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Interview with Bad Guys; Guitarist Dave Silver on New Album ‘Bad Guynaecology’, the UK Scene, and Performing in the Nude

The band’s lead guitarist, Dave Silver, recently took some time to answer a couple of our questions and fill us in on the colourful history behind the one and only Bad Guys.

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London’s Bad Guys are quickly making a name for themselves through both their rambunctious antics, and by playing the heavy stuff, and playing it hard. After shaking up the Internet last week with the release of their music video for the song “Prostitutes (Are Making Love In My Garden)” (see below) off their upcoming album Bad Guynaecology, Bad Guys are proving their tongue-in-cheek attitude doesn’t get in the way of making music that rocks. Bad Guynaecology is out on March 16th via Riot Season Records, be sure to check it out. The band’s lead guitarist, Dave Silver, recently took some time to answer a couple of our questions and fill us in on the colourful history behind the one and only Bad Guys.

For those not familiar with your band, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Silver: Well let’s see, we are a London-based heavy rock band, we have been going since 2009, and are from all over the shop. We’ve got PJ, he plays guitar, is English – from a place called Stoke that is equally famous for both Slash and making toilets. He is the only one in the band with a proper head of hair but can’t grow a beard for the life of him.

Tamas, plays the drums, Hungarian, proper metaller, silver fox and absolutely loves cake. Stuart, vocals, English, from a seaside town that is famous for having loads of pensioners and has hair just like the guy on the album cover. Then there’s me, I play guitar, from Saskatchewan, but really rubbish at hockey and I’ve got more body hair than the guy on the cover. Actually, I just realised that the guy on the cover is basically a cross between my body and Stu’s head. Not sure how I feel about that.

Your new disc Bad Guynaecology is being released soon. Now that writing and recording is complete, how do you feel about it, and what has been the response so far?
Silver: I’m really happy with how the album has turned out. Working with Gomez (Jaime Gomez Arellano) made a huge difference, he knows his stuff and got every element sounding great. The response so far has been really good, lots of great reviews. We have definitely found that a lot of people really focus on the humour element of the lyrics. I guess it’s bound to happen, but confuses me a little as loads of great bands have comedy in the lyrics. I mean look at AC/DC, they wrote a song called “Big Balls” for god’s sake.

What is your writing process like?
Silver: Generally PJ comes in with a riff and we use that as a starting point with everyone involved in building on it. It’s been great since Tamas has joined the band as he often comes in with a beat and we can use that as the backbone. Sometimes by the end the original riff has disappeared though, I think we all have terrible short term memory problems.

You guys are a heavy band, how does it make you feel when that power and energy you channelled in the studio comes to life in front of a crowd?
Silver: To be honest, we had actually been playing live gigs for around 4 years before we released the first LP. I think that playing live is really important for us and I just hope that translates well to record. What’s the point in a good album if you’re rubbish live?

What is the story behind the name of the new record?
Silver: I think Stu came up with the pun about 5 minutes after he came up with the name Bad Guys. Just a clever play on words really, we’ve just been holding on to it for a long time.

What are some of the newer metal bands that you are listening to or enjoy?
Silver: I have really been enjoying the new Oozing Wound album, thrash with a good dose of humour. Amulet from London are great too, definitely worth checking out.

Do you receive a lot of support from your local scene and fans in general?
Silver: I am not sure about things in Canada right now, but over the last 2-3 years the music scene we are a part of in the London has really kicked off. You’ve got promoters like Cosmic Carnage and Baba Yaga’s Hut that constantly have ridiculous line-ups and there is something good on almost every night of the week. Spoiled for choice. And the surprising thing is that everyone seems to get off their arses and head out to shows all the time. There’s a really good thing going on and the support from promoters, venues, and fans is amazing.

Check out the song “Prostitutes (Are Making Love In My Garden)” here.

Do you have any rituals before you hit the stage? If so, what are they?
Silver: I think we generally try to not get too wasted before we go on stage, that’s about it. We used to get totally hammered and had a great time, but it must have sounded horrible to anyone more sober than us, which was probably everyone.

Do you have any touring plans in support of the new recording?
Silver: We are touring the UK in March/April and then heading to Europe in May. We are planning to play Ukraine later in the year and hopefully we can make it to Canada and the U.S. sometime after that.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take 3 CDs with you for eternity, assuming there was a solar powered CD player, what would they be?
Silver: Hmm, I am just trying to imagine what would go well in a deserted island situation. Definitely not reggae, I would need to grow dreads and carry an acoustic around with me for that. I reckon I would bring Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone, Harvey Milk’s Life… The Best Game in Town and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Self-Titled release. The last one is strictly for late night bonfire moments when I lose the plot and want to do some air guitar.

What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far?
Silver: We were the first band to ever play The Royal Academy of Arts a few years back. We played the life drawing room and had about 100 people sitting around drawing us while we played nude. Definitely memorable, and it’s in the Royal Academy Archives now, so our nude bodies are preserved for future generations.

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you on tour, or at one of your shows?
Silver: We did a little tour of the UK once and didn’t lose money. It was great.

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