It has been six years, but Montreal based psychobilly trio the Gutter Demons are back after a six year break with a new CD “Unfinished Business” and a new tour.
“I had to take care of some stuff. I had to take some time for myself and the band was really busy,” said guitarist/ frontman Johnny Töxik from his home in Montreal.
“Then we got back together and just started playing together more and started jamming,” he continued.
They pay Lethbridge their first visit with Calgary based The Raygun Cowboys, Dec. 16 at Inferno, part of a quick four date tour of Alberta which also includes Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton.
“It’s our first time. And we’re playing with our good friends the Raygun Cowboys, so that will be really fun,” said Töxik, who will be joined by upright bassist Flipper and drummer R-1.
The band formed in 2001 and were an immediate hit with audiences who took to the band who have just released a new CD which is a further departure from psychobilly’s common themes of zombies, hot rods and pin ups.
“ We’re primarily abut having fun and giving people a fun show and helping them have a fun night out,” he continued, adding the new CD has a more serious tone.
“ We used to write a lot about horror movies, books and comics. On this CD we drew a lot of subject matter from social media, television and newspapers. There’s a lot of horrible things going on today which are a lot scarier than movies,” he said.
“The process was a lot different this time. It was a lot faster. For our first albums, I’d come up with a song idea then we’d work on it together, and then play it a few times. This time we started writing in February and recorded it August,” he said, adding the CD has 11 tracks, which is all the band had by the time they went into the studio.
“On the last album we had a lot of different instruments. We had cello and keyboards and guitars. On this CD we went for a more raw sound closer to how we are live,” he described.
“ We wanted to do something that was a little more brutal,” he added.
He said they hadn’t played many of the new songs before recording them.
“ But we played maybe one or two. We were over in Europe and played them and people really liked them a lot. Now we’ re playing a lot more and we’re still playing the songs people know. We like to mix it up with old and new stuff,” he said.
They are planning another European tour for next fall.
“We played Europe maybe three times last year. Usually it’s fly in and fly out. This time we want to play a longer tour,” he said, adding he doesn’t know what to expect on stage in Lethbridge.
“Good question. I‘ve never seen myself,” he chuckled.
“ I hope to see people at the show,” he said.
The Gutter Demons can be found on Facebook.
The Gutter Demons play Inferno with the Raygun Cowboys at 8 p.m. Dec. 16 with local bands Gender Bender and Chief Mountain. The show begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
