Ganzi Gun

Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)

PD: What type of artist are you?

GG: We are a hard rock band called Ganzi Gun, based on Athens, Greece.

PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.

GG: We started around 2011 playing covers of bands we really liked, had and still have as icons. After a few number of changes in the line-up, we started working on our own material and in February 14, 2015, we released our first album titled ‘’Welcome to the Show’’, under the guidance of Bob Katsionis (Firewind, Outloud) and David Prudent (Stormbringer). Later on, we released a digital single of ‘’Lonely Boy’’, from the iconic ‘’The Black Keys’’. After that (and 2 more line-up changes) we released our second studio album titled ‘’Time Is Now’’, on June 2020. Covid hit us hard regarding performing our new album live, or even doing a release show, but all of that time, gave us the strength and the stubbornness as we like to say, and we are stronger than ever. Our bond is unbreakable.

PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?

GG: Our musical influences are way too many to write them all here, but of course I’ll mention a few. From Metallica to Guns and Roses, and from Black Stone Cherry to Godsmack. We of course have other musical influences as well, we are not only under the rock and metal genres, like reggae, funk, a bit of jazz and film scores.

Regarding non-musical influences, we would just say the world itself. So many individuals with different perspectives, goals and emotions in the life they live in, as well as, happenings or events that may shock or amaze the whole world. From writings or speeches from great people, to how life is working and moving forward with the latest innovations mankind has to offer. Simply put, life itself.

PD: What are your dreams and goals?

GG: Our dream as a band, is of course to do what our icons and legends do. To play our music all over the world, meet different people, share the stage with some of them (or all of them). But because as all bands know, it is quite difficult to achieve that, then our goal is, to play as many live shows as we can, to as many people as we can and if luck comes our way, to tour by ourselves.

PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?

GG: The songwriting process is a job for the band as a band. Of course we do not go into the studio and play whatever comes to mind (even though we’ve done this a few times), so each and every one of us comes with an idea. That idea may be a riff from the guiratists or the bassist, a tom beat from the drummer, or even a vocal line or a few lyrics from the singer. We put them together in a blender and try to make something out of it. If something is not right, we take it out of the ‘’song’’ and keep it for another idea that may be perfect for it. Regarding lyrics, again each and every one of us comes with something. We all contribute to their growth, so they can actually mean something, and we all look at them very thoroughly, so we can at least ‘’touch’’ a fan with them. For example, the ‘’Time Is Now’’ album, as we were reading the lyrics, we matched all of them together and suddenly, from different meanings of each song individually, came a concept album, a solid monologue let’s say of a person, who is struggling to live his/her life normally, but obstacles come their way, regardless of their nature. It may be a psychological trauma from the past like being bullied in school, to drug addictions, then to a personal loss and then rebirth. How is that person feels about that time, how is he/she trying to uplift him/herself.

PD: How do you promote your band and shows?

GG: We have almost all kinds of social media and we try to promote ourselves as much as possible. During Covid we were out of range, even for our closest friends and fans and I believe that most of the bands of our ‘’range’’ were like that. But as I mentioned before, all this time made as more stubborn and actually gave us strength to go on and move forward. Soon enough, we’ll have new material for everyone to listen.

PD: What do you think about downloading music online?

GG: We live in 2023 now. Not in the 90’s or 80’s. We understand the concept of a band that does not want their music to be sold online and with no profit for the band. We do not want that too. However, the internet is the best way for a band to promote ourselves and even make something out of it. It is not always good for the band, especially for bands that take their extra money from their every day jobs and put in the band’s pool, but sometimes it happens. We do not mind people downloading our music from the internet, but we of course prefer if they would buy it. If they don’t, then we would live to at least see them in one of our live shows and get to know them.

PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?

GG: For the other members I do not know. For me, I would like to participate and record the drums let alone write the whole song, from my personal favourite band. Blind Guardian’s ‘’Into the Storm’’.

PD: What are some of your pet peeves?

GG: Being unable to play live or write new material. As a band, this is the most annoying thing. Being unable to do, what we want to do in music.

PD: So what are you working on at the moment?

GG: With the addition of our new singer in the band, we are currently working on playing as many live shows as we can. We are trying to find summer festivals or individual live shows here in Greece to budge in and let the world know (especially in Greece), that we are back, alive and stronger than ever. We are also working on some new material, as it has been a long time. Our gatherings are more and more frequently and we hope we go back to the studio to record our next album. We literally can’t wait.

PD: Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there.

GG: Our next show is on May 26th, where we’ll be playing to celebrate 20 years of Made In Hell studios, which our best friend and 6th member of the band David Prudent has. You should be there for 2 reasons: 1) We are awesome and good people to hang around. 2) It’s going to be a Hell of a show (see what I did there?) as many other awesome bands are playing the same day.