I did this interview with Gary Arce at the end of 2017 when Yawning Man did a week of shows in the UK. It was supposed to be published in something else I did which never happened, so here it is.
It was mid December in Newcastle and we were in the middle of some really bad winter weather. It took some doing getting through all the snow and ice to get to the Cluny in Newcastle and as I got out the car the temperature was -6. It didn’t stop people from showing up though. In a lot warmer bar with a couple of drinks, Gary was kind enough to give me a half hour of his time.
TH: When you think of a Yawning Man show, this is not the weather you imagine?
GA: No I did not expect this weather but I’m kind of liking it actually. Back home in the high desert we get snow every couple of years but it's nothing like this.
TH: At least you managed to get over from Manchester due to the snow drifts.
GA: Yeah, luckily we didn’t get stuck and the travelling has been good at the moment.
TH: It’s good to see Yawning Man all over the UK this time.
GA: We’ve played the UK on the last few tours and usually we’d only play London and everyone kept asking us, when are you playing more shows in the UK and we kind of went outside of our usual booking circle and talked to some friends and booking agents and kind of did it ourselves with little help and did it punk rock DIY stile. The audiences have been really good and the shows have been packed the last few nights. I think last night in Coventry there was around 150 people there on a cold Sunday night which was really cool.
TH: So your back to being a 3 piece on this tour.
GA: Well we’ve always really been a trio but last time we had a fourth person which was Dino which was cool but this time he’s in college and we had our friend Justine (Ruiz) play which was cool but we feel as a trio we have much more time and room to jam and experiment live together.
TH: Like the other day with your early jam session in London at The Dev?
GA: Yeah, that was trippy because we started at like 5:30 in the day and it just went from there and I think people really appreciated what we did there. I think we often feel a bit more afraid when there is a fourth person and I kind of find myself not playing as much but when it’s a trio it’s like a wheel to me with the bass, drums and guitar and it just flows and flows and flows.
TH: So have you had a chance to take in much of the UK?
GA: Manchester was really beautiful and was probably the one place I got the most to check out. London to me is cool because there is a lot of people, and being from the desert, I’m not used to it seeing people running about all over and in front of the cars and just the general mayhem. The thing I do like about the UK is that everyone is super nice, cool and everyone is so chilled out and friendly. There’s no attitude. Even people who aren’t at the shows but just in the streets and shops are super friendly.
TH: Now I know that you like English music and punk rock.
GA: Yeah I love punk rock. Amebix, Discharge are one of my favorite bands. I remember from the first time I saw them as a kid they were my favorite punk band. I also really like Bauhaus.
TH: The Beatles?
GA: No, I’m not a fan.
TH: Morrissey?
GA: I really like The Smiths but not so much the solo Morrissey stuff. I remember when that record “Meat is Murder” came out and I was really digging the guitar player (Jonny Marr) and the stuff he was playing. But punk rock to me has always been close to my heart.
TH: You’ve been few a few venues this week which most of these bands have probably played.
GA: I’ve seen quite a few old punks around that look like they’ve been here since the 70s that look like they’ve played in the UK Subs. I remember seeing The Exploited back in 82 in Los Angeles and there was a huge riot and I think Wattie was the one who incited it. It was scary but cool at the same time.
TH: Ha, you still see him wandering the street of Glasgow walking his dog with a bottle of cider!
TH: You’ve been touring a lot lately. The US, South America, Canada. You’ve certainly done some miles over the last 12 months.
GA: Yeah, we toured the US twice this last year. The US can be a tough gig and I probably like Europe better and I really like Canada. Canada is beautiful and the people are like the UK. Super cool, super friendly, great music scene. You hit the US and it gets a little different. Some parts, well you get to the south and it gets interesting. The south is a hard fuckin place to tour.
TH: Have you been to Australia yet?
GA: Not with Yawning Man but with my other band Ten East which was me, Billy Cordell, Bill from Yawning Man and Bryan Giles.
TH: And you played as Ten East the other night?
GA: Yeah we did but Ten East is a project I started that was usually more an improv thing and to be honest I wasn’t even sure who was playing. My friends in the Netherlands were like “hey dude do you wanna do Ten East tonight?” and I’m like “sure” so they just brought their guitar amps and bass and off we went. It kind of just evolves every time.
TH: Any more plans for Yawning Sons?
GA: Yeah, with Yawning Sons we actually recorded the other day but I’m not sure what’s happening with it yet.
TH: What about doing it live again? It’s been a few years since the Desertfest thing happened.
GA: Yeah I remember that, it was cool but my amp kept going out and the sound guy was being all weird and shit.
