Review Fix Exclusive: Interview with Gama Bomb’s Joe McGuigan

On the last day of their first US tour supporting Overkill and the legendary Forbidden, as well as fellow label mates Evile, and Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb has been nuking the crowd as good as any thrash band would with their blazingly catchy tunes, high energy performance, and reckless awesomeness from Belfast, Ireland.

Taking a moment off from the madness, bass player Joe McGuigan, who looks like a curly haired Sam Kinnison, sits with Review Fix to chat about touring, drinking, and all things Gama Bomb in this exciting tale from the not-grave in America.

How did it feel to finally come to the US when the tour was first offered?

We were really happy about it because we’ve got two albums out on Earache (records) so far so it really felt great, finally getting it out there. It made sense to do it now because the album had come out and if they wanted us to do a tour when Citizen Brain came out, I don’t think anybody would’ve known us. We just kind of panned out on this tour because a lot of people are coming to the shows know who we are.

How is the reception from the American fans going?

Really good. Like I said before, because we weren’t here for Citizen Brain, we’re doing a lot of songs from Citizen Brain and Tales From the Grave in Space, so lots of people are looking for songs from our first album, Survival of the Fastest. So there’s definitely some hardcore Gama Bomb fans in the US.

What’s the difference between the American market and the European market?

Fan wise I think it’s very similar, but market wise, yeah its very different. Like, in Europe bands will sell like 20-30 t shirts a night where over here like kind of less. Europe kept old school thrash alive you know, when in the US it wasn’t as popular. So I’m glad we’re getting to tour the US while it’s still popular instead of like 2000.

Why did you pick anti-war cartoons for the Slam Anthem music video?

That was kind of us because we wanted to do a music video for the album and Earache said “no, it’s not really in the budget.” We were like, “OK, lets just make something up.” So we found all this war footage from this film called “Victory Through Airport,” which is a Walt Disney movie about the war. Y’know what? We just thought it was a good imagery to go with. You know, society being overthrown, because that’s what the songs about.

Why that cartoon in particular? Why not any of the other anti-war cartoons such as Disney’s, “the Fuhrer’s Face” or the bugs bunny cartoons or the Tex Avery cartoons?

To be bluntly honest it’s because bugs bunny is massively copyrighted, and you can get in trouble for making a compilation video on youtube, whereas “Victory Through Airport” is in the gray area of copyright. That means you can do whatever you want with it (laughs)! Which is what we want to do.

What’s your favorite alcoholic drink?

Good question. I’m a pint of beer kind of guy. Any kind of German or Danish or Belgian beer is good.

What band would be your favorite influence?

Personally maybe Nuclear Assault or Agent Steel. I’m a big fan of Flotsam and Jetsam and German bands like Sodom, Living Death. Overall, the bands that got a European thrashy feel with some crossover/ high pitched vocals.

Tales From the Grave in Space is the first album that was “free” because it was downloadable through Earache Records’s website. What was the marketing like for that? Basically, how did that come across as an idea?

We released Citizen Brain and we did a lot of touring and festivals around Europe. We were like, “Yeah, we’re fairly newcomers to this sort of thing,” but we wanted to be able to come to places like Japan and North America. And we thought the best way to turn from a regional band to, well, a semi-well known band was to to this: Give the album away for free as a download. If they like it they can come to the shows if they don’t like it they didn’t waste any money. You know, like, idea wise I thought it was great. The first time I ever heard the album was like everybody else. We finished the album on Monday and then on Wednesday it went up online for download and I listened to it that night and, that was the first time I heard the finished version. (laughs)

Are you happy with it?

I am. I love the album. I think its our best album. I think we’ve got to give it more of a push for the physical release, but at the same time, I’m just glad that its out there.

These two albums (Citizen Brain ,Tales From the Grave In Space) are your Earache releases, but there’s a third album (Survival of the Fastest) which was self-produced that some Gama Bomb fans may not know about. What was the difference between these two and paying out of pocket to record?

The way it actually worked was in 2005 we had done a couple of demos and toured the UK. We wanted to make an album so we decided “Yeah, OK and we’ll find a label to put it out.” There’s a label called Screaming Ferret Wreckords in New Hampshire. They were originally supposed to put it out, but they went down a lot of money because the last Nuclear Assault album (Third World Genocide) didn’t do well. So basically, they pulled out and said, “We’re sorry, but we cant release the album. Find a small European label to put it out.” It was good because it got our name out ub Europe, but overall they couldn’t offer us tour support, which is why we needed a label like Earache to step in.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

“Slam Anthem” is one of my favorite songs. I’ve noticed the simpler songs tend to get the pit movin’ a lot quicker whereas the more complex stuff can kind of leave people scratching their heads.

Whats the plans for the future of Gama bomb?

At the minute we’re finishing this tour and then we’ve got some commitments in Europe and South America coming up for next summer and then some festivals. We’ve got some really cool ideas for what album were gonna be doing next, but we don’t wanna give anything away yet. It’s gonna be something completely new like what the free download was so we’ll just see what happens next year.