It’s been quite a year for North East rockers Gwailo. The band got the year off to a start with a run of shows in mainland Europe, before picking up a whole raft of supports with some of the scene’s finest talent.
“We managed to get over to Poland, which was our first international gigs going to Europe – so that was a great experience,” said Gwailo guitarist David Henry. “We’ve managed to get some really good support spots. We had a show with Black Spiders, we’ve played with Gorilla Riot, we’ve played with Syteria, JoanOvArc, and recently with Beth Blade and the Beautiful Disasters.”
In between performing live, the group has been in the studio working on their eagerly anticipated debut album. “We’ve been wanting to do an album for a while, so the past few years we’ve been mulling it over,” explains David. “Over the past year and a half, we’ve been writing and building in the studio, songs to put on the album.”
The band released a taste of their upcoming debut record via their latest single Live For The Weekend on Sat 18th Oct. Gwailo lead singer Michael Curry penned the track. “The song is pretty much based on three different periods of my life where it felt like weekdays always sucked and the only time I could enjoy myself was the weekend. It is meant as an upbeat song to get people singing along and ready to enjoy themselves for sure. But I also intended it to make people think about if their lives are in a similar place, of purely just living for the weekend, maybe you want to try make a change in your life to find more joy,” explains Michael.
David elaborates, that the song is a positive track: “Live for the weekend is a great uplifting feel good song that will resonate with a lot of people. I’ve certainly had times in my life where I’m wishing for the weekend, so I was very excited to work on this when Michael brought it to the table.”
Of course, the message in the song is one that perhaps many people will relate to. “Who hasn’t had a period in their life like it? When the typical societal schedule of Monday to Friday is frustrating and you just want to reach the times where you can actually live your life,” declares Michael.
Gwailo will celebrate the release of their new single with a headline show at Zerox in Newcastle on Saturday, 25th October. It’s a rare headline show from the band. “We’ve got the single release coming out, so we thought, right, we’ll get a headline gig in there. We’ve got a great set of supports with us in Syteria and Speeder,” said David. “It’s been a long time since we’ve done a headline gig, so we’re really looking forward to spending more than half an hour on stage or 40 minutes, so you don’t have to trim your set down. We’re really looking forward to showing the crowd what we’ve really got.”
Beyond the single release and Gwailo’s upcoming headline show in Newcastle, they are already looking at what’s coming up in the New Year. “We’ve got the album hopefully coming out early next year, and we’re finally starting to get on the festival scene. So, we’re really looking forward to getting the album out, and being able to show people what we’ve really got.” He concludes: “We’re just really hopeful and excited that we’re going to be building next year.”
Gwailo’s new single, Live for the Weekend, is out now on all streaming platforms. The band’s upcoming headline show at Zerox in Newcastle will take place on Saturday, 25th October and features support from Syteria and Speeder. For ticket information and further details, please visit: http://linktr.ee/gwailo_uk.
Photos: © Adam Kennedy
