Each week I try to give you a peek at a new band. Maybe of a band you have never heard of, but should have. I definitely think that Gorilla Warfare fits into this category. These guys are a 5 piece hardcore band out of Nashville, Tennessee. I have really enjoyed listening to their unique sound which is an awesome blend of old school hardcore with a dash of pure intensity added for good measure, their music will have you bobbing your head within a few seconds. They almost have a blend of Oi! in their sound as well. You could compare their sound to Madball, the Cro-Mags, and maybe some Sheer Terror in there. I would also say they have been influenced by the early 90’s hardcore movement on the
East Coast by bands such as Merauder, Bzerker, or Confusion.
Music Style: Hardcore
Location (Home Base): Nashville, TNQ:How did you guys get together or when did you decide to form Gorilla Warfare?
A: Brett just moved back to Clarksville, I was 19 and living in Northern Virginia at the time (so was Jeff), I decided to move up to be closer to family, it was always something me and the brothers talked about doing, so we started practicing in the spring of ‘04 but things didn’t start rolling until jeff moved in with us and became our full time drummer, from then things started falling into place and we hit 2005 hard taking as many shows as we could possibly play.
Q: What do the band members do when they are not playing?
A: All of us are just blue collar guys working full time jobs, nothing fancy! Brett is the family man of the group with 2 beautiful daughters! In our free time we all love going to shows, watching some tv (big office fans!), raiding buffets, also… me and the bro’s are all big Philly sports fans we get a little crazy with that sometimes haha!
Q: Where does Gorilla Warfare draw its inspiration from for its music?
A: Gorilla Warfare draws inspiration from our faith, Everyday life and the state of the world, depression, poverty and homelessness, war and politics, family struggling from mental illness, personal struggles and overcoming them, our hometown and our surroundings, our friends and family, all the important things!
Q: What bands or sounds does Gorilla Warfare model itself after? 
A: We’re heavily influenced by east coast hardcore, me and my brothers were raised on the east coast and that’s what we were listening to, bands like Warzone, Sick of it All, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Blood for Blood and Judge to name
a few.
Q: You guys have a lot military imagery in your songs and your image (even your name), we know that you use this to represent the fact that we are in spiritual warfare everyday, do you also use this to support the troops and their mission?
A: Absolutely! We love our troops and will support them through thick and thin. Brett was a combat veteran that served for 10 years. We were very fortunate to be a part of a hardcore compilation called “Operation: United Forces” which has some amazing bands on it, for every cd bought one is sent overseas to a soldier free of charge! Operation United Forces Myspace Page SUPPORT THAT!!!!
Q: You are a Christian band, has anyone ever taken offense to that? On the other side, has anyone ever come to you to learn more about Christ?
A: People take offense to it of course (hate mail is the best!) there are a lot of people out there who fear bands like us because of the sheer honesty and outlook that we give in our music, haters and naysayers just inspire us more, so thanks to all those people that have doubted us! the bottom line is that you can never please everyone and we don’t expect to do so. Over the years that we’ve been playing shows we’ve had kids ask us about our beliefs/thoughts/feelings and that’s always gratifying to just speak to people who have questions or if you can just make someone really think about what they believe or give them a different perspective maybe that they wouldn’t have thought of before….a lot of the times we’ve had people coming to us asking for prayer requests which we are always happy to help with anyone struggling with something spiritually anyway we can, sometimes people just want life advice, or simply someone to listen to them, or it can be something as simple as a hug! anything to help someone in need.
Q: How do other bands react when they find out Gorilla Warfare is a Christian band? Has anyone refused to play with you guys because of that?
A: I would say a lot of people are surprised. Christian and Hardcore are generally 2 words that don’t go together too often. Unfortunately a lot of people have stereotyped Christian bands and unfortunately there are bands out there that give christian bands a bad name. I like to think we set a good example for Christian bands because we are so easy going and likeable guys, we go out of our way to treat people with respect and that will get you a long way, regardless of your beliefs, in many ways its made us black sheep because we don’t fit in the metalcore scene which is the popular thing for the christian music world and a lot of people that are into hardcore won’t give you the time of day because a good majority of the hardcore world is agnostic/atheist, but i’ve said it time and time again we have no regrets. Has anyone refused to play with us? NO, I think we’re too big and scary for anyone to pull something as ridiculous as that!
