Lee Barratt [Gallows] Recaps 2009

British Hardcore punk band Gallows have been touring all over the world in support of their latest release "Grey Britain." The band's breed of hardcore punk, landed them a 4 album £1 million deal with Warner Music (UK).

"Grey Britain" (the follow up to 2006's highly successful album "Orchestra of Wolves") has been receiving some great reviews and if you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do (don't be living in the yesteryears, join the cool crowd ya bastards!)

While the band is still currently on tour, which is becoming Gallows' usual routine. Drummer Lee Barratt took a few moments to answer some questions recapping 2009.

Lee answers questions about the band's latest album, his favorite releases for 09 and the decade, the global recession, twitter and a lot more!

Here's how it went:

TMR: 2009 saw the release of Gallows’ latest studio album “Grey Britain.” Listening to the release lately, are you happy with the end result?

Lee: Yes, I was actually listening to a few of the tracks again a couple of weeks ago because there's some songs on there we hadn't played since May and I needed to refresh my memory of them for the current UK tour we're on!

We were incredibly lucky to be able to do everything we wanted when we recorded the album. We wanted real strings on there so we got a 32 piece orchestra to record them in a huge studio, we wanted all the samples to be real too so we had our friends go out in London at 4am to record the Thames and things like Big Ben (which you can hear at the start of The Vulture Act II)

The album sounds 10 times better than Orchestra Of Wolves and working with GGGarth Richardson really brought out the best in us as musicians. He knew what we were aiming to achieve with the record and sonically, I think it's everything we could have hoped for.



TMR: 2009 was also a great year for metal and hardcore music; what are some of your favorite albums of the year?

Lee: There's been a bunch of great albums released this year, some of my favorites have been the Stray From The Path, Iron Age, Leathermouth, Kylesa, Converge & Between The Buried And Me. I couldn't pick a certain one out of those that stands out but they all shred hard.



TMR: Now that the decade is coming to an end, what are some of your favorite releases in the 2000s?

Lee: Wow, that's an incredibly hard question!! The list would be fucking huge if I was to name all my favorites but there's definitely always bands I come back to more regularly than others... I'm a huge fan of bands who keep pushing themselves musically and I think in this decade you can see the progress made for heavy music in artists such as Poison The Well, Converge & Mastodon. They've all released albums that have inspired myself and Gallows in some way. There is a Scandi band called JR Ewing who released two amazing albums this decade which had a massive influence on Gallows when we first started so they are a band well worth checking out.



TMR: What’s the craziest encounter you had this year?

Lee: I'd have to say the craziest encounter I've had was with my now fiancee! I met her on Warped tour in the line for lunch when I shouted at her for not coming to see Gallows play yet and I guess as they say, the rest is history.



TMR: The global recession has been a very effective step back for a lot of events, and festivals. Did the recession effect you on some level?

Lee: Very much so. I think it's probably affected 90% of all touring bands and unless you're in a band like Green Day or Metallica which is basically a cash cow, a lot of bands have had to think about the way they're touring and the best way to economize since the recession hit. We've been at a comfortable level where we could tour in a bus but right now we're back to touring in a van as it's more economical for the band. It's also a lot more fun and keeps the band communication at an all time high haha!

I think the biggest part the recession has had is in ticket and record sales. Lots of festivals this year were hit with poor sales but on the other hand, some punters decide they want to spend all their gig money on a ticket to a festival with many bands so they don't pay for a ticket to see a band when they tour through their home town. It's a weird time to be touring which is part of the reason we decided to go back to basics more on this current tour and play smaller, intimate venues where we know the atmosphere will be better and we can get in the crowd's faces.



TMR: What are 3 things you’d like to change about the past decade if you had the chance?

Lee: We've made some silly decisions but I would probably say that I wouldn't change anything because those decisions have helped us grow as a band and we know not to make the same mistakes again. The music industry is something you're constantly learning about and sometimes it is amazing, other times it isn't. I try not to dwell too hard on things I'd like to change but would rather look forward to the future!



TMR: How many tweets have you tweeted so far in 09?

Lee: I just checked and I've made 1,555. I don't know if that means I'm a Twitter-holic?!



TMR: What do you have planned for 2010?

Lee: We're going to take the first 6 weeks off and then have some re-scheduled UK shows to fulfil before heading over to Australia (for Soundwave) and Japan (for Punkspring). I think after that we'll be just hitting some of the European festivals and then spending a lot of time writing for the next record. 2010 will definitely be a quieter year for the band touring wise.




TMR: Thanks a lot Lee for taking the time to answer my questions; would you like to add anything?

Lee: If you haven't checked out Grey Britain yet then please do and thanks to the Metal Reporter for showing an interest in us this year!