TH: I remember watching Mario saving the day though.
GA: Yeah, Mario basically took over and acted as my roadie. It could have been a real disaster but the crowd seemed to dig it.
TH: There’s enough people here that want to see it here again, or even Ten East playing a Desertfest?
GA: Ten East is fun, the version I liked was, well there’s been so many versions, but the first one was be and Brant and Mario and Bill, and the second version was me and Bill and we brought in Scott Reeder, the guy from Red Fang Brian Giles played guitar and Greg Ginn played guitar and bass, from Black Flag. And the third version was me and friends from the Netherlands and that was the version we played the other night as I was in the Netherlands.
TH: You probably just missed the Red Fang guys as they’ve been in Europe the last few weeks.
GA: Yeah, they are such good musicians live.
TH: So a new song dropped the other day.
GA: Yeah, “Ghost Beach” came out the other day. We went into the studio as we got some free time.
TH: Was it intentional or a spur of the moment thing with the free studio time?
GA: Well what happened was, somebody offered us a few hours in the studio and we had the day off so we went in there, very Yawning Man style, very natural, Mario started a bass line and I came up with a guitar melody and it just flowed out live. It was written there and then in the studio. We just pieced together everything. Part 1 then part 2, pressed record then off we go.
TH: And where are you at with a new album?
GA: We’re in the process of coming up with new songs. There’s three new ones written. One is very different for Yawning Man which you’ll hear tonight. It’s got a very repetitive riff, quite an up paced one. I’m not sure when we’ll record yet. When we get back to California everybody is busy with their families and jobs and getting back to regular life. But it will be coming sooner rather than later.
TH: What about Zun, any more plans for that?
GA: I really want to try and do more Zun. Me and Sera keep in contact and John lives where I live. It’s just a matter of trying to get everyone on the same page at the same time. It’s usually me actually getting off my ass and doing it.
TH: You must have been happy with finally seeing the record get released as “Burial Sunrise”?
GA: Yeah, what it was, was Yawning Man songs that never got release so we worked more on them and the label dug what we did.
TH: The actual release also just appeared out the blue with no build up.
GA: What happened was that me and Bill got in the studio to start a new Yawning Man record and I recorded like 6 songs on guitar and then Bill wrote his bit and we had it all there with no bass. We had it sat there for 2 months and Mario was busy, so the engineer was like you have to come down, these songs are really good and you just play bass on it. So I went in there and I started playing bass on some of the songs and Mario got in there finally and played bass on one songs and I played bass on the rest. Then we did some keyboards and experimenting with it, then he goes “let’s call John” and I go, “I got a friend called Sera from Black Math Horseman, let’s call her”, so like everybody’s like yeah this is cool. John says he can do 3 and Sera says she can do 3, perfect and it worked.
TH: Do you ever think you’ll have a chance to play it live?
GA: I tried to and we got offered some tours and some big festivals, especially the European ones. The minute the record came out I was getting emails. I contacted Sera who was busy with her own band and John was busy so it was unfortunate we couldn’t as Zun is one of the better albums that I would have loved to play live. Sera’s schedule was more lenient but John has music and work and family, so is always super busy.
TH: You’ve also been doing some stuff with Toby Wrecker who has put out a series of 4 EP’s over the last few months.
GA: I met Toby when I travelled Australia with Ten East. Him and his brother have a band who played with us as a duo and they were really good, the Hotel Wrecking City Traders. I did stuff on a couple of their records and Toby’s solo album.
TH: Did you record over there or vice versa?
GA: No, it was through files which was kind of weird for me as I’m so used to just jamming it out live. They sent me the files whilst in the middle of another album and the engineer was cool to say I’ll give you like 4 hours for free. So for the next 4 hours Toby and his brother sat drinking beer sending file after file through. It was a strange experience doing it but it came out really cool.
TH: You must now look back at the last 4 or 5 years to see the desert music scene take off. As you’re one of the first names on the Desert Rock team sheet you must get all sorts of requests?
GA: Haha, i’m so busy when at home as I got my own life to the point, sometime I won’t even play my guitar for weeks as I just get wrapped up in normal life stuff. The emails come and go and I know Mario looks after that stuff more than I do, and someone will contact me going “hey dude did you read that email” and I’ll be like “err no” and they’re like “it’s super important that you have to read your email”.
TH: What’s coming up after this tour?
GA: Well we’re going to finish up a few more shows then start properly writing a new Yawning Man record which is the number 1 priority as we need one (**Note - This interview was done just before "Revolt Against Tired Noises" was released**). We’re than planning on going to South America. We have some festivals coming up next year but I can’t really say anything about them yet.
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