Q: How does Christ influence the lyrics of Gorilla Warfare?
A: It is a huge influence, in our hearts our faith will always help us through
our hardships, hard times, depression, mental stress, no matter how dark a subject
we can delve into, there is always light at the end of the tunnel because we have our faith through and through, keeping our lyrics clean, well thought and intelligent, at the end of the day we just want to provide our listeners with hope for tomorrow.
Q: What do you feel is the single most damaging thing for the hardcore scene today?
A: Egos and close-mindedness, cliques(you know the kids that go to shows and stay outside the venue the whole time) and people that are there to be seen and not actually there to support the bands that are out there busting their chops. I would also make an argument that major labels are killing hardcore but that’s a whole other interview lol.
Q: How do people react when you tell them you are a Christian band (at least in my experience, most people think because of the style of your music, it most certainly cannot be Christian)?
A: Most of the time people are cool about it (you can’t please everyone these days!) To elaborate, A big problem that the hardcore community has with Christian bands are the way they go about trying to reach people (long drawn out rants, etc.) a lot of people feel that comes off as disingenuous or that the bands are simply doing this for applause or to appease a crowd. Personally we are not a band that preaches on stage, reason being if I go to a Hardcore show I don’t want to hear an atheist or satanic band give a long speech about why they don’t believe in God or hate God, and the feeling is mutual on the other side, I don’t want to hear an atheist rant or see someone burning the bible, or we’re going to be ready to fight! In our eyes hardcore was founded on diversity and we don’t want to isolate any of our crowd, that’s never been our style. Hardcore is supposed to be a place for outsiders and the black sheep all come together to put their differences aside and find friendship and loyalty, let loose and have a great time, when they thought that option was never there, despite your personal beliefs or lifestyle you live. The bottom line for us is that our message is easily heard in our music, and we like to let our music do the talking for us, if anyone approaches us about it, we are more than happy to talk to them about it.
Q: What was the craziest show you ever played?
A: We’ve had so many! I’d have to say in sheer craziness was a house show we played locally last summer, it was a Christmas in July party, our old guitar player Nate got married, then we played! During our set people were jumping off ladders, then a girl went through a window, and the entire room was just a sweaty mess! The police came and stopped the show about an hour after we played so it was definitely one of the shows that sticks out in my mind.
Q: Could you name some of the bands that Gorilla Warfare has played with in
the past (or playing with in the future)?
A: We have the entire list on our Myspace the most memorable show for this current line up would definitely be Agnostic Front, Seventh Star, Death Before Dishonor, No Turning Back, Down to Nothing, we’ve also had the privilege of playing with Champion, Looking Forward, Hoods, Ramallah, Kids Like Us, Casey Jones, Ten 33, and Donnybrook! to name a few.
Q: What other bands would you like to play with?
A: Madball, Jesus Wept, Merauder, Comeback Kid, and Blood for Blood if they ever tour again!
Q: Does Gorilla Warfare have plans for a major tour anytime soon?
A: Unfortunately we are not in a position to do any major touring but we do plan on hitting the east coast for a week this year and 2009 we’re hoping to head over to Europe.
Q: We all know that you have a new CD out, what are future plans for Gorilla Warfare? (You can buy it HERE)
A: We released “The Battlefields” last year on Wounded Records. Right around Christmas time we recorded a rough demo (which you’ll get with your purchase of the battlefields!) of 5 songs which you can hear 3 of them online. We are currently getting ready to continue writing and hitting the studio this summer, we are hoping to have at least an EP out before the year is over, we’ll keep you posted!
Q: If you guys could take one CD with you on a deserted island which would it be (beside your own)?
A: I will go with the mutual band answer and say The Misfits “Walk Among Us”, how could you go wrong with that?? haha!
You can reach Gorilla Warfare on their myspace page by clicking HERE, you can also buy the nifty T-shirt pictured below from them there as well! Good luck guys, thanks for your time and God bless!
