It’s been a while since we visited Swindon. Time to make that right with a few words from GETRZ, who we last talked to a year ago…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from the sunny streets of Swindon, for those who don’t know where that is, it’s in the beautiful land of Wiltshire.
How did you meet?
We all met in different ways throughout our childhood years. Dec and Dan have been friends since their first day at primary school. Dec then met Josh when they took the same drama course in college. Dan and Toby had been acquainted at parties they were both in attendance of, whilst Toby met Josh while out on the town! Dan didn’t meet Josh until introduced to him by Declan back in 2016, when the first sparks of GETRZ were ignited.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We’ve been going from strength to strength since 2017, continually climbing up the proverbial ladder. Hoping 2021 can see more growth, as sadly this year the brakes have been hit rather hard.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The band name is actually a rather funny discussion, it was mentioned in jest back when we were first trying to figure out what to call ourselves, and Josh really liked it. From that point it stuck, but we aren’t quite ready to give out the meaning behind the name yet.
What are your influences?
We all have a very eclectic music taste, and therefore a wide range of influences from classic rock, modern rock, 90’s rap, modern rap, metal bands and indie artists alike. To give you the most influential artists of each of ours, that would make it: Dan – Foo fighters (specifically Dave Grohl), Dec – Led Zeppelin, Josh – Kurt Cobain and Toby – Basement.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We feel our range of musical influences and backgrounds help meld our sound into one of an alternative rock group, whilst you’ve obviously heard of alternative rock groups before, we feel our Punk-y, energetic on-stage vibe sets us apart from the rest, bringing the party wherever we go.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Most of our lyrics are centred around issues we face as individuals, or issues that individuals will face being part of the society we live in. We like to think this connects us to our fan base and allows us to grow an army of like minded individuals.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live show has been described as explosive, with every member of this band giving every gig their all. The only way to experience it is to live it, so if anyone wants to know what the hype is about, make your way to a show. To be honest with you we couldn’t count how many gigs we’ve played, enough that it’s become a more than enjoyable routine that we’re all missing at the moment, not enough that we’re playing stadiums yet… that’s about as accurate an answer as we could give.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
I’ve seen Josh climb the rafters at The Victoria, a local grassroots venue in our hometown, and a place we frequented a lot in our downtime. The gig was electric, you could feel energy from every individual and when Josh climbed up onto the beams supporting the roof, I thought for a split second he was gonna jump into the crowd… I’m glad he didn’t, as that would have resulted in injury!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Our kit varies a lot, but most recently Dec has been playing an Epiphone ES-335, a real beaut, Josh has been using an Epiphone Flying V, which brings out the inner 70’s rock god in him. Toby recently treated himself to a fender Precision bass, and began kitting out his pedal board with some beautiful distortion, and Dan’s been using Tama drum shells with Zildjian A Class cymbals.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We don’t wanna give away too much, that would be telling.
What are your plans for 2020?
Our plans for 2020 at the moment are to keep writing while we have this very long break from gigging, and use this as a time to recuperate, and plan out a killer 2021 that’ll see us moving onto bigger and better things!
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!
This one would be tough to narrow down as a band’s decision as I know we would all have different answers, so as I’m writing this I’ll give you my answer to this question. Would absolutely love to be supporting the Foo Fighters, no question because that, to me, is the dream. The band on before us I would love to shout out a Bristol based band called We Are Parkas, they’ve been great mates of ours since we started out and they are phenomenal musicians, well worth a watch!
