Interview: Guck
Getting gucked up on nasty riffs
In the column today, we ran an interview with Guck, a new Los Angeles quintet that recently debuted its first single, "IDGAG." Read the blurb, please. You'll find the full interview, which was conducted over email, below.
Now, let's talk Guck. I've had the pleasure of seeing Guck five times this year.1 The first time was opening for the criminally underappreciated Facet, which still stands as one of the best soup-to-nuts concert experiences I've had in 2024.2 Guck played with the dangerous power of a downed power line, and it shook me out of my protracted music stupor like aural smelling salts. The next time I caught the band was opening a doom show headlined by Fórn.3 For most outfits in the noise rock/no-wave zone, that would be a tricky proposition. However, Guck won over the crowd within the first few minutes and then crushed the new converts with a volume none of the other bands on the marquee could match. And that has been the Guck story every time I've seen it: No matter the bill, Guck excels.
So, how to describe Guck. As an older person, I'm sure how to I hear something far different than what the members of Guck are probably leaning on as influences.4 For instance, to me, the synths scream Arab on Radar, the jagged edges Steel Pole Bath Tub, and the layering Laddio Bolocko. And, as anyone who has frequented this newsletter knows, I am a sucker for active, intricate drumming. But, really, the references don't matter because all of that stuff fades away when you're listening. Guck is fascinating as an experience, like taking psychs and digging into your psyche, and it's hard not to lose yourself in the sonic universes it creates, a dense web of tones that's like if noise rock and no-wave toyed around with the endless vertical depth and tonal complexity of shoegaze. And then there are the lyrics, which veer from penetrating political observations to the first-person world building of a modernized and punched-up Black Helicopter. I don't know, friends. Guck is just a good-ass band, and it's an absolute honor catching it at this phase of its career.
Guck is:
April - vocals
Kyle - drums
Chappy - guitars
Sam - synthesizers
Andrew - bass
How did Guck come together?
April: Guck is musically an extension of what Andrew, Kyle, and Sam were doing with their band, Prized Pig. Prized Pig did one of their first shows and absolutely blew me away. I tried to book them but they had to drop because their singer needed to. I remember telling Sam I would be happy to fill in for Prized Pig on vocals just because LA really needed a band like them. Sam and I chatted about a year later, and he had just started a new band where instead of guitar, he would play synth, and they had Chappy Hull on guitar. Sam sent me "TAZ," which was the first song I heard and was all I needed to be swayed.
Kyle: After Prized Pig had kind of run its course, Sam, Andrew, and I knew we wanted to keep playing together but didn't really know what form that would take. Chappy and April jumped in, and it felt very natural, and next thing we knew we were Guck.
Chappy: I had known Sam and Andrew for years because of playing shows together in Nashville, and when I moved out here, I didn't have a band yet. By happenstance, I ran into Andrew at Non Plus Ultra the day I bought an amp to have in LA and mentioned I needed a practice space. He told me him, Sam, and Kyle had one I could join, and when Sam gave me my keys, he pitched all jamming together, and it began. April came in a little later, but was exactly what we were hoping for.
When did you know things "clicked"?
April: Honestly for me, basically that first day I linked with them. I already knew the other guys were cool but then I met Chappy for the first time which was rad. Him and I are in on the same southern lore, having an appreciation for an iconic band from my hometown, Sohns. That was already a deep-cut green flag for me. To top it off, I found out that Chappy and my fiancé are long-lost brothers from the math rock scene. A lot of things about us being together just feel truly meant to be. It really feels like all of us have always wanted a band like this.
Kyle: When the five of us jammed altogether for the first time it felt like we were channeling something. I don't get that feeling often.
Chappy: The very first time we played for me, too. The first few months we didn't even try to write songs; we just would play for hours and record it. A lot of our songs come from those jams which is a very different way of working in music for me personally and I love it. Everyone truly has an equal part and excels at what they do. The second click moment came when April showed up. We still have a recording of that first practice and it amazes me that it was so natural.
Here's the obligatory 'what's in a name' question: How did you land on the name Guck?
April: I think it's just like, you gotta pick a name, they didn't want to call it Panda Express per my request, so guck is just a typo your phone spells when you try to type fuck.
Kyle: Somehow that typo really yielded something that feels representative of the music, like slimy and kind of gross and stinky but also looks like it might taste good, so we stuck with it. Panda Express would also fit that description though.
Chappy: Full-on typo Sam sent when discussing names on the group thread, YET, I don't think it could have been any different. When people ask me what it sounds like I usually tell them "the band name."
How did your sound evolve?
April: I think a big part of what's happening with the band's sounds is that every member has their own sound or creative take. It could be an anxious avoidance thing and that we're bad at communicating or it could be we just respect each other and don't really step on each other's toes creatively so in the music you are really experiencing everyone's raw expression unfiltered.
Kyle: We always just jam. It's pretty rare that someone comes to a rehearsal with any kind of preconceived notion of where a song should start and where it should go or even a part that they wrote. We just mess around and then duct tape everything together later. So it's kind of always evolving, in a way.
