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Guy McCoy Torme (GMT) is an amalgamation of impressive rock veterans who have
teamed up to produce new album "Bitter and Twisted". "Bitter and Twisted" is a
hefty wedge of straightforward, no nonsense, unashamed and slightly frenzied
Rock 'n' Roll. Bernie Torme the band's guitarist and front man has graced the world's stages with Ozzy Osbourne and
Gillan amongst others. "Bitter and Twisted" is a lot more fun and lively than
its name suggests, with the incredible calibre of musicians behind the album it
is guaranteed to turn heads. Alice Grist interviewed Bernie to find out what
influenced this new band, their first offering and what is next for GMT?
Metal Mayhem: Before
we begin is there anything in particular you want the world to know?
Bernie Torme: If you could let people know that they can check us out at
http://www.gmtrocks.com
and http://www.myspace.com/gmtrocks
and
http://www.youtube.com/user/gmtrocks
that would be great. Nothing
else I can think of other than asking them to send us a tenner!
MM: How did GMT form?
BT: John McCoy and I used to talk regularly about getting together for a
jam, its been going on for years but we're a right pair of lazy old
bastards who could never quite get it together. We finally got
together with Mick Underwood, the drummer from Gillan and it was
great fun, but when we then tried to do a bit of recording it seemed
to be a bit uphill, as if we all knew how each other played too well,
and it was too predictable. So I sort of wanted to bale out, though
John was keen to continue.
Around that time I had a band called Antiproduct recording "Good
Vibrations" in my studio and Alex Kane from Antiproduct had Robin Guy
doing drums, and he said to me, "you gotta see this guy play", so I
went and saw Robin doing takes on Good Vibrations, keeping perfect
time while he's bouncing his sticks off the ceilings and walls,
screaming over fills and bouncing up and down like animal in the
Muppets, fantastic! I get off on drummers, I think the beat is the
most important thing in any piece of rock ‘n' roll music, sod melody,
its the icing on the cake, its whether it makes you want to boogie
first of all! I thought, ‘I've got to play with this guy, he's
fantastic'. So I phoned John and he came down and we had a blow with
Robin, which was pretty magic.
The immoveable force Mr Kane had meanwhile blagged me into playing a
Cliveaid do at the Ruskin Arms in East London, Clive is a long-time
friend so I wanted to do it, I had no band so I asked John and Robin,
we did a few tracks, and played a few older tracks with Mr Alex too.
It went well, it worked.
MM: You are being received pretty well, where do you see GMT in 5 years?
BT: 5 years time? Hopefully still alive and rocking, and still talking
to each other! To hold it together that long would be very cool
indeed. It was easier for the Stones, they had more drugs.
MM: What do you hope your legacy will be to the world of rock?
BT: Jeez I really couldn't give a shit! Is there a world of rock? Is it
like world of leather? Can I get a sofa?
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MM: What was the plan at the start of making "Bitter and Twisted" and how
did it develop?
BT: The plan was really that there was no plan: just make it real so it
sounded like us, stop trying to make records like everyone else, just
record what we were playing in the room we played in, just like Elvis
and Scotty and Bill at sun studios: not generally what people do
nowadays since we all got infected with wannabe
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producers disease, we
just did what we do, play much too f**king loud and overplay to f**k.
But it sort of worked, its the first album I've done since Gillan's
Mr Universe that I actually still like.
Because of that old fashioned recording process and the players
involved I think Bitter & Twisted has this indefinable human
chemistry thing that touches people in some cool way, it's not rigid,
it's not perfect, it's alive.
MM: Yourself and the other members of the band have toured and played
with some legends of the rock world, how has this influenced you and
influenced your own style as GMT?
BT: I wouldn't personally say any of it has actually, and obviously all
of those things were great experiences, and again obviously I
couldn't speak for Robin, or John, but this is pretty much how John
and I used to approach things in pubs and clubs in 1975: hey we're
very stupid, we've learnt absolutely nothing!
Gillan was a fantastic experience, but it was also a lot more static
musically, it was never possible to jam, it was pretty much the same
routine every night: this is much looser in terms of that, it goes
the way it goes.
I suppose for me also working with Dee Snider and seeing how he
attacks things was very educational too, but I could obviously never
attempt to apply that in the same way, I'm just not that good at it!
But Dee has been a big influence as a person.
MM: Do you see GMT as a departure from what you have done in the past
and if so what makes it different?
BT: That's a really good question. It's really not a departure in terms of
playing, or really in song styles, but it is a huge departure for me
in terms of approach, and that does make it very different: for me
the experience of playing with John and Robin has been very special,
its magic every time, but never perfect, and really John and I based
the recording on that, record the magic, perfection not required.
So to me how different it is grew out of the band and the people
involved, that led to the mode of recording because it was aimed at
recording what was happening, not at trying to fit the recordings
into some idealised production. It had to be real.
Again I can't stress how much I feel this was only possible because
of John and Robin, there's this telepathic join when we play, it
really is only possible in a small group of people like a power trio,
add someone else and you've got to have an overall plan: but we play
like we are part of the same drug addled brain, its magic to be part
of it when its happening. For me that was the seed of the whole
thing, that telepathic join, that makes it the best band I've ever
been in or played with, and that's what makes it different: and
instead of trying to destroy that in the recording process with click
tracks and overdubs, we just recorded it precisely as it was and as
it happened. I mean the takes for the album never went above three,
and Robin at the beginning of each day basically did not know the
songs we were going to record, and we had no pretty much no
arrangements, just a bunch of bits. We worked on them, usually two a
day, got an arrangement and had them down within three takes. it was
a really exciting way of working, it kept all of us on our toes. Very
instinctual, and very much about enjoying it.
