Meet GANS, the Black Country duo making music that’s good for the soul

For Black Country duo GANS, – friends Euan Woodman and Tom Rhodes – the title of their debut album is less a statement and more a mantra for existing. Doing things that are good for the soul, they say, is a pretty watertight way of living your life.

It’s all too evident on their excellent upcoming LP, a genre-spanning effort which takes in moments of industrial rock, techno beats and alt rock across a thrilling 12 tracks that prove, well, good for the soul.

Among them is ‘Oh George’, a powerful rumination on mental health which rips along at breakneck speed, underpinned by Woodman’s pounding drums and slow-burning techno which steadily grows in intensity.

It’s thrilling stuff and it’s already been given the blessing of Peter Doherty, after the duo signed to his label, Strap Originals. That in itself was a full circle moment for Tom, having bought The Libertines’ Up The Bracket as his first ever album.

Now, with backers like Pete and a stellar debut under their belts, you sense it’s only a matter of time before the wider world wakes up and realises that GANS are good for the soul.

You can read our whole Q&A with GANS below.

Your debut album is very much on the way. Excited?

Euan Woodman: Yeah man. We’ve been given the opportunity to sit down and do whatever we want. Our songs before were a bit heavier, but for this album we needed to remind ourselves that we *are* songwriters. Lyrically we’re all about kindness and what’s good for the soul. The things we say to each other, we wanted to preach that message.

Tom Rhodes: It’s like an identity piece for us, like, you know, we’ve, we’ve had 24 years of life to write our first record and it’s all about different aspects of our lives being two lads from the black country, growing up in working class households and having worked to this stage in our lives. The aspects of love, hardship, identity and culture. It’s everything about us up to this point.

As you’ve touched on, there’s this idea of being good to each other that runs through your music. Why did you want to focus on that?

Tom Rhodes: This is like a meditation for us and it’s also like therapy, piling into our craft is our way that we deal with the world.

We both feel very deeply as human beings, you know, and I think there’s been periods in our lives where we’ve felt so deeply, it’s really affected the way we feel and our mental health and it’s hard being a human for us all right now. I think we all feel like it’s a very strange and difficult time, you know, like there’s a disconnection and insecurity and world conflicts and helplessness. The whole point of GANS is to address these points, but it’s also an escapism.

Anyone who’s been to our shows know that we party because it’s a chance to get together for an hour together and forget the world and we’ll all have this catharsis because of the pain that we feel.

So I think it’s incredibly important for us to be kind to each other, you know.

Who were your major musical touch-points for the album? There’s something quite industrial about it.

Euan: We’re influenced by life. I think that it’s like that because of all the genres of music that we’ve listened to over time that we can pick from. In terms of inspirational influences, it’s like the people around us and where we grew up, it’s just life, you know, like the things that happen to you. All those moments feed into the record.

What’s it like to have a champion such as Pete Doherty in your corner, having signed to Strap Originals?

Tom: Initially we were found by one of the guys on the label who does socials, a guy called Darren, who’s down in Margate. He sent it to Peter’s manager and Peter used to travel around quite a lot and spent a bit of time in Birmingham. I think once he heard who we are, two working class lads from the Black Country, he just listened and loved it straight away from what we’re told. We’ve toured with The Libertines, we’ve played in Peter’s band and we just love the man. The first record I ever bought was Up The Bracket by The Libertines on CD, so for us it was something really special.

There’s a lot of life experience on these songs. ‘Oh George’ sees you tackle mental health and there’s some other moments that don’t hold back. Why did you want to explore those truths?

Tom: We’re lads from the West Midlands and things like this don’t happen to people where we’re from and haven’t, you know. The only other really recent example is Big Special and what they’re doing, so for us it was a chance to be like if we only ever wrote one record, what would we want to say?

We decided to sort of speak our truth about our own mental health, about our family’s mental health, about people around us and relationships we’ve been through and how we feel about the world .If we could have one mark on history, what would it be? This was it for us.

And finally, what’s the best thing to come from the West Midlands?

Tom: Bathams Ale or Orange Chips.

Orange chips? Enlighten me…

Tom: They’re pretty much made within the Dudley postcode. Chips that are fried, taken out the fryer, placed in a batter with orange food colouring and refried. They’ve got this sort of like crispy orange batter on them, and after you eat them, you can feel the oil you can feel your blood slowing down.That’s what you need, they’re a proper regional delicacy!