn’t even be on this tour if we didn’t have the recognition that being signed to Metal Blade has brought. As much talk as there is on the internet about the evils of record labels, I think that the movers and shakers don’t take you seriously unless someone with a name believes in it too.
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Why didn’t Metal Blade pick up the debut album Patience and Perseverance and re-issue that along with the new album?
Originally, in our deal with Metal Blade they were going to a distribution deal for the first album to put it out in stores all over. We were really excited about it. Our ex guitarist Scotty got wind of the deal, got a lawyer, and had a cease and desist order sent to Metal Blade. I don’t know what his deal was. I think he was envisioning like a $100,000.00 signing deal or something like that and wanted his cut. Maybe he thought he was going to get fucked out of any future distribution or something. The funny thing is that Eric and I were hanging out and we were saying, “We need to dedicate the next album to Scotty because it’s too bad things didn’t work out with him and he really helped us get everything going.” We just didn’t want any hard feelings and then we found out about this thing and the label was about to throw the deal away completely. We called Scotty and told him, “What are you doing? You stood to make money from this distribution deal and you’re just fucking yourself over as well as us.” He got his lawyer to draft up something different, we got ours to draft something and now he’s not allowed to interfere with us again. After many stressful weeks, the label told us that they would move forward with the deal but that they didn’t want anything to do with the distribution of the first album or Scotty. The album was then just left in our hands so I put it up on Bandcamp for free mostly because I noticed that there were some tax implications I didn’t want to deal with if we started selling it [laughs]. We just put it up for free for a while to see if people would want it. Lately I think we’ve been asking a minimum of $7.00 or so. I didn’t see it as a way of getting us more exposure. I figured anyone who go out and pick it up for free or pay $7.00 for it had already been exposed to us.
I actually bought that album when it was up on Bandcamp for like 10 bucks so when I saw it was up for free I posted it on my page and was like, “HURRY! Go download this album!”
[laughs] That’s awesome. I like when people put their money where their mouth is. They’ll say, “I support your band” and then force it on all of their friends. A lot of other people just couldn’t care less [laughs]. It’s like they don’t appreciate the work that goes into it all.
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So are you guys still selling hard copies of Patience and Perseverance?
We are still selling the vinyl for that one on the road. We kind of fucked over our last label. They would front us all of the records and we’d sell them on tour but because we made so little at the door for these shows we had to spend all of our merch money on getting home so we never really had the money to give back to them. Now that things are better for us, the label is giving us their back stock and we’re giving them all of the money from the sales of that album.
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That’s really cool to hear. You guys are doing the right thing.
Yeah, we’re trying and slowly but surely we’re going to make it up to them.
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For those that haven’t seen Gypsyhawk live yet, what can they expect from a live show? Hell, what can I expect since I’ve never seen you guys live?
[laughs] I don’t know if I should tell you since I just ate all that food [laughs]. I don’t know how great I’m going to be up there but you can definitely expect high energy, a lot of dancing, a lot of headbanging, and a go for the throat rock show. We’re not going to play any down tempo songs. I don’t think we even have any actually. Just expect to have a lot fun and expect to see a lot of hair and a lot of boots in the air [laughs]. It’s a fun show and everyone who have become new fans so far have appreciated the energy so I think that’s the best way to describe it.
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Is there a particular song that you feel defines Gypsyhawk and all that you guys are about?
Oh man, that’s a good question. I would say “Commander of the High Forest” because there are a lot of different styles in there and it’s kind of progressive in nature. It pretty much goes back to where we started and gives you an idea of the styles we are capable of doing.
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Andrew, at what point did you know that you wanted to make music your life?
I was 10 years old and I was just getting into rock music. I had been into various forms of hip hop like MC Hammer, Kriss Kross, and Naughty by Nature [laughs]. I was the right age for that shit to come out and it was the shit to me. I started listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam. I was 10 and I was getting really into the MTV bands and then one day I saw Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box” video and my jaw just dropped. I thought, “This is the shit. I want to play guitar.” I got a guitar for my 11th birthday a few months later.
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Did you have some formal guitar training after that?
I took lessons for a little while. I was starting to get into stuff like Metallica and Jimi Hendrix who are my two biggest influences but once I started to listen to punk rock exclusively I was like, “I know power chords. This is all I’m going to need” so I stopped taking lessons. That’s where I was for a little while and then I started smoking a lot more weed and getting more into Hendrix and the classic rock shit. I started teaching myself some more things and then started taking lessons again my senior year of high school. That’s pretty much the extent of my formal training. I never went to school for it and I haven’t taken a lesson since high school.
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If you could play guitar for any band for just one show who would it be and why?
