Called Life Under The Gun, the debut, full-length album from the West Coast punk group Militarie Gun sends its listeners on energizing spirals. It’s a June release from Loma Vista Recordings.
Utilizing the physical tension and release from punk’s traditional styles of rhythm, Militarie Gun then venture into somehow more relaxed unease. Defining the journey is a vibrant clash of powerful instrumentals with realistically dour themes, like the “biting, bastard leeches” sung about on “Seizure of Assets.”
It’s ultimately soulful and personal music, with the instrumentals—and, of course, Ian Shelton’s vocals—capturing a gnawing, internal longing. The honesty of the stream of consciousness, which often bursts into brighter and more rhythmically open pastures, is refreshing, as though it’s just all pouring out, with a swirling cast of characters in a slow-motion tornado.
You get the sense while listening to Life Under The Gun, with production that allows you to fully appreciate each piece of this roaring wave, that it’s a single beast. Yet, the record smoothly sways between slower circles of unrest and bursts of energy, with Militarie Gun furthering their sound with organic precision. Whatever role you occupy, Life Under The Gun feels as much like a talk with a close friend who’s been under stress as it is something well-positioned to spark an energetic crowd response. It’s a search for something better, be that the truth, changing life circumstances, or finding the uplifting positivity in what’s already around.
Though less cacophonous moments definitely sound prominent on first listen, much of Life Under The Gun actually runs on what you find on those later few tracks. The record is lively and delivers sweeping, captivating hooks, popping the fierce pace and pummeling musical ideas that outline some hardcore into a more spacious environment. The record ends up pretty uplifting, as some of this features an emotive swagger even reminiscent of classic rock behind which it’s difficult not to jump.
Below, see what Ian Shelton, the vocalist for Militarie Gun, has to say about this new record, which sounds sure to be popular.
Was there an extensive process of narrowing down what would actually appear on Life Under The Gun and curating that overall sound? What was that part of things like for you?
It was a really long process of narrowing down, because, I mean, a lot of these songs originally overlapped with All Roads Lead To The Gun songs, but the big marker of the difference there was these songs kind of required a little bit more skill in the vocal department to pull off. And then from there, it was just about writing as many songs as humanly possible. Songs like “Pull It Out,” “I Can’t Stand Busy People,” “Let Me Be Normal” were all in the mix before this record and were maybe going to be on this record. And then they got moved over to the deluxe thing.
It was all about just trying to find the balance that was right and the best flow. It’s an incredibly long process. There was one song that even made it to the recording session and made it to the mix, but ultimately just wasn’t as good as the other songs. So it got cut. It nailed the album concept the best out of any song, but it just wasn’t as good musically. It was like, alright, well, I guess even though it seems to put a bow on what I’m trying to say, it’s still like, we go music over content. So it gets cut regardless.
Has a lot of the music you’ve most recently written been very hook-oriented like we hear on Life Under The Gun?
Definitely. And the songs that don’t have it are the ones that are not going to survive. But I mean, the experiment since the beginning of the band has basically been to try to make as good of a chorus as I possibly can with the limited tools that I have. Our version of a big chorus changes as time goes, as the skills expand. Originally when I did “Dislocate Me,” that was kind of like the mark for success, and then I just didn’t know how to replicate that so readily, and it took a long time to figure out what the actual goal and equation of everything for the band is.
So, with that style, do you feel like it’s the sort of thing where you can make something feel particularly uplifting, even in an emotional sense? Is that a sort of impact you’ve been pursuing?
I mean, it is definitely the type of thing where you can hide crazier content if you make it sound pleasant to the listener. A chorus like “Seizure of Assets” is “biting, bastard leeches keep sucking on me,” but if you aren’t listening to the words, you wouldn’t think it would have such harsh lyrics. If you were just listening to the melody, you wouldn’t think it would have such harsh lyrics. And I think that’s one of the most fun elements of the band is finding a song where I feel like it leans too poppy, and then finding a way to bring the lyrics the opposite direction so that it’s not just a bullshit pop song. It can say something else, all while being stuck in your head. I think that’s the ultimate goal is finding that balance.
More personally, do you feel like these songs provided an effective avenue for working on dealing with some of your own very personal life circumstances?
Yeah, definitely. I think the big goal with creating a song, and trying to put something deep-rooted in it is trying to find a way to take something that you feel inside and put it outside of yourself and view it in a different light. And it wasn’t always a hyper-specific goal, but then you get to the end of a writing of a song and you realize, “Oh, clearly this thing is bothering me, and I needed to do something with it, and now there’s a document of it with the song.” And you do that enough times, and then you realize, “Oh, there’s a theme here.” It doesn’t necessarily change any of the reality of it, but it definitely helps to find a new way to view a way that you feel.
One of the best parts for me is having other people talk about the songs, and even if their interpretation is completely wrong to my intention, it’s like, oh, well, if that meant something to you. That’s a whole reason that I’m here is like, I grew up being a fucked up kid that was looking for an outlet and looking to relate to other people, and then found this and related to other people because of it and related to artists because of it. And then now that I can be in a position where people are looking at and reading whatever I’m saying like that and then they take something away—That’s the whole thing, you know? That’s the goal.
So, looking outwards, were there parts in Life Under The Gun that you wrote with it in mind how they’d go over with a crowd?
