Interview with Galveston

I N T E R V I E W
'Messed Around and Meat Raffles': An Interview with Galveston
​by Ian Duggan
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‘Galveston’ is an Auckland band with pedigree. Featuring Jeremy Eade, Rick McShane and Sean Reid, late of Garageland, Chainsaw Masochist and Psychodaisies, respectively, the band played their first gig in December 2016 (alongside HUP favourites ‘The Scones’, no less!). Hot on the heels of the release of their debut recording, ‘Messed Around’, we talked to Jeremy Eade about Galveston; their sound, aspirations, and the terrible names the band could have had if sanity hadn’t prevailed!

Photo supplied.

HUP: Your band features members of old Hamilton favourite Garageland,  Chainsaw Masochist and Psychodaisies. Where in that spectrum does Galveston’s sound lie, or are you something different again? How do you describe your sound, and who are your influences?
Jeremy: We are trying to bring a casual energy to this band; make a set that can be played tight and/or loose. Everyone wants to play their way, so we kind of let it happen. We have three pop songs, three sonic pieces, three inbetweeners and a whole lot of loose threads and ideas. We are playing live shows, ten in ten months, just to build that energy. We recorded some demos which are fun tasters, but yeah, [we] would like to build something deeper and denser. Still, everyone likes the demos.
 
HUP: How did the three of you come together?
Jeremy: I know Rick from way back and Sean knows Rick, so we all hooked up about 18 months ago. [Sean and Rick are] Guys with big record collections, but not as good as mine.
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​HUP: What are your aspirations for the band?
Jeremy: To have immense fun.
 
HUP: You have stated, “if you can't win over Hamilton, you don't have it. It's the litmus test of rock ‘n’ roll”. When can we expect you to come down and take the test?
Jeremy: I think, to be fair, to win over Hamilton and further afield we need to build a little bit more presence. So that’s what we are doing. It’s slowly building, but it all takes time. Still, Hamilton is the logical first point of call and I think the live set would go down well in the Waikato rock ‘n’ roll world. Its good beer drinking music.
 
HUP: Where does the name Galveston come from?
Jeremy: The Glen Campbell song by Jimmy Webb. Rick saw the Glen Campbell documentary and it moved him to suggest the song for a name. Up to then we had 'Meat Raffle' and 'Beer Supply' as the only other choices, so Rick won.
 
Galveston's Bandcamp: https://galveston.bandcamp.com/releases