That lack of rehearsal was also intentional, I really believe that
first or second time you play anything properly is the best time
you'll ever play it, definitely true in my case, I get bored: the
forces of the universe and the angels, spirits, demons, djinns,
faeries and gobshites or whatever hang around for the first few times
to hear it: carry on till its a little bit righter and tighter and
they, like me, get totally bored and leave and start thinking about
the bills they have to pay and the laundry they have to wash.
MM: Who or what have been your biggest influences in life?
BT: Shit! Big question! First of all being Irish and being born in
Dublin. Its a different outlook, not greatly, but enough to notice.
Being an Irish emigrant in England was important too, not much of a
difference really, but enough to notice once again.
Music is my biggest influence: it's everything to me, and I like very
diverse stuff, I love everything from medieval music to Irish folk
to the |
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incredible string band to John Coltrane and Slayer. It's all
good.
Jeff Beck Jimi Hendrix and more recently Davey Graham are the big
influences for me on guitar: I only heard of Davey Graham recently,
and got an album recorded in someone's room in Hull University on a
domestic recorder in 1967, just stunning stuff. Acoustic. Like
hearing Hendrix for the first time in '67, so glad I came across him,
I've never been much of a one for all the super whizzo American
guitar gods, it doesn't really move me as much as Keith Richards does.
MM: What inspires you to do what you do?
BT: Hmmmmm! Musically mostly John and Robin at the moment, I get off on
chemistry, I've no real interest in the roar of the greasepaint or in
gigging with absolutely anyone at all costs, as I said I get easily
bored, it has to be something that turns me on. For me its chemistry. And my wife and kids.
MM: What has been your most rock n roll experience to date?
BT: Far too many to mention, a lot of which are probably unprintable!
I suppose a small point that comes to mind was doing some radio
interview in the 80's someplace up north and being asked by the d.j
live on the air "what was it like to be a member of Whitesnake"......
Lovely stuff!
MM: When did you decide you wanted to be a rock star and can you
describe the journey (key moments) from that moment to where you are
now?
BT: I never did decide that. I'm not sure it did happen but if it did it
just appeared to happen by some strange accident, I just wanted to
play the guitar cause I was a shy kid with a stutter, it was a way
of having the girlies pay attention to me, my conversational skills
at the time were a bit lacking! Of course it made absolutely no
difference to my love rat ranking! But when I took up the guitar I
loved it so much it became more important to me than anything else,
and I worked at it endlessly. Its still fantastically rewarding to be
able to pick it up and get lost in it, it's a reward in itself.
I'm not very sure about the stops along the road, but it was a very
interesting road. I'm also not sure there were any key moments, all I
can recall was that every so often I cracked and said "f**k it I've
had enough of this shit" when it seemed to be getting ridiculous.
That's part of my personality. I always get asked if I have regrets
about not carrying on with Ozzy or Ian or whatever; the short answer
is no, it went the way it went, which was usually my choice.
Basically its a job like any other, just as boring (which no-one
wants to hear), its just difficult because you do it because you love
it, which automatically leaves you open to every abuser and scamming
parasite in the universe.
MM: Please describe the sound of GMT / Bitter and Twisted?
BT: Raw, heavy, alive and totally unrepeatable! Buy it! It rocks!
MM: What can an audience expect from GMT live?
BT: Hearing loss, fun, and rock 'n' roll. Its good!
MM: What do you hope fans take away after listening to your CD or seeing
our gigs?
BT: I really hope they like it and remember it.
MM: Tell me how each member of the band fits in to the dynamic and how
each of your individually make the band a whole?
BT: Well John's very old school, he wants GMT to be a band, very fair,
and for everybody to be equal, robin doesn't care about any of that
and just wants to get paid, and me, since I'm the record company too,
I just want to rip both of them off! Maybe there's a reality TV
show in there somewhere! Apart from that we all make lots of
noise.....
MM: What is your next big ambition for the band?
BT: To start recording the next album, looks like January, do more gigs next year.
MM: Why aren't you playing more UK gigs?
BT: We are planning more, we would really like to play more, and we hope
that we will next year. this is a question that I've been repeatedly
asked, and I 'd like to try to explain.
First of all we are not the ones who choose where we play or don't
play, subject to all of us being available (and Robin sometimes at
short notice is not) and it being geographically possible we'll play
anywhere anytime, but the venue has to want us to play and to want to
pay us.
Unfortunately that's not many places at the moment cause none of those
clubs or venues frankly have a jaysus clue who we are individually or
who GMT as a band is: but they know what an AC/DC tribute band is, and
so do most of their punters.
Its not like we all live in the same street either like the Beatles
did in hard days night, we are all far apart and that's instant
logistical problems which can be solved only by money, and since we
have no management and I am the record company there is not a lot of
that around just now. Yes we did approach everyone on the planet, and no
they didn't want us. Obviously people knowing about us and the lack
of money situation is gradually changing as the record sells, and
its going really well, and because of that people are becoming more
aware of us and the GMT name. So it will result in more gigs.
http://www.gmtrocks.com
http://www.myspace.com/gmtrocks
http://www.youtube.com/user/gmtrocks
http://www.bernietorme.com
http://www.retrowrek.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bernie-torme
http://www.barnroom.co.uk
Alice Grist