Chappy: I never got to see Prized Pig since I didn't live in LA at the time but I fully appreciate the work they had going into this project coming off of that band. I don't fully think Guck is an extension per se, but the three of us who were in that band found a connection that helped us find our sound much faster. Sam was on guitar at first when we started as well and him moving to synth solidified a part of the sound we were looking for in a way that could help us have a chance to evolve in a way that the same grouping could have been stifled by before.
I feel like one of the more unique aspects of Guck is that you've taken the old-school approach of playing a bunch of shows before recording. How has that affected your time in the studio?
April: I don't know why more people don't do it this way. For example, Kyle tracked all the drums in like a day because he was in his bag from practicing and performing. We did all the tracking in three or four days.
Kyle: These songs shapeshifted so much before we were satisfied with them. If we had recorded them in earlier incarnations we would have been doing ourselves a disservice because we would definitely have messed something up live and decided we liked the mistake better, then be bummed that the song had already been set in stone.
Chappy: I can't picture a world really where we could have done this another way. I love this approach, and it allows us to tweak songs in real-time and make them perfect before deciding it's the best version. All of my bands have done this in the past so it feels natural to me.
What songs have changed substantially since playing them live?
April: Not sure it's that substantial for any of them. Yeah there's a bunch of stuff I figured out live as a vocalist that I wish I did on the album but it's all valid. Probably nothing substantial.
Kyle: We don't usually bring songs to the stage before they're finished.
Chappy: I don't think any substantial changes were made but a lot of tweaks.
It seems like you have a higher instance of things happening during shows, be it people doing kickflips in the bit or monitors spontaneously bursting into flames. What have been some of the craziest or most unique things so far?
April: I gotta say the monitor on fire thing has to take the cake for me.
Kyle: Never have I ever seen flames come out of a stage monitor.
Chappy: The flames were the best. There was a backyard show in Santa Ana where the cops came during our set and showed a light on us for about fifteen minutes and we just never stopped playing and they left, haha. Also one time Johnny Knoxville walked across the street from us as we loaded in.
Why do you think these things happen at Guck shows?
April: Probably because we are loud.
Kyle: And fast.
Chappy: And loco.
How does Guck fit into the LA scene?
April: We seem to be welcomed in a lot of spaces of the metal, punk, kraut, noise rock, skramz, no wave variety.
Kyle: There are so many scenes in LA, which is one of my favorite things about living here as both a musician and a music fan. Our music takes influence from a lot of different genres, so I think it's cool that people invite us to play with them even if our music might not traditionally match up.
Chappy: Being the most recent member of the band to move here it's been nice to meet so many people from different parts of the massive scene and sub-scene through this. I think Guck fits because people aren't so dead set on bills that "make sense" anymore and are more welcoming to mixed bills in general. I think the energy is exciting for a lot of people, and we can fit in a lot of spaces just with that as well.
The first thing that struck me about Guck is how the music seemed to tap into this underlying id, ego, and superego of the area. Like, it just feels very "now," both in sound and how the music/message rebounds off of fans. Kind of a simplified question, but, in the mission statement sense, was this a conscious decision?
April: I think originally no there wasn't. I think we just wanted to have a band that was fun. When I was improvising lyrics, the ones the band really liked were the ones where I'm recycling old head takes and canned statements from men I've collected so they can hear how silly they sound. Honestly, I really didn't set out to be a political band but as I lyricize my experiences, it came off that way anyway. Then, I decided to embrace any other similar thoughts.
Kyle: One thing I love about being in Guck is that we didn't set out to define a sound or an ideal. Those things just sprang up out of our jams and started becoming refined after our first shows. I don't think it will ever stop becoming refined.
Chappy: I agree.
What needs, if any, does Guck fill in your lives?
April: It feels good to scream for me. As the world continues to crumble this becomes more and more a necessity for me.
Kyle: Being able to get creative on the drums and have it work in the context of a band is really satisfying.
Chappy: I have always wanted to be in this band. I love shaping dissonance with my friends into things that can sound gross and beautiful at the same time. It's also more intense than my recent bands and the release feels good.
What can you tell me about the song you've released?
April: It's dancy and has probably one of my favorite synth patches on the record and I hope people feel like I'm screaming for them in chorus because I am. It's so easy for these government establishments and corporations to do the right thing and make sure we, as people, have a chance at surviving, but they refuse. Imagine hating on poor people and they're literally just at a Guck show doing kickflips in the pit.
Chappy: This song let me play guitar in ways I haven't before. I use the pitch shifter pedal as part of the guitar for the chorus and I unlocked a part of my brain when the rest of the band had locked in their parts. A big part of this song that I am proud of is the transitions. They came as happy accidents and planned out alike and I think it has the feeling of falling down and getting up together.
What's ahead for Guck?
April: Albums.
Kyle: Shows.
Chappy: Tours.
Andrew: Righteous acts of terror.
What do you want out of Guck?
April: Just to hang out with my friends honestly.
Kyle: Lamborghini and a Malibu mansion. Nothing crazy.
Chappy: Make nasty riffs.
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