TTNG (formally known as This Town Needs Guns) Have had quite the year. TTNG found out that their lead singer and guitar player Stuart Smith would be leaving the band to start a family and the band recruited singer Henry Tremain. However, soon after beginning work on their new record the band was faced with loosing bass player Jamie Cooper as well. As Cooper exited the band Tremain took it upon himself to take up the bass duties and transformed the band into a trio leaving brothers Tim Collis on guitar and Chris Collis on percussion.
Throughout the major shifts in the line up TTNG managed to write and release on of
my favorite albums of the year thus far. 13.0.0.0.0 was released in the first part of January 2013 and quickly started garnering major attention. I was able to send some questions to the band and after a short stint of touring in the UK, TTNG’s Chris was able to get back to us with some responses.
Note: At the original time the interview was sent TTNG had not yet changed their name.
I would like to start of by mentioning that I have been enjoying listening to the stream of the new album 13.0.0.0.0 over the last couple of days. It has been raking in tons of great reviews. How would you sum up 13.0.0.0.0 in relation to your past releases?
Thanks very much for taking a listen, glad you like it! It’s a very different record to start with. As you may know, we’ve had a change in line up with Henry joining us – he’s added a huge amount to the band and this record in particular. It was a much more interesting and exciting record to make in some ways as we had the luxury of a longer timescale to work with as well as more of a budget. We were very grateful to be in that position and to not have the pressure of having to hurry ourselves. We were also lucky enough to work with a producer (Ed Rose) who brought a ton of good ideas and years of experience with him. He was integral to the strength of the drum sound on this album in my opinion. It was also the first album that Jamie recorded with us and the bass-lines are definitely a testament to his wizardry as a musician.
I think 13.0.0.0.0 has more mature tracks in a way; we were much more aware of leaving space in this record and allowing tracks to breath a bit instead of having frantic instrumentation all the way through. This is still a prominent feature in parts of the record but we were more controlled and thoughtful in our approach, I think we had much more of an awareness of the song as a whole rather than simply thinking about our own instrument or part.
You guys have had to make big some adjustments with the changes in the band’s line up over the past year, how did this affect the writing process for the new album?
It wasn’t actually too traumatic (not for me anyway!) apart from his massively distracting eyebrows and his love of shellfish. But seriously, Henry settled in pretty quick and although he was a little pushed for time getting all the vocals ready, we made it.
I read recently that the new record’s name, artwork and concept refers to the 13th Bak’tun of the Mayan Calendar and the end of it’s current cycle as well as the beginning of the new. It obviously relates closely to start of a new cycle for the band itself. Was this concept for 13.0.0.0.0 from the beginning?
No it wasn’t something we considered form the outset actually. We were pretty late with coming up with artwork as all of our choices kept ending up with seagulls wearing waistcoats but Sargent House weren’t into this idea (mainly because the waistcoats were last season’s fashion).
I honestly cannot stop listening to the track “+3 Awesomeness Repels Water” Any personal favorite tracks from the new record? Or that you love to play live?
It’s also one of my favourites I think – we’re in the middle of working out how to play it as three and we’ve got a few ‘interesting’ ideas on doing this. It’s going to be a lot of fun to play live and a bit different to what we’re used to (miming).
You guy’s have sold guitar tab books for your song’s in the past. Any plans to release one for the 13.0.0.0.0?
Yes we’re currently working on another one but it’s mainly Gentle Giant songs tabbed out so it will be in 12 volumes. Yes, there is a real one on the way too.
Were there ever any talks over the course of all the line-up changes about changing the band’s name or sound?
Nope we’d never want to change the name, wait a minute…The sound hasn’t changed all that much in our opinion and we’l still be playing a few old songs.
In a recent interview you have said that you wanted to move forward focusing on being a three-piece band and on the new material. What are some older songs that you feel are essential to remain in your live rotation?
We’ll still be playing a few that have gone down well in past gigs so a few tracks off Animals and the self titled album such as “Chinchilla”, “Baboon”, “26…”, “If I sit still..”, etc.
What songs have been the the most difficult to play live as a trio rather than as a four-piece?
The songs with 4 people playing things at the same time. We’ve taken a while over a 
few tracks such as “+3…”, but the challenge has been fun. We’ve also developed new ways of playing them and hopefully this’ll add more variety to the live show.
This Town Needs Guns have been with the label Sargent House for a few years now. How has your experience with them been?
It’s been great! Totally sweet dudes with great haircuts who like to rock out to some good jams. They’ve been very helpful and supportive with the release of the new album and we enjoy being in their care.
What were some of your favorite albums of 2012?
Mermonte – Mermonte, Antibodies – Birthmark
Are there any guilty pleasure bands or songs that we would be surprised to find you listened to?
That William Shatner album – Shatner’s Bassoon
The early works of the Piano Dentist
Will I’m not
PJ and Declan
I saw an update today announcing a US and Canadian tour. Are there any City’s that you guys are particularly looking forward to?
We’re not sure which ones we’re going to yet but I’d have to say……Moscow.
Any chance we will get to see you in Salt Lake City?
Probably/possibly (maybe)
Unpossible (98% chance of rain)
Lastly, now that you are getting settled in with the new line-up and setting out to tour for the new record, are there any ideas on where you guys see the band a year down the road?
Hopefully doing the same thing we are now but a bit further down the road.
Links:
Purchase 13.0.0.0.0 here
Website: http://thistownneedsguns.com/