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Interviews : “We were talking about bringing back some older ones” – An interview with Gina Gleason (Baroness)

By on February 4, 2020

Baroness is an impressive four-piece from Georgia who will be in Australia very soon for appearances at Download, and some seriously tasty Brisbane and Adelaide sideshows with Deftones.

The band have toured Australia previously, supporting Metallica in 2010, performing at Soundwave in 2010 and 2014, and nailing some well-received headline shows in 2016. Yet these tours did not feature guitarist par-excellence, Gina Gleason.

Gleason replaces three-album veteran Peter Adams and she appears on the album Gold & Grey, which was released last year. She brings a unique quality that few playing a six-string and performing blues-inspired hard rockin’ heavy metal have accomplished; Gleason is an extraordinarily proficient vocalist, and she can perform intricate guitar parts simultaneously.

Talking about her introduction to the Baroness clan, she explains that the grind of continuous live performances held the key to her fate.

“Right before Baroness I was working for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, I didn’t know what I was getting into joining something like that, but in my mind, it was an interesting way to play the guitar for a living,” she said.

“I didn’t really know what it would entail though, and it turned out it meant performing 484 shows a year which was pretty monotonous, and it can kill your creative vibe rather quick! So, I found out sooner or later, that’s not the life for me as a musician.

“So, I forced myself into staying in the house and demoing stuff and just recording and teaching myself how to record and write music, and that was right around the time that I met John (Baizley- singer/ guitarist in Baroness).

“I was really into trying to build different soundscapes, doing the pedalboard deep dive, so it was perfect timing when I met John, and then we started playing the guitar together. I thought ‘Oh, we play well together’, and then we started singing together, and we could sing well together, so it just snowballed from there.”

Regarding the type of setlist and stage show the band is planning on bringing to Australia, the group are diligently rehearsing up to four times per week which gives Gleason and the lads plenty of scope to ensure the bands’ catalogue is well represented.

“We were laughing about that this week because since we got home from our last tour, we’ve just been like brushing up on everything and zeroing in on all the Gold & Grey stuff, but we think there are too many songs,” she said.

“We were talking about bringing back some older ones and adding extended intros and interludes and a lot of things we learnt from recording Gold & Grey.”

“It will be a setlist that takes its time to unfold, so we are not so much just pounding it out song after song, I think it’ll work well with the Deftones shows but the Download sets will be trickier because the performing time is shorter.”

Baroness will be performing at this year’s Download Festival in Australia, alongside Clutch, Alestorm, In Flames, Orpheus Omega, Deftones, Lacuna Coil, Ministry and many more.

Tickets on sale now via Live Nation Australia / Moshtix. www.downloadfestival.com.au/tickets

Friday, 20th March 2020 – Melbourne Showgrounds, Melbourne
Tickets

Saturday, 21st March 2020 – Parramatta Park, Sydney
Tickets

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith