An Interview With Gigolo Aunts (1997)
Gigolo Aunts may no longer be on a major label, but major things have been happening to them lately. A power pop band that can rock like no other, Gigolo Aunts were on tour with the Counting Crows for a second time when we caught up with them backstage at The Greek prior to their show. Former Highwire Daze cover stars, we had a lot of catching up to do.
Highwire Daze: Introduce yourself, what you do for the band, and what's the most interesting thing that's happened while on tour with the Counting Crows.
Steve: Steve is my name. I'm the bass player and one of the song writers. The most interesting thing that happened is that we played in San Francisco and right after we got done playing I looked around and Adam was talking to this guy. And I realized it was Steve Young, the quarterback. He seemed happy and I thought, oh, they must have the day off. It was Sunday and he was there at the concert. And I read in the paper the next day that he had thrown 300 yards, 3 touch down passes all in one afternoon. Steve Young is one of the cooler athletes, and as I watched him and the way he behaved I thought, you know, he's just a jock. He could be someone I went to high school with.
Dave: I'm Dave Gibbs and I sing, play rhythm guitar and attract the young ladies, I believe, with some of my moves. Naw, you can scratch that. I certainly don't do that. But one of the most interesting moments so far on the tour has been when we played Red Rocks two nights. On both nights, the sun was setting just as we went on. It looked really like a cliche beautiful rock moment and it was kind of cool.
HD: One of the most interesting thing sound wise is that you went acoustic for The Sun Will Rise Again. What is the song about and why did you go acoustic?
Dave: That song is a sad song about someone who is just trying to find something to be hopeful about. And the reason we stuck it at the end is because it's going to lead up to the next thing we're going to do. And the reason it's acoustic is because it sounded better that way. We tried to work it out with the band and we found that the chords sounded better on acoustic guitars than they did played heavy. And it turned out better that way.
HD: Has it been hard since you've been between labels? Has it really taken a toll on the band?
Steve: Not at all. We can support our selves better than RCA ever could. We do better selling stuff ourselves, going in on a cold call and playing some place where only one-one hundredth of the audience has ever even heard of us and try our best to win them over. It's been really successful that way. We've sold ten times more records on this tour than we ever did on RCA just by ourselves.
HD: Explain Wicked Disc and how the deal came to be.
Dave: It's basically a local label in Boston that's ran by Newberry Comics, which is the coolest of the big record stores around. They were starting a label, we had some stuff in the can after we got off RCA and they basically said "We'll put out anything you want." And it was good for us locally, because they have all these stores around Boston so we had a lot of distribution there and it got played on the radio a lot. It was something we did to get something out and keep us going until the next thing.
HD: How did the tour get started with Counting Crows?
Steve: Adam asked us if we wanted to do it and we were honored and flattered. They've been nothing but great to us. I doubt there are many bands who are unsigned who get to play these big places. It was nice of him and The Wallflowers to take a chance on us because they probably could have gotten a lot of labels to pay to go on the road like that which still happens a lot.
Dave: I'll say one thing for Adam. We've known a lot of fair weather friends in the music business in the last few years and he's definitely not that kind of dude. He's always been interested in anything we've done and he's never forgotten about us.
HD: Will any of the songs on the EP appear on the new album?
Steve: No, none of the songs on the EP will. If you want the EP you better get it now. I don't know how many more they're gonna print. It's already gone through three or four printings and I don't think they're gonna print any more. So if anyone out there is reading this and is even vaguely interested in it, go get it.
HD: There's yet another girl on the cover and she's not Chloe. Can you explain why?
Dave: That was a girl I met in a bar. I have night blindness and I can't see in the dark. I said, "I think Chloe's standing over there." I thought it was, I got up close and I realized it wasn't. I sent this friend of mine who plays in The Pushkings –who are really good, everyone out there should buy their record –to go over and ask her if she would be interested in being on the cover. We were going to get Chloe to be on it again, but now she's kind of like her own little cult star.
Steve: Her name is Anna.
Dave: All you single guys out there –or single ladies, I don't know –you can write to her. She's very nice.
This is the second time the band has opened for the Counting Crows. If they ever could get a supportive label behind them, they wouldn't have to risk putting out an EP and could tour for a full album. Watch out for a new album soon.