I’m always thinking about the crowd element because I think that we’ve made a reputation for an energetic live show. But at the same time, I’ve always loved dynamics and the idea that the set could ebb and flow in and out of these somewhat melancholy moments on the record. And the thing that I’m really excited to explore in time is doing a long enough set to where it could have proper dynamics and ebb and flow from energy to something else. And really explore the dynamics of a live show, which we haven’t had the chance to do because I feel like we are so intent on having a very crazy energetic time with it, because we have short sets, you know? For the most part. And so it’s the type of thing where it’s really hard to have dynamics that I think we desire in that small space, but in time, whenever we can do a headlining tour and do our own set and our own everything, that’ll be a really fun thing to explore.
During the production process, how do you feel like you balanced what the songs would sound like live with using the studio to the band’s full advantage?
Well, we wanted the songs to just sound as massive as possible. A huge part of that was having Taylor Young engineer and co-produce the record and then hand that to a guy like Mark Needham, who is known for his work with The Killers and even Imagine Dragons. Take the hardcore side from Taylor and I, but then hand it to somebody from the more or less pop world and see what the combination would end up being. And we also recorded it in Dave Grohl’s studio, which has this just massive, massive drum room. We wanted it to sound like a live rock band. There’s not too many unnatural elements. It’s meant to be so much a classic rock record in that we only used instruments that are more or less on the classic rock records that we love, and it’s just really guitars, some keys, and that’s it. We didn’t want to modernize it too much or do anything that was fakey to make it more modern, you know?
Do you feel like that classic rock has been informative for the direction you’ve taken your own music?
Definitely. Classic rock is one of the big guiding lights of the band. If you look at the guitar work, it’s all just kind of classic rock riffs, but then with super modern energetic drums and then yelled vocals. So it can’t sound like classic rock because of the things we surround it with. A song like “Life Under The Gun” was meant to feel like The Who. And, again, just take things that aren’t necessarily in vogue but are just what fuels us. We love those classic records, and there’s so many incredible things that happen with them. It’s a constantly renewing source of inspiration because you can get into one album by The Kinks, and then you get into a different album by The Kinks and find something different that you’re like, holy shit, I’ve got to do something like this. But because of the identity of the band, you just hope that regardless of whatever well you’re drinking from, that your identity is enough that you stand out instead of it just being a nod or a ripoff.
What was your thinking like around how your vocals would sound on this record? What were some of the approaches you were trying to capture?
I just wanted to be a better vocalist. That was a huge thing that weighed on my mind throughout, from when the band first started to now. The process of the band is, “How do I get better at this?” Not only on recording, but live. I just was listening to vocals that were inspiring to me and being like, “How can I do something like that?” And it was just constantly practicing and trying to make it so I could actually sing the things I could hear in my head. And it was so much that the writing was outgrowing my physical tool. And how do I try to play catch up?
Specifically punk, but rock music in general is like, it’s so much about trying to do something that’s somewhat out of your grasp, you know? That’s why all of these rock singers have burnt out voices is that they were actually doing it wrong, but doing it wrong makes it sound so right. And that’s the hard part of it, like it kind of burns bright and then it burns out, but that’s what’s so cool about the genre.
So, some of your other work around the band has included music videos. Is that something you’ve still been connected with lately?
I’ve been saying no to pretty much all projects besides Militarie Gun for quite some time, just because I wanted to focus all of my intentions towards this, and over time, I had done so many music videos and realized like, ah, shit, I could have saved that low-budget idea for myself and not had given it away to another band. I stopped saying yes to projects, which my big thing and one of my big problems in life is that I kind of say yes to everything because I just love being involved and I love working. It’s been hard to have restraint, but at the same time, it’s trying to just save all of my creativity for me instead of giving it away.
A band that you like or something wants you to work with them, you’re like, well, shit. To be involved in a band’s record is the highest compliment. I look back at the work specifically with Drug Church and Angel Dust, and I’m like, I was there and a part of trying to help them get to whatever the next thing is. And there’s nothing cooler than being involved creatively with your friends and people whose art you enjoy. So it’s really hard to say no. But I realized for my own sanity I had to start because I’m so big on overcommitting myself and then making everything a suicide mission because I have to be on tour and in pre-production and then tech scout and then be on set and then go back on tour. I was at one point living a very unsustainable lifestyle because it was just a constant anxiety fucking cocktail. It was just like everything I could possibly have to do in a day, I had to do it in a day. I’m glad that I’m a little more bored now.
Do you have anything you’d like to share about the New Noise flexi song “I Wish Drugs Would’ve Changed You More”?
It was a song that is meant to be somewhat of a diss track. It’s meant to be very spiteful, which is a huge part of the record is kind of realizing that your spite is somewhat stupid because somewhere out there, someone is spiteful towards you all the same. It was recorded on my iPhone. It was a demo, and I’m excited that it’s going to be out in the world in some version. I didn’t feel like it was right for the album, but it felt like when we were asked to provide a song, instead of giving just a demo of a song that’s been released, I love finding a way to release even more songs. So it was cool to be able to give this an outlet.
You can buy or listen to Life Under the Gun here.
You can follow Militarie Gun on Instagram and Twitter for more updates. And don’t miss your chance to grab Issue 67 of New Noise Magazine with the exclusive flexi from Militarie Gun.
Photo courtesy of Brian Lopez
