Photo by: Christaan Felber
“Our basement often smelled like piss and I really miss it,” says Drew Mintz, singer and guitar player of Brooklyn band Gunfight!, of his former residence in Boston. “Drew means that he misses the house and the shows—not the piss! I think,” says Bill Dvorak, lead guitar player for Gunfight!
While living in Boston and attending Emerson College, Drew met Bill and a musical friendship ensued. “We spent about a year living and playing music there. Bill and I ended up living together in a house where we threw DIY shows. There was a lot of drinking, a lot of noise, a lot of broken glass, dry-wall, and banisters,” says Drew.
“Our band was able to develop a bit by playing shows in local basements, including our own, pretty regularly. We had some epic early shows, including one where our first drummer, Eric, was peeing in the corner of the basement in between songs and also trying to climb a ladder,” says Bill
Upon finishing up at Emerson, both Drew and Bill soon moved to NYC and both were joined by Anthony Aquilino on bass/vocals and Rich DiGregorio on drums/vocals.
“When we first started playing in New York we did the thing where you play to just a few of your friends on a random bill at a random venue on a Monday night,” says Bill.
While the group might have started out playing to mostly empty rooms, things are starting to change for Gunfight! and with good reason. Gunfight!’s music, post-country as they like to call it, is both engaging and refreshing, a fusion of post-punk and country that’s both innovative and absorbing.
Although some of the country awesomeness of Gunfight! comes from likely sources, such as Hank Williams, there’s an even more unlikely inspiration for the band. “[We have] to give some credit to the second Kings of Leon record [it] became the basis of [our sound],” says Drew, “on that album (and none since) they [combined] what was going on [with contemporary] indie-rock and the garage rock revival with country and southern rock. It was truly inspiring for us and we ran with it.”
“We’re not really fans of anything the Kings of Leon have done since that second record,” adds Bill. Fair enough.
Kings of Leon influence or not, Gunfight! does something special with all the elements involved. ‘All You Need’ feels much less country, much more punk rock screamer, and Drew’s howling vocals on top take the song to a whole new level. ‘Broke With Holes’ is as down home a rocker as you’re likely to find, while the lyrics speak a myriad of themes including “broken American dreams, broken infrastructure, wanting to make out, and July 4th,” according to Drew. Even slower numbers like ‘If You Ain’t Gonna Leave Me’ waltzes along with equal parts sweet sounding guitars and contemplative lyrics.
The members look at their approach as something of a new way to understand country music in general. “[Our sound] is uniquely different from classic country, outlaw country, or even alt-country. Post-country was our way of joining in this tradition, but making a clear attempt to reinvent it for kids like us, whose experience as Americans were no less American than those of people in Tennessee,” says Drew.
All of this, in a strange way, makes Gunfight! a uniquely Brooklyn band, emblematic of the city’s diversity. And the band also recognizes this themselves. “A country-punk band like ours may rarely end up on the same bill as many of the surfy, psych, or noise bands, that sometimes seem to dominate the attention that Brooklyn gets from outsiders, but if you lived here, you’d know that despite the diversity we are still at each other’s shows, we still love what each other is doing, and we certainly share the same spirit that bring us each individually to music and art,” says Drew.
Altogether, Gunfight! is on their way to some nice things. “We’ve progressed to the point where we now we can play most of the good smaller-level venues regularly, on weekends, with up-and-coming bands to a good-sized crowd,” says Bill, “We play Brooklyn Bowl soon, which is a far cry from our poorly-attended 8pm slots at [super small bars] from a few years ago.”
Check out Gunfight! here, and here.
You can see Gunfight! at Goodbye Blue Monday on April 30th, at Brooklyn Bowl on May 23rd, at Hillstock Festival on June 3rd and on June 9th at Bruar Falls.
