‘You need to shut up now. This is my favorite song of theirs,’ says my stylist, Jamie. She’s cutting my hair in her living room, or office, or whatever that twenty-something room that’s got a computer, desk, chair, vacuum cleaner.

She’s set up her laptop on the desk, the Gills and Wings Myspace page open.
    ‘Bring it on,’ I say.
    “Shhh! No talking!’
    I don’t argue. She’s holding a razor.

Gills and Wings is one of those Richmond bands that I’d been meaning to check out based on their name alone. Gills and Wings. It’s just the right level of pretentious, with a slight hint of the prolific, without the potential for alienation. It’s a name that sounds like you should have heard of them, or heard them, or bought their EP. Gills and Wings. It would make a great Sailor Jerry-style tattoo.

Not ones to disappoint, Gills and Wings’ music lives up to the expectations of its name. Someone once described their sound as ‘Keen meets Muse meets Rufus Wainwright.’ My knowledge of Rufus Wainwright is limited to his appearance on the Leonard Cohen documentary Last Year’s Man, his cover of ‘Across the Universe,’ and the sad, sad knowledge my cousin’s ambition is to be his fag-hag. Muse is currently opening for U2, right? And which came first: the band Keen, or the footwear of the same name. Hmmm…must wikipedia this.

I had liked what I’d heard at Jamie’s. In my terms: Ra Ra Riot meets Coldplay meets unknown pop-something. Maybe this is Keen, maybe this is Muse. You fill in the blank.

So, by now you’ve checked out Gills and Wings’ Myspace page. If you haven’t, you should. Because in case you’re wondering, Gills and Wings sounds just like that live, with more energy. They’re that tight musically.  They should be; singer Danny Reyes and keyboardist Santiago de la Fuente studied music together at the New World School of the Arts. Guitarist Alex McCallum performed on Jason Mraz’s (yes, that Jason Mraz) first album. Matt Hulcher really impressed me as a bass player, and that’s saying a lot. He also had a pedal board and didn’t overdue the Big Muff, which made me giddy. Andy Hackett’s kit had eight cymbals, and you’re goddamn right that I watched to make sure he used all of them (He did. Along with his two floor toms).

I met up with them after the show, where we commandeered another band’s dressing room and abstained from drinking their Bushmills, before being kicked out and taking up residence in the hot tub room. What ensued? Wouldn’t you like to know.

33: This is really contrived, and I’m sorry, but where did your name come from?
Alex:  The name Gills & Wings is in reference to transformation. It comes from a song, actually the first song that we ever heard from Danny and Santi, and it was a line in the song. The whole song is about supernatural strength and kind of based off the Ubermensch theory of going beyond human. And we liked the name because it felt like it meant that’s how music is, when people hear it, they get to go beyond their normal lives and transform into whatever they like.
Danny: Singing in the shower, plus a thousand.

33: How did you guys get together, and what made you decide to move to Richmond?
Santi: Danny and I started singing in choir together, I think it was in tenth grade. We were friends for a couple of years, and for our graduation party we wrote a song together. And then we went on for about two years writing songs together. We recorded a couple of songs to send to Alex. Alex had worked with Jason Mraz.
Alex: I played guitar on his debut album.

33: Yeah, I read that. I wasn’t sure if I should bring it up.
Santi: I know, I know! We shouldn’t say it, but that’s the reason that we moved here, to be honest with you. We really like Jason Mraz, and we were really young, so we were really impressed that someone worked with Jason Mraz.
We started doing this long distance thing through the internet, and Danny and I came up for four days, and we worked with the band, 14 hours straight, just trying to put a sound together. Went back down to Miami, and Alex came down for a week. We worked on music for about a week straight, and he invited us to move into his house here in Richmond and work on some songs, put a band together. And two years passed, and we’re still here.
Matt: I started calling Alex obsessively because I heard all this buzz about this new band. I hadn’t heard any of the stuff yet but wondered if he had a bassist for the new band. Alex called me and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this great thing going on, but I can’t talk too much about it.’ And that went back and forth for a while…
Alex: Yeah, Matt kept calling on the days, every day that we were like, ‘Maybe we should get a bass player.’ And Andy had been with us since the beginning.

