I had the chance to do an email interview with Gallows Bound, and jumped at the chance! I recently shared information about their current tour and the release of their new video, “Sink In The Soil.” Which, by the way is amazing! These guys are not metal by any means and they are defiantly hard to categorize. Honestly, the best thing you can do is read the interview and then take a listen – what do you have to lose ? Nothing! And everything to gain – or well at least a new band to listen to and it doesn’t get much better than that!

So from what I can gather, you have all had music careers with other bands, and quite a few of you were in Punk bands (correct me if I am wrong!), so I am very curious as to how you guys all came together and chose (created?) this genre of music.  

Growing up our hometown had a pretty awesome punk scene. There were tons of local bands and dirty basement shows. Throughout the years a lot of us started bands with friends and were coincidentally put on the same bill almost every weekend. We did this for years, playing the same parties, house shows, bars, and Rec. centers. At some point the punk scene started to fall apart and the venues that we’d been playing started to turn us away. We were left a group of musicians with no venues or P.A. equipment, so we moved from electric to acoustic and traded the basement shows for river lots and field parties. All we wanted to do was hang out, drink, and play music. In that we discovered that our bluegrass and country roots just proved to be too hard to ignore and we ran with it.

And the name, can you give a bit of information as to how you came up with “Gallows Bound?”

Well, our mandolin player came up with it. He got it tattooed on his chest and we thought “hell, that pretty well describes us”. So we stole it from him. He’s still a little sour about the whole thing.

It looks like you have been together since 2014, ( again, please correct me if wrong) but if my above information is correct, you have all experienced touring, so I’m wondering if during all that you have ever had a pinch me moment?  Standing on stage with someone who has inspired you, ect.   

We’ve actually been together with our current line up since about 2012 but we didn’t really start touring and pushing ourselves till the release of our self titled album in 2014.

I don’t know if we’ve ever had a pinch me moment from a certain artist but we’ve definitely had it from a venue. The first time we went to New York City we got to play on the roof of C-Squat which is a legendary squat/punk venue on the lower east side of Manhattan. So many of our favorite bands were either born there or passed through the doors at some point. So that was a big deal to us.

If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be and why?
NOFX or… Wu-Tang Clan.
You are touring pretty much all of January and February, what are your plans for the rest of 2016?  And if it’s touring more, will you make it up to Michigan ?   We in Michigan are feeling a bit left out of your tour, though I can definitely understand you wanting to skip the Northern States in the Winter!   Any plans to do festivals, if so which ?

We’re hoping that kicking off 2016 with a six week tour will set the pace for the rest of this year and continue touring as much as we can. As of right now we are booked for Pickin’ in the Pasture Music Festival in Rockingham, VT on June 3&4 and Moonrunners Music Festival in Chicago on July 1-3. We hope to tour around those two festivals and add more fests to our schedule for 2016, including Michigan! We’ve been writing a lot of new material and we hope to hunker down in the fall/winter of 2016 to focus on getting a new album out.

I enjoyed the dark humor in the video of “Sink in the Soil“, how much input did you have in the concept of the video and how close did it come to the original meaning of the song?  

Our great friend Doug Stanford came up with the idea (he also recorded our latest album). He didn’t need to give us any control. Doug has the uncanny ability to be incredible at everything he does so we left the concept in his hands. I’ve always thought music videos were goofy and the idea of having to act makes me cringe but once he told us that everyone dies at the end we were sold.

I’m curious as to whether you have a favorite song that either pumps you up, or helps you get through a bad time? 

Barracuda by Heart pumps us up and gets us through the bad times

What was the last concert you went to that you weren’t performing at?  

Jordan and I recently went to see Possessed By Paul James at Hill Country BBQ in Washington DC

When you are on tour, what is something you eat that you don’t eat when you are at home?  

Our drummer Rob has to eat every 2 hours or else he turns into a gremlin, so he’s always looking on the internet for the most ridiculous unhealthy restaurant he can find. Its always good but it never ends well. Our previous tours were fueled mainly by pizza and cheap beer, but this tour is taking a burrito/taquiera theme so far.

Be sure to check out Gallows Bound and find them on social media !