Band of the Day: We’re No Gentlemen (with bonus new video!)

Seeing as they’re dropping a new video today for their single “Night”, we just had to find out a bit more about We’re No Gentlemen. Thankfully they were more than happy to answer our questions… Oh, and the video’s at the end!

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

We come from literally all over. Amanda grew up in Vancouver, Washington. Daniele our bassist grew up in Sardinia, Italy. Lead guitarist Dan Schiz grew up in the suburbs outside of New York City. Guitarist Rikki and drummer Vince are native to Southern California.

How did you meet?

Amanda joined the band because she responded to a Facebook posted by a mutual friend saying a band was in need of a female singer. She auditioned on founding member Vince’s couch, she was asked to learn “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston (random!)

Daniele found them on Craigslist. Lame but true. Dan received a Facebook message about the audition to fill the lead guitar spot from Daniele only three weeks after moving to Los Angeles. He was then referred to Rikki who gave him the instructions to learn two songs from the EP by ear and audition only two days later. He spent those two days playing the songs over and over and even came to the audition an hour early to listen to the EP in his car to make sure he knew the songs inside and out. The rest is history.

Rikki met the band through mutual friends and heard they needed a guitarist. He came to the tryouts and won the audition. Only to find out later that he was the only audition they had, which he thought was funny. He joined in June 2016 and has been putting in work ever since.

How long have you been playing as a band?

Vince and Amanda have been playing together as a band for about two years. With our current line up, just over a year.

Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from? 

The band originally didn’t have a name and needed one before they could play a show. So when one of the members said, “Hey, we’re no gentlemen,” everyone just agreed and thought that it fit the personality of the band well, jokingly of course.

What are your influences?

Our musical tastes are all over the place. We get compared to older Paramore a lot, but we are influenced by bands like PVRIS, Rise Against, and Escape the Fate to even Korn and Thrice. Amanda gets her lyrical inspiration from Finnish band HIM and looks up to Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach for stage presence. We also listen to William Hung and Macho Man Randy Savage to get pumped for shows.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

What makes our music unique is that we all bring something different to the band. We come from different parts of the country/world, so we are inspired by and write about many different life experiences. I think this is why so many different people enjoy our music and can relate to the lyrics. We often write about dark subject matters but try to still make our music fun to listen to. Often, the two are mutually exclusive; either poppy and meaningless or dark and meaningful, yet not really mainstream. We try to combine the best of both worlds.

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

Lyrically most of our songs are pretty dark and write about painful experiences as a form of therapy. Amanda has written pretty sad lyrics for us since she joined the band, but there’s a light-hearted love song on the upcoming EP called Home. “Mirror, Mirror” is also a lighter pop-rock song. Lyrics are in the form of metaphors quite often. “Mirrors”, “Reflection” and “Disguise” are used to describe things are not always what they seem.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

The live show is as energetic, ambitious, and enthusiastic as any super determined band you could imagine. We push ourselves to the fullest extent to give our audience the best experience possible. We have played roughly fifty shows in the past year including the Las Vegas date of Warped Tour. We plan on increasing that number in the next year and playing in cities we haven’t played before.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

We were playing a show at a mall once for Battle For Vans Warped Tour and during one of the musical breakdowns, Amanda runs up the escalator and begins singing from the balcony. She’s also been known to challenge audience members to push up contests.

What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?

Dan: I play Fender Strats and Telecasters live. I mod them with Dimarzio pickups.

Rikki: I play a Schecter PT Custom, a Fender Stratocaster that I mod with Seymour Duncan Humbuckers, and a LTD ESP te-406.

Daniele: I play an Ibanez SR-505 with Mesa head & cab. And pink strings.

Vince: I’m using a Tama imperialstar with Evans Ec2 heads and an Aquarius Super Kick II for the bass drum. Pro Mark sticks all the way!

What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?

We are promoting our new music video for “Night”, which is being released on December 12th.

What are your plans for the rest of 2017, into 2018?

We plan to release our new EP in early 2018. In addition, we plan on booking a tour of the West Coast.

If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

If there was a band we would love to support, it would be either Escape The Fate or PVRIS. If any band could open for us, it would be either RVLS or Wild Eyes because they’re two awesome female-fronted bands local to us who have a similar style to us.

From previous Band of the Day Silence The Radio: If you could have one artist feature on a song of yours, who would it be?

Ville Valo of HIM.

From another BotD, Tomorrow Is Lost: If you could only take one thing on tour what would each member of the band take?

Amanda: Melatonin so I can sleep over the guys snoring

Daniele: I would bring beer to drink while I drive.

Vince: A laptop or weights to work out.

Dan: I would take anti-anxiety medication for whenever Daniele drives.

Rikki: I would take my Tempur-pedic pillow.

And from Huxtable: What is your favourite TV show theme?

Dan: Twin Peaks

Amanda: That 70s Show theme song

Rikki: Jackass theme song

Vince: Blue Mountain State

Daniele: 1960’s Batman

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