Right on target
MANILA, Philippines - The four boys of Raygun owe David Bowie a lot. After all, they got their name from a line in Moonage Daydream, a track off the legendary “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” album, the one in which The Thin White Duke warbled about — you guessed it — ray guns. In a way, the fact that they are also from Brixton is a rather nice flourish, a mix of destiny and good old-fashioned talent.
With cheekbones that offer no apologies, Raygun’s frontman, enigmatically called Ray Gun, moves as if he were possessed by the ghost of Michael Hutchence. Then there’s The Adj, the group’s scarf-swaddled songwriter, on “war guitar and audio discovery.” Add Ben Lyonsmyth on bass (“hip shaker and bottom end”); add Sam Embery on drums (“pace maker and heartbreaker”) and you have a new band that could easily turn a jaded music snob into a wide-eyed Spring Break virgin. Wearing their influences with both glam and grit, they summon everything from the Scissor Sisters’ space-age disco to Mick Jagger’s showmanship.
Supreme was fortunate enough to have met the band in Malaysia during their first-ever gig in the region two months ago, an encounter that felt more like happy hour at the pub than, well, work. Now on the last leg of their Asian promo tour, Raygun is set to share their bright musical blueprint with the kids of Manila.
SUPREME: Which era in music history do you consider your favorite?
RAY GUN: Most of our music is inspired by the early ‘70s, from 1970-1975. Specifically, it would definitely be the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, his Berlin period when he worked with Brian Eno.
THE ADJ: When I was writing the songs, I was influenced by bands who were trying to keep up with disco. I was kind of perpetually trying to write Miss You by the Rolling Stones.
Do you listen to any other bands?
RAY GUN: Empire of the Sun – we really love what they do. Yeah, I love how their vision is to create a big stage show that they take on tour with them and make a big theatrical performance out of that. It’s quite amusing because no one’s done anything like that.
Do you consume music any differently now that you’re in a band? Do you still buy CDs or do you download songs?
THE ADJ: Mostly downloads for me, but I pay for them. When it kicked off, the whole downloading thing for free, I did actually jump right into it. It was really interesting because it was obviously very easy to check out varied stuff. Now that legitimate ways have caught up, I buy songs because there are no quality issues. The downside to that is I miss going to record shops.
RAY GUN: Do you know Spotify? Basically I’d use that as a tool to find new artists. You can listen to the whole track on that.
Is it like Pandora?
RAY GUN: Yeah. It is a lot like Pandora. The shame though with something like Spotify is that a lot of the time you’re not really buying music. You buy music occasionally from iTunes or record stores. Maybe the concept of music doesn’t really exist anymore.
How did you start writing your first single, Just Because?
RAY GUN: Adj started writing when we began this project and the chorus came in and out. What normally happens when we’re songwriting is that we both write individually. We’ll come together and finish it off.
THE ADJ: If you do it on your own you often have to leave it for a period of time then come back to it. But when you write with someone else, you just show it to them and they go, “No, that doesn’t work.”
How about your video? Do you know that Ash made a similar video for their song A Life Less Ordinary? It was for that old movie with Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor.
B I don’t really know that video very well, but do you know that movie Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino? We really liked that one.
So you filmed everything against a green screen?
RAY GUN: I was on a car but we weren’t traveling a hundred miles an hour. (Laughs) There were four or five big guys rocking the car and a wind machine was on. I caused a lot of damage to that machine, like $10,000… scratches and bumps.
I have the Funkagenda and Bimbo Jones remixes of Just Because and they sound so different from the original. Do you pick who remixes your stuff?
RAY GUN: We’ve got ideas of people that we want remixes by. We haven’t had the time really to approach remixers since we’ve been so caught up in stuff that we’re doing. Funkagenda approached our record label and asked if they could do one. Funkagenda’s been quite interesting. Very different.
SAM EMBERY: You spend so much time making sure that everything sounds good on your record that you don’t really think of someone else coming in and tearing it all apart. (Laughs)
THE ADJ: Remixes are actually a new concept for us because when you start a band, you don’t really think about the remixes. But yeah, Calvin Harris is coming in to remix our stuff.
Whoa. Calvin Harris? I love Calvin Harris! Off-topic, but his birthday is two days before mine! (Laughs)
THE ADJ: (Laughs) He’s a cool dude.
What do you do when you’re not touring or slugging it out in the recording studio?
RAY GUN: Watch movies.
And the last one you watched?
RAY GUN: Moon, starring Sam Rockwell. It was directed by Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son.
THE ADJ: It’s a bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey. You should go see it.
* * *
Catch Raygun live on their special showcase on Sunday, Oct. 18, 5 p.m. at SM North EDSA The Block with special guest Callalily. They’re also scheduled to guest on top-rating TV show S.O.P. as well as on music channel MYX.
“Raygun” is now out on CD under Sony Music. The Raygun Philippine Promo Tour is brought to you by PLDT myDSL, SM Supermalls, Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila and MYX (the official music channel).
