Artist/Band: Gun Outfit
Members: Carrie Keith, Dylan Sharp, Daniel Swire, Adam Payne, Henry Barnes
Website: Our website got taken over by a weird pro-gun algorithm and now we don’t have one.
Instagram here.
Twitter here.
Hometown: Olympia, WA, Carnation, WA, Newton, MA, LA, Claremont, CA. We’re from Los Angeles.
Latest Album/Release: “Out of Range”
Influences: Don’t want to say.
TrunkSpace: How would you describe your music?
Keith: Western Expanse.
TrunkSpace: Your latest album “Out of Range” was released in November of last year. What we loved about the album is that it really has a “feel” to it. Was creating a sort of audible environment something you set out to do when putting the album together?
Keith: Of course, that’s why we recorded at Gauchos and pay for tape and went broke mixing it – we are an actual real band writing original romantic songs.
TrunkSpace: As a band you have plenty of previous recordings under your collective belts, but was there something that you set out to do differently with “Out of Range” that you hadn’t tackled in the past, either creatively or through the process itself?
Keith: I think this is why they don’t give me the interviews because I’m like, “What the hell kind of question is this?” and they’re like, “That’s the most common interview question.”
TrunkSpace: It many ways, it’s almost like we can hear the landscape through your music, as if you have somehow connected the world around you to the notes themselves. Do you believe that an artist’s surroundings can directly impact the art being created?
Keith: Thank you. No, I don’t think so. I think it’s about the interiors.
TrunkSpace: The Gun Outfit sound has gone through a lot of changes since you first started writing music together. Internally, where do you hear those changes the most?
Keith: I just threw away a box of “Dim Light” and sent another box to Croatia to a fan just so I don’t have to look at them again. I don’t like looking back.
TrunkSpace: Has the band already moved on from “Out of Range” creatively to new material, and if so, will we hear even more changes to the sound between that album and what comes next?
Keith: I mean, we did get J.J. Cale’s drum machine and a euro agent but we haven’t even played GO “Out of Range” outside Los Angeles county so it’s not like we are moved on from it, that wouldn’t be proper. We are about to tour it in the UK and Europe.
TrunkSpace: What does your songwriting process look like? How do most Gun Outfit songs go from inception to completion?
Keith: Roll the dice, make a little poem, get the band together, get the money together to go into the studio – voila.
TrunkSpace: What has been a personal highlight for you from your Gun Outfit journey thus far? What has the experience given you that you never thought you’d find when it all first came together?
Keith: I never thought we’d stay a band. That’s the best part. And when we hit the city we stayed together and it wasn’t easy but it’s love.
TrunkSpace: Is there a particular aspect of the process that you enjoy most? Is it songwriting? Recording? Performing? Something else entirely?
Keith: Just depends. I mean, you try really hard to make it happen and it usually doesn’t work out but sometimes it does and that makes you want to keep it going – whatever it is.
TrunkSpace: Social media makes it possible to reach anybody anywhere these days, but at the same time, it seems more difficult than ever to get people engaged. How do you approach getting the word out about Gun Outfit and to break through all of the surrounding noise that seems to inundate people on a daily basis?
Keith: Just post it and don’t worry, which is probably why we aren’t popular with promoters because we don’t really care about focusing on that so much.
TrunkSpace: As you look towards the future, where do you hope to see Gun Outfit go? What do you hope to accomplish together moving forward?
Keith: I pray we get through this tour without catching the plague. I’d like to play more college radio… I like going on air.
TrunkSpace: What can fans expect from Gun Outfit in 2018?
Keith: Only hits.
