Interview with Chris Behm of Gunner’s Daughter by Sean Stepp

GUNNER’S DAUGHTER
Interview with Chris Behm (Vocalist / Guitarist) 
By Sean Stepp

Tell us a bit about how GUNNER’S DAUGHTER came to be. Were any of you guys in other bands together before GD? When did you guys form and what were some of the common visions you guys had in common?

GUNNER’S DAUGHTER started out in the summer of 2007. I had just moved back to the area after being on the road tour managing for a few years. At the time I promised myself that I was completely finished with music and band stuff. I was trying to get my post touring life started- aka: a stable job.
I had met Joe in 2002 when I first moved to the Chicagoland area from Buffalo, NY to join a band called THE FOLD. When THE FOLD wasn’t working out anymore, I got a job at a nearby skate shop to pay the bills. I met Joe there and we immediately became good friends. I stayed in touch with Joe even after I moved away and anytime that I was on tour coming through the Chicago area I always gave him a shout to come down and hang out. After the touring shoes were hung up, and I was finished with the band/music world, I still went to shows, but I was really trying to get my life going. Joe and I started hanging again and he expressed interest to me on multiple occasions that he wanted to buy a bass and learn how to play. I agreed that if he bought something I would show him a few things here and there. Not knowing it at the time, this was the beginning of GUNNER’S DAUGHTER.

What’s it like being an up and coming band in a music scene with so much history? Do you feel any added pressure in the writing process because of it?

Being a new band in a scene that we both love and respect is an honor and a privilege. A lot of newer bands seem to not understand that and after awhile start to take certain things for granted. We as a scene and a community belong to this together. That’s been lost somewhere along the way. We try to keep that going. As far as added pressure, there are constant pressures on anyone that creates. Some people worry too much about that stuff. For instance, is this song any good, is the chorus catchy enough, can this be a single, etc… We try not to focus on that too much. If we like it and it sounds good to our ears than in the end that is all that really matters to us.

You just dropped your second release on Death To False Hope Records. I really enjoyed it. What were some of the inspirations for the songs?

Trust us when we tell you it has a lot going on as far the lyrics are concerned. “Grindstone” is our ode to the very thing that may end up breaking us (this band, this music, this scene and all of the sweaty drunken nights). This is what we love! “A High Fidelity Moment” is basically me relating to the movie High Fidelity. In that movie the character Rob and I are very much a like, so much in fact, that I went on a “What does it all mean” kick for a bit. But in the end, I decided that unlike Rob, I am better off to just keep it moving straight ahead and not be thrown back into a path that I was once led down. As tempting and beautiful as that path may be. “22 degrees & Falling” is about hunkering down in your cold, one bedroom apartment in the dead of the Chicago winter wondering why you never moved to California when you had multiple opportunities. “Late Night Remedies” is about the thoughts, feelings and experiences that I went through when I left the safety net of Buffalo, NY for the first time in my life. My eyes were wide open and my senses were tingling because I was just now for the first time alive. The term late night remedies is referring to of course, the liquid kind.

A little birdie told me you guys are confirmed for The Way Out West Fest in Tucson AZ next year. Any truth to that? Are you going to do a full West Coast tour down to it?

There is a lot of truth to that. In fact, we are most definitely confirmed for Way Out West Fest and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Blake went last year and forged a lot of awesome friendships that have helped us out in the past year. He had a blast and wanted us to be a part of it so badly this year. I guess he worked his magic because we are! As far as touring plans, the ideas are starting to fly around right now that we might possibly do a quick run down the west coast prior to the fest. Who that will be with yet, I’m not sure. I do know that we really want to try and make it work. Timing, money and logistics all come into play unfortunately. Hopefully we can do it.

Do you all have any plans for an end of the year push? More recording, touring and/or anything of that nature?

We are hitting the studio to do a couple of songs for a possible four way split. Good buddies of mine from New York GAMEDAY REGULARS (Mightier Than Sword) are an awesome new band and they are interested as well as a few others like CIVIL WAR RUST and BLACK SAILS, WESTERN SHORES. All the details are being hammered out as we speak. The idea is to get a band from each region of the country. East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Scotty at Death To False Hope Records will be releasing it digitally on his site and we may press a few as well. Very excited for this because the three newer songs we are recording have only been played live a handful of times. I can’t wait to get them into the studio and really mess with them.

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