Ganglians

“We’re not what people would think of as typically Californian – like show your long hair and smoke weed!” sagt Ryan Grubbs, langhaariger Kopf der der Ganglians. Dabei klingen er und seine “Gang of Aliens” ein bisschen wie Engel aus einer anderen Welt.

“I started Ganglians as a solo project but I knew I wanted to do it as a band eventually. I wanted a gang of similar thinking people and I was lucky enough to find them.”

What do you think about people comparing you with the Beach Boys?
We’re influenced by everything around us, especially our friends. It’s weird if people mention the Beach Boys. We were never trying to sound like them. I was in a church choir when I was younger. When I started Ganglians I did naturally what I knew best. Brian Wilson also came from a church choir or an a cappella background. Both bands had a mutual influence in that respect. So these comparisons are flattering ones.

You were in church choir?
My parents always looked for extra-curricular things for me to do. So they sent me to choir from first grade through fifth grade. I learned a few things eventually. But I probably learned more from just listening to recordings of Christmas music all the year around. I just loved the beautiful angelic voices and harmonies. So I knew how to use my voice.

Do you like classical music or classic rock?
I would say Neil Young and CCR, Cat Stevens. I remember that I would listen to Mozart and absorb it, but I admit that I really liked it as a kid. Then I saw the movie Amadeus. It’s still one of my favourite movies. Even though it might be somewhat fictional. Before that, I thought classical musicians were boring and stiff. But after that movie I realized that they were freaks too in their own time.

The NME said: “Ganglians make us want to move to California and live on a beach surviving purely on cigarettes and utter contentment”!?
I live in Sacramento and San Francisco. San Francisco beach is very cold and Sacramento is inland. It’s different from the paradise vision of California. People who write the best songs of that nature have this dream of it or have that vision, because they can’t bring themselves there physically, so they bring themselves there in their state of mind.

Sacramento is the capital of the Sunshine State, right?
It doesn’t even feel like California. It feels more like the South. It has big Victorian homes with big backyards and there are lots of barbecues, just sitting on the porches, smoking cigarettes, drinking late into the night and everything moves kind of slow. There’s no schedule around people’s days. They just wander in and out. It’s very humid, hazy and swampy there, because we have a few rivers that run through the city. It’s a sinking city. It’s actually the second most flood-threatened city in the US after New Orleans.

You once said about Ganglians: “This is outsider music, but with a pop sensibility that brings everyone in.”
Our lyrics are introspective, awkward and full of doubtful optimism. It’s the pop sensibilities, the melodies that make it universal. So you’re able to accomplish something that’s very personal and something that you can give back to the audience. Even true outsiders want to feel acceptance!

Ganglians – definitely "Still Living"

Interview: AngieBlack


album: Still Living
out: 19.08.2011
Souterrain Transmissions

more about GANGLIANS and their 2010 album Monster Head Room

GANGLIANS on myspace / facebook