The Gloria Story have just come to the end of a run of dates with The Quireboys. We didn’t get a chance to chat to them on the road (silly trains and not running to suit our hectic schedules), so asked them to answer our Band of the Day questions instead. While out on the road, vocalist and guitarist Filip Rapp took to the keyboard and supplied us with the following…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from a mid-sized town in Sweden called Skövde. Between our two big lakes.
How did you meet?
Some of us are childhood friends, and the rest of us met through mutual friends and noticed that we gravitated towards the same kind of music.
How long have you been playing as a band?
The Gloria Story was formed in 2009. However, since then the band has had several lineup changes. The current lineup has played together for about two years.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Sounds a bit silly, right? Well, legend says a girl named Gloria Story made a name for herself as a groupie back in the 60’s New York scene. We added “the” to her name to create a more bandlike expression.
What are your influences?
We’re into 70’s rock and love the more cheerful stuff from that era. Kiss, AC/DC and Cheap Trick are amongst our house gods.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Where many retro-rockers like Rival Sons or Graveyard try to recreate the heavier sounds of past masters, we’re much more cheerful. The Gloria Story is a happy bunch of people, bringing on a happy show. Entertainment, basically.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We write about pretty much everything; from love and passion to dealing with everyday life. The lyrics on our latest album also deal with issues like the DJ-phenomenon, how rock clubs close down and puts DJs on stage… leaving us with an “Electric wasteland” so to speak.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’ve done about 200 shows. But only a few unplugged ones. We’re usually pretty wild, flamboyant, happy and energetic. The unplugged shows are still cheerful, but much more focused on the music. We feel that we sound really good this way.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
At Sweden Rock Festival 2012 the power died three chords into our first song. It felt a bit awkward to be in front of that big crowd with the PA-system all dead. In order to entertain the crowd while the problem got fixed we had to start sing a longs, smash some instruments and do pretty much anything we could not to lose their attention. We stopped at nothing.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We’re using acoustic instruments from Martin and Yamaha along with a vintage Korg drum-machine from the 70’s.
What are your plans for the rest of 2016 / 2017?
To complete the unplugged tour, celebrate new year’s eve and get right into writing and recording our next album which we will hopefully put out next autumn.
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!
We’d love to open for Rival Sons at some point. Or a reunited The Hellacopters. We’d bring the Swedish band Holiday Cramps as an opener. They’re really good!
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