That’s another good question. Man, I would have to say the mach 2 or 3 era of Deep Purple or the quintessential Thin Lizzy lineup with Robinson and Gorham. Hell, maybe I’d just one of the dozens of guitar players in Motorhead [laughs]. That would’ve been really cool. Partying with Lemmy would’ve been really tight [laughs].
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If you have dinner with any celebrity alive or dead, who would it be and what would you eat?
I think Jimi Hendrix would be really cool. He seems like he was a smart, wise dude who would’ve been pretty mellow and I would have tacos with him probably [laughs]. Yeah, Hendrix or maybe even Hunter S. Thompson even if he couldn’t give a fuck about interacting with me [laughs].
Star Wars, Empire, or Jedi?
I’m going to have to go with Empire.
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That’s the one I think every real Star Wars fan should pick.
[laughs] Definitely Empire. It’s the dark one. It doesn’t have too many fucking puppets in it, and it doesn’t get too ridiculous. I had this friend in college who had never seen Star Wars before. We went to this record store and he was looking through the used VHS tapes and says, “I think I’m going to buy Empires Strikes Back.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s a good one but you don’t want to buy that one if you’ve never seen the other ones at all.” He says, “But this I heard it’s the best one” and I tell him, “It is the best one but you can’t start with that one.” It took me like 10 minutes to explain it to him why he couldn’t start with that one.
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My wife had never really watched any of them and she watched all six of the Star Wars movies in order of Episode number one year.
Dude, that’s cool. I was reading on a blog once that one of the guys on Mythbusters said that the best way to watch them, especially someone who hasn’t seen them yet, is to watch Episodes IV & V and then watch episodes II and III. He seems to think you can just skip Episode I and then you watch Episode VI to see the transformation.
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That sounds so awesome. Have you done this yet?
No but I’d love to do that with someone who hasn’t seen any of the movies.
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So I’m totally into collecting shit like guitar picks and band carnival mirrors. Do you collect anything?
Um, no [laughs]. I always wished I did though. I think it’s cool and when I see peoples rad collections of stuff and I’m like, “Wow. I wish I had all this.” [laughs] I never got into really collection stuff. When I was a kid I wanted every single Ninja Turtle but not to collect them, just to have them [laughs]. Ok, I do like to collect band shirts.
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I do to. My wife says, “Really, do you need another Gypsyhawk shirt?”
[laughs] We have some cool shit man. Buy a shirt and you get a patch and a lighter with it!
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SOLD!
[laughs] Awesome.
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What is the most star struck you’ve ever been?
I met Kerry King from Slayer once. It was at the California Metalfest and it was all the bands from the Carcass/Suffocation tour. My friends Decrepit Birth were playing so I was backstage hanging out with them. I saw Kerry King back there and dude, I’m from LA so I see famous people all the time but seeing Kerry King was like, “Oh shit man” [laughs]. I went up to him and said, “I hate to be an asshole but I have to say what’s up to you?” he just looks at me and goes, “HAHA! What’s up asshole? Nice to meet you.” [laughs] I told him he was a huge influence on me and he was a super cool guy.
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What is the pinnacle metal album?
Ya know, I could say something like Master of Puppets or something but everyone does own that. I think one that most people don’t own that they should is Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates. I think that is a perfect metal album. There is not one bad moment on the fucking thing. I think it influenced a lot of bands that most people don’t know they influenced. I started listening to that album when I was 15 and it was awesome. I remember going on this ski trip with a friend who was this kind of preppy guy and his family. We didn’t have a lot to talk about and I had this mix tape that was all Slayer and At The Gates and it totally saved my whole time there. That album is just fucking perfect. It’s that Swedish melodic death metal and every part is catchy. Andy LaRoque does a solo on that album that the guy from At the Gates to this day still can’t copy. It’s got some cool atmospheric tunes, some acoustic songs, and the music just makes you want to go for it.
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Best Sabbath singer: Ozzy or Dio?
Ozzy hands down. Dude, anyone who says Dio is bizarre to me [laughs]. Dio can sing better than Ozzy but its all Ozzy dude. No contest.
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Finish this sentence: If I wasn’t a musician I would be….
A writer. I’d love to write for the Daily Show or Conan O’Brien. I’d love to write novels or just be like and essayist for the New Yorker. I just love writing. That’s why I’ve been doing this tour blog for NoiseCreep. I like doing it. I’m way better at music because I do it more but those two passions have always been there. I was going to be a journalism minor in college but they cut the department the year I got there, fucking assholes [laughs]. I took a lot of creative writing classes and I was a history major so I did a lot of writing.
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Andrew this was a blast dude. Thanks so much for doing this interview and best of luck on this tour.
Anytime man. You rule Don. Thanks for doing this.
To keep up with Gypsyhawk via Andrew’s NoiseCreep blog, go here: http://www.noisecreep.com/tag/Gypsyhawk/
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