10 Questions with Three for the Gallows
The Surreal Interview

1) Tell us a little bit about the band - your members, where you are from, and how you got started.
Chris is a greaser who used to have a really bad temper.  When I met him he had a big pompadour but got his hair ripped out when he took on three Nazi punks at a party.  It’s grown back now though.  He is also a really great actor and has been in a few of short indie films including Scream like a Girl which is great!  He and I started playing music together and went through three drummers before we met Justin.  He was pretty metal back then so we were a little skeptical but he turned out to be perfect for the band.  He’s kind of our Freud on the road, keeps us in line, since Chris and I are so fucked up.  I (Mike)…hmm what does one say about themselves…I make films and play guitar.  When TFG first started I was savagely political, it was right around the time George W. Bush took office and I was always screaming about him on stage and telling the audience they were all going to get drafted and go to war for oil.  It’s scarier now that a draft is a possibility.

2) How many shows do you guys play a month - are they all in town/how far do you travel?
Now a days it really varies.  We are all so busy with other projects.  We used to play about three times a month.  We’ve played nearly every club in Minneapolis/St. Paul except two or three.  We’ve traveled all over the country and gone on three tours.  Our last one took us to Memphis/Nashville area and we played all over Tennessee.  It was great until our van broke down and we ran out of money, then it got kinda hard.  But a few hours of playing on the street buys beer and beer replaces food and makes a band happy.  Our first tour was in a Honda Civic.  We just strapped all the drums on the roof.  It was quite a time.  I was joking with Taking Back Sunday at a show, because they had a huge tour bus with a trailer and we came riding up in this weighed down Honda civic piled high with drums.

3) Does everyone in the band help write the song lyrics?
No, just me.  

4) What do you use for lyrical inspiration – what do you like to write songs about?
When we started out we were a dirty little garage rock band and I wrote these weird little political satires about historical people and events like Medgar Evers and the protests of the 1960’s.  I was obsessed with civil disobedience (the action not the band) and I wrote a lot about changing things by creating art or tearing the system apart.  Later I started writing more about social issues and commentary.  Like the song “Desperation” on the compilation CD is a cynical look at the rock and roll lifestyle we all like to pretend were living and the bullshit self pity of all the hipsters I know.  “Boo hoo my girlfriend hates me and I can’t find my white belt…I am the only one who knows what it’s like to be this desperate!”

5) Who would you say your major influences are / who do your fans think you sound like?
Our fans think we sound like shit!  No seriously…we have no fans.

As for musical influences:  I learned guitar from listening to old Link Wray records so he is my major influence.  Later I was really influenced by Hickey.  Chris really digs obscure Rockabilly.  Also trashy Rock and Roll (like Nashville Pussy) and he loves Johnny Cash.  I think Justin was really influenced by Nirvana, his old band sounded very similar to them.  Now he mostly listens to brutal metal bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and Poison the Well.

6) How did you guys come up with your band name?  Was it your original band name?
Honestly, It  just came to me one night while I was laying in bed.  We were trying to think of a name for a few days and then there it was.  Later I did a Google search for our name and discovered it was a Pulp Novel from the 1950’s which is even cooler.

Originally it came from the idea that we were three radicals against the system or that our three liberties (Life, Liberty, pursuit of happiness) were in danger of being destroyed…or some pseudo political crap like that.

7) Does the band have a favorite venue / city to play at?
7^th Street Entry in Minneapolis is one of our favorites.  We played there with Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and it was one of the best nights of my life.  But on the top of our list is The Popcorn.  We had a show cancel on us on our first tour and we rolled into some bum fuck town in northern MN or Illinois and I said “Stop the car I’m gonna get us a show!”  The dudes thought I was being stupid but a few bars later we got a show at the Popcorn.  The local punks told us it sucked.  It was empty at first but after we started playing we packed the place.  It was wall to wall standing room only and there were people dancing and singing along to the catchy choruses.  After we were done the place cleared out and a Dave Matthews cover band played.  It was very surreal.

8) Fill us in on some new bands that we should check out that we might not have heard of yet.
The Fucking Americans, Swashbuckler, The Skinnys, Hopestick, Tav Falco and Panther Burns, Dan Melchior’s Broke Review, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Reverend Glasseye and his Wooden Legs, Hickey, Rock and Roll Soldiers, Atreyu, The Cheeps, Blizzard of 78, Dresden Dolls, Jonathan Fire Eater…the list could go on and on and on.

9) What's more important to you guys in your music...awesome lyrics or a sweet sound?
If we could achieve sweet sound we might actually be able to play on a weekend sometime.

No seriously I think the most important thing to us is community.  It’s meeting other musicians having a party with them, hearing their art.  It’s important to create, extend yourself and introduce people to something they haven’t experienced yet.

When we started out, our lyrics were really important because I wanted to say something or prove something or preach something.  I was pissed about the state of the country, having a fascist in the White House, people having nothing concrete to rally around.  Then it occured to me that building up solid relationships and creating a real underground scene was far more important.  I created the RevolutionRock Underground.  It was a group of bands that couldn’t get exposure who all helped each other out so we could force the scene to see us.  Now all the bands are getting some exposure so it helped out a little I think.

10) Anything else we should know about the band?
Well…Chris broke out our back window on tour when he was drunk and trying to shot put a rock…but he doesn’t like that story much (we do though).  I cracked my ribs by falling on my guitar in the middle of a solo during a set.  Justin got whipped at a fetish bar above Exit Chicago punk bar, then we had to sleep in the car in zero degree weather only to wake up to a cop staring in at us.  Nearly every show we play there is 1. a fight involving one of our members, 2. lasting friendships.  In Memphis I got in a fight with a girl who was being filmed for MTV Pimp My Ride.  She was smacking me with her shoe while MTV filmed it, then we unwittingly hung out with a group of crackheads and then wound up sleeping in our van in the parking lot of a police station.  We have extreme difficulty finding places to stay while playing out of town so please put us up if you ever see us play.  We always behave ourselves when people help us out.  In Denver I drank several glasses then three full pitchers of beer and fell under the van and almost got run over, Chris freaked out cuz he saw it and Justin got dropped while taking his first Keg Stand.

Our Motto is:  “I wanna fuck shit up, but it’s too early and I’m not drunk.”

If you want a FREE 7" RECORD by Three For the Gallows, contact Mike at: Prettyboyfloyd@evilemail.com.

Check out more on Three For The Gallows on their band bio page in the XROXX Artist Directory: http://www.xroxx.com/bands/Threefo.php or on their website: http://threeforthegallows.iuma.com.

Scott Hanson
scott.hanson@XROXX.com