33: Who are some of your influences, not just bands, but individual musicians?
Danny: For singing I listen to Ella Fitzgerald, I listened to Rufus Wainwright for a little bit. The Beatles, obviously. A little bit of classical music.
Matt: As a bass player,  I look up to Michael Manring. He’s a great fretless bass player that I love. As far as bands, Dinosaur Jr. is my favorite band of all time, and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of the Moon’ is my favorite album.
Alex: Always a fan of people like Radiohead, obsessive a little here and there, Greenwood…

33: Are you more of the Jonny Greenwood camp or the Ed O’Brien camp?
Alex: Definitely Greenwood. But I think that Greenwood gets credit for anything good. I feel bad, because I think Ed O’Brien probably does a lot of great stuff. I think Thom Yorke is playing a lot of the guitar stuff, that Greenwood gets credit for, too.
Santi:  I like Radiohead  a lot. Jeff Buckley, St. Vincent. I listen to some Phoenix for dance music. I like Tiesto, I like electronic sounds, hip hop, Coldplay, John Mayer. I like bands, because bands have a refined sound. I like something that’s taken years of development as a whole to have a specific sound.
Andy: I was going to pass on this one. Can I pass? Can I have one pass?

33: Sure, but you only get one. And here’s the second question that you get to avoid deftly: Andy, I read that you and Alex collaborated on a score to an independent film. What was the name of the film, what was your experience like, and are you interested in doing more soundtrack work in the future?
Andy: It was called ‘Solitude,’ and it was kind of a low budget, indie thing. It was definitely our first foray into making music like that. We did a good bit of exploration, felt our way around in the dark, and ended up with interesting things. It was definitely a different way to work, composing songs for images. But in a way it was enlightening as well, because I think you get to exercise a different part of your brain putting sound to picture.
Alex: We’ve kind of been exploring a project that involves film and playing to that film.
Andy: We’re definitely available for soundtrack work.

33: I also read that your song ‘Circus’ was featured in an episode of ‘The Real World: Brooklyn.’ How did that happen?
Alex: We had a friend who works for TV, and he told us who to send it to. And we submitted it and didn’t think anything would happen, and a couple of months later they called and wanted to use one of the songs.  They picked the song that none of us thought they would use. That’s how it always works, right?

33: This is for Danny: I heard you were gay. How would you react if a record exec told you to play it straight?
Danny: I probably wouldn’t do it.
Alex: We’d tell them to fuck off.
Matt: Yeah.
Andy: Nor would any of us do it.
Danny: That would involve changing the lyrics. It would be incongruous with our sound. Not that it’s all of who you are, but so many songs are love songs. It’s got a lot to do with different kinds of experiences you have growing up, how you see things, are your biggest inspirations for music. It determines what you’re going to sound like.

33: If you get signed, what’s the first impractical thing you’d drop a huge chunk of change into?
Danny: I’d get gold stocks.
33: That’s not really impractical.
Matt: A beagle-basset mix.

33: That’s not that hard. You can get those on Craigslist for, like, 50 bucks.
Matt: I have one. I want another one.
Santi: A car with A/C.
Alex: An elephant.

33: Yes, of course, but what kind of elephant?
Alex: A white one, and I’d make him hang out in the room.
Andy: I’d build a home in a cave. In an undisclosed location. It’s gonna be really deluxe in the cave.

33: What are your immediate plans for the future?
Matt: Our biggest plans right now are to take this show on the road.
Andy: Do you want to mention the thing? We’re going to trying to work on kind of a multimedia project that’s going to involve our songs, video directed by Nathan Burns, the guy who did our electronic press kit. We can’t set a date on that, but we hope to work on it in the near future.

33: What’s the one song you wish you’d written?
Andy: These are hard!
Alex: The National Anthem. Happy Birthday.
Matt: ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd. I wish I’d written that. That’s a great song.
Alex: You mean, like, a serious answer? I feel that way about a lot of them.  Maybe that Wagner piece. Where would our cartoons be without him?
Andy: ‘In My Life,’ the Beatles. I think that’s a great song.
Danny: This is one of the songs, ‘I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,’ sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

Gills and Wings is available for soundtrack work and anything else that would involve exchanging sound waves for cold, hard cash. If you’re in the mood to sway and say, ‘Wow, these guys are really good,’ they’ll be playing 17 November at the Canal Club.  Show starts at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $13 in advance, $15 at the door. See them while they’re still this cheap.
And if you want an awesome haircut, check out Jamie Levine. Her Facebook page is currently awaiting your friend request.

Gills and Wings

Gills and Wings on Myspace

Gills and Wings on Facebook

Jamie's Facebook Page

By Author: Sadie Powers

Sadie Powers is the bass player for Nude Photos of Celebrities, a queer post-punk band based in Richmond, Virginia. She started playing violin in fifth grade to get out of math class and met the love of her life, bass, four years later.  Powers has played in several bands, including the Richmond cult post-rock band Planar. She considers Miles Davis’ “Flamenco Sketches” and “Brian Eno’s “1/1” to be perfect songs. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows” isn’t too shabby, either. Her greatest achievements to date are meeting her hero, Steve Reich, running after Bauhaus’ David J in spiked heels and a red feather boa, and sharing a joint with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields.  Powers lives in Oregon Hill, RVA and restores porcelain in order to fund her music habit.

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