MacD on Music: Getner Done

Derry: a town full of so much musical talent we’re often forced to export our musicians to places that haven’t been blessed with the gifts we have. Over the years, people such as Paul McGilloway, Jimmy McShane (Baltimora) and Peter Cunnah (D:Ream) are just some of the names that have left Ireland’s finest musical city (with the possible exception of Dublin) to bring our brilliance to the world.

To this day, this tradition is being kept alive by groups such as GETNER, the Manchester-based group that features Derry’s own Quentin Wylie (vocals/guitar) and Ruari Coyle (drums). The group, also featuring Charles Barber on lead guitar and Ted Downer-Wills on bass, will be making their triumphant return this Saturday (November 9) when they play the Casbah (with support from Tessio, Selador, Telezura and Pants on Fire).

I caught up with Quentin and Charles recently to talk about the gig: “GETNER’s tour started on the October 18 with a warm up gig in Manchester, and Dublin will be basically our first show on Friday, November 8 then we’re playing Derry on November 9 and Belfast on November 10.

It’s going to be a complete flying visit. We’re getting the ferry over Thursday evening from Liverpool, arriving in Belfast Friday morning, driving to Dublin, playing Dublin that night, not staying in Dublin, driving straight back to Park and then getting up to play Derry the next day. We’re doing the same as we did the last time, releasing our single ‘Meadows of Adelaide’ the night before, on the 7^th, while we’re on the ferry across to Belfast.”

Next, we spoke about the aforementioned song: “We recorded it on August 19. It’s our third release this year and I think it properly encapsulates what we are as a live band. It’s the heaviest yet and it’s one of those moments in our set when we sound most like the band, which is why we recorded it. We were hoping to get a couple more out this year, but it was just tour commitments and cost.

"It was written by Ruari, which is an odd thing, but we’re pretty much all writing now. The set is a combination of myself, Charles’s and Ruari’s writing now. The first two were tunes of mine and this next one is a Ruari tune. It’s essentially about struggles with alcoholism and faith. It was called ‘Ballad Of An Alco 130BPM’ or something like that as a working title before we came up with this. The title was lingering in Ruari’s head for ages, ‘Meadows of Adelaide’, and we were like, none of us have ever been to Australia.

"Is it a case where there’s some deep meaning or something like that? But we got a message from Ruari the other night saying that Adelaide Meadows is a street in Donegal. In classic GETNER fashion, it’s related to Ireland.”

“We recorded it in classic ‘us’ fashion in a single day. A four item bap and a ten hour day in the studio tends to be the way that we work. Generally it would be Ruari comes in, tracks some drums. Ted comes in, tracks some bass. Charles comes in, tracks some guitar.

"If I need to track guitar I would, then vocals and weird sounds. I’ve been in the studio with other bands where it’s taken several days and we’ve done this and that, but I feel like you kind of lose what you’re trying to achieve. I think you think about it too much, whereas that day we’re like ‘this is what feels right’.

"Generally, the mix that we put out isn’t too far away from what we initially thought of that day because we’ve rehearsed it, learned all the parts weeks and weeks before.”

Charles: “There’s no point recording something that’s not finished. You need to know what you need to do.”

Quentin: “We won’t name names, but other bands we’ve been with would write in the studio. We can’t afford that because studio time is expensive and I feel like the feeling in the room that day is something you capture a little bit better.”

And that’s it from GETNER. They will be playing the Casbah this Saturday (9^th November) and their new single ‘Meadows of Adelaide’ is out on Friday.

READ MORE: MacD on Music

Now, onto other business. This Friday will see Gush playing this Friday (8^th November) in the 7Twenty with support from Empty Spaces and String Cut Puppets. Tickets are £7 and available on Skiddle and doors are at 8pm.

Finally, TomCat will also be playing their last gig for a while this Friday in Bennigan’s with support from Foreign Mornings and Baroda. Tickets are at offaxisgigs.com/product/tomcat.

Now, time for the socials. Gush can be found on Instagram @gushbandofficial, TomCat @tomcat_band and GETNER @getnermcr.