Interview: The Bonnevilles

The Bonnevilles are a two piece blues outfit from Lurgan…Andrew McGibbon Jr. on guitar & /vocals and Chris Mullan on drums. They make a thrilling punk blues racket and have been carving out a career through relentlessly touring their dynamite live shows, self-released recordings and buckets of self-belief. They finally make it to Bristol on Tuesday 20th when they hit The Exchange. Andrew has taken the time to answer a few questions for us and reveal something about the workings of the band.

For those who aren’t familiar with your outfit give us a quick origin story – feel free to embellish and self-mythologise as much as you wish…

Ha ha! Self-mythologise, ok I have a cape and can fly and have a big hammer.  Hang on no that’s something else. Chris and I used to play in another Garage Punk outfit called The Childish Thoughts. I was on bass, Chris drums. We had a blast played lots of gigs and usually got pretty fucked up before during and after the shows. Good times. I had been playing in another two piece but it didn’t work out but I still had an itch to continue on with the duo format. I asked a couple of different drummers to fill in but they didn’t get it or weren’t right. I asked Chris to fill in until I got someone permanent as I didn’t think he actually wanted the job, he agreed and that’s that. He actually formally joined the band during a radio interview on the BBC when he pointed out he’d never actually been formally asked to join, so I asked him on the air and he agreed.

What’s the best thing about being a two piece, what makes it works for you?

Obviously the logistics, it’s much easier, it doesn’t take a lot to get to a gig but I know a few other duos who don’t get around as much as us. Quite simply the reason we’ve made it work is because we want to do it, we turn nothing down and will travel for days to get to a show. One piece of advice I’d give any young musician, and I generally stay away from giving advice, is get a driving license and a van and get out there. It’s a brave new old world now and the old business model of doing everything through a label is over, use the net and be awesome. I can count on one hand the things we’ve had to reject and that’s over 8 years of existence.

What’s the most irritating thing about being a two piece, what’s the biggest drawback?

As a song writer it’s limiting, sometimes I’d love to hear a bassline, organ or second guitar but that’s also the good thing about it, because it’s limited in its form it forces you to be inventive and just get on with it.

What’s the best thing about being a band in NI?

The scene is quite small but really good right now. There are some fantastic bands and we all know each other really well. Some of the bands are properly world class and are getting out there. The gig scene is pretty healthy, some good festivals. We love it.

What’s the worst thing about being a band in NI?

There’s not much in the way of the industry here. We have a few bodies making a noble attempt to monetise the music for us but basically we’re too small to have labels come and check bands out and all that stuff.

What’s the best thing about being a band in the sci-fi 21st century with social media, mobile phones, downloads and streaming?

Puts you in control of your output, regarding the above point. Labels don’t come here that doesn’t mean you can’t be your own label, in fact I’d go so far to say that without the internet The Bonnevilles wouldn’t exist. We have done everything ourselves until recently. It’s only this last year we’ve hooked up with Alive Records and got booking agents that want to work with us, until then we did everything.

What’s the worst thing about being a band in the sci-fi 21st century with social media, mobile phones, downloads and streaming?

I guess the stealing of the music en-masse is pretty shit but it was ever thus. Before mp3 it was home taping; mp3 makes it extremely convenient I guess. The real problem is people don’t take time to learn and love an album like they used to.  You’d buy a record and literally live and breathe it until you had absorbed it, knew every note. Now you can’t just download Tom Waits’ entire back catalogue in two hours and skip through it and never have the experience of living and loving just one album at a time.

What’s your most favourite thing about touring?

We love touring. I’ve wanted to be a musician since I was around 10 years old and consider touring to be a badge of honour, paying dues. Child me would be very happy with how he turned out I think, living this privileged existence as a musician.  Sometimes when I need a pick me up I think of me as a boy and what he would think about this life pleases me. Getting to play in different places, meeting new people, coming home inspired to write new music.

What’s your least favourite thing about touring?

I don’t want to complain too much but obviously it’s not all gravy. The biggest thing is being away from my wife Janie and my kids Summer and Lily. We’re a very tight wee unit and miss each other terribly but we’ve all accepted I have to do it and try to be as stoic as possible but when I leave on tour there are a lot of tears. Touring itself, trying to stay fit is an effort, getting in some exercise can be hard, getting good fruit to eat on the road is nearly impossible in the UK otherwise you end up eating that crap in those service stations, massive fucking pasties with nothing in them and huge bags of crisps. Lack of sleep is hard to deal with but you get used to it. We’ve been doing this for a long time now so we’re kinda good at it I think.

What’s your most favourite thing about meeting and interacting with fans?

The fact we have any is a genuine joy to us. People tell us how much they like this song or that album. When they quiz you about lyrics and what they mean to them.  That’s a real treat. Our fans are awesome, we need to have a good time with the audience it makes the show for us.

What’s your least favourite thing about meeting and interacting with fans?

When they want to get you drunk. We can’t be getting pissed up every night, we usually have a couple of beers and there are some places we play that we have a lot of fans that have become friends over the years and we can’t really not hang out with them, it would be rude but some guys start buying Jaegerbombs and all we want to do is get to the hotel to go to sleep, especially if we’ve a long drive the next day. But hey ho, it’s not much of a complaint is it. “Jesus Christ I wish people would stop buying me booze” ha ha, dry your eyes. Oh and remembering everyone’s name, we really try but it’s hard sometimes.

What’s your most favourite thing about recording?

I’m not really sure I have a favourite thing, I find it to be a very anxious time. The self-doubt of the artist comes into effect here (not that I would use a grand word like that to describe myself) but basically you never know if you’ve written a load of crap and then trying to get a faithful recoding of it that people want to hear is another issue. I guess I like mixing the most, happy mistakes in the recording process are good we love to leave those in as it adds to the flavour.

What’s your least favourite thing about recording?

As above really. Just anxiousness. We write songs and gig them and are sure they’re ok then when it comes to recording it’s a completely different skill set required and you have to have a different type of discipline which because we record fast, like all our albums have all been recorded in a couple of days you don’t get time to develop that skill. Then you’re out of the studio for three years when you have to do it all again.

What’s your most favourite LP of all time?

Ass Pocket of Whiskey – RL Burnside. This album is the most important modern blues album in my opinion and a huge influence on us.

What’s your least favourite LP of all time?

Ha ha, anything by Metallica. (Chris loves Metallica)

Tip us off on some great emerging talent from back home?

Well… Ciaran Lavery, Malojian, Michael Mormecha, Petty Youth, Sinnocence, Robin G Sheils, Wood Burning Savages, Cursed Sun, Trucker Diablo, Jealous Of The Birds, The Hardchargers, Nasa Assassin, No Oil Paintings, R51. Seriously this list could be a mile long, there are so many great bands from Northern Ireland all of the above are world class and a varied bunch.