I don’t know. It’s basically a mix of indie and a lotta horns and melody, good words or so I’d like to think. Thoughtful songs without being self-indulgent or morose.”
Melbourne bred, The Guild League were born as a 16-person behemoth and have been whittled down to six members since their inception, and between life, family and other bands, have to fight to find time for gigs these days. Which makes this Saturday’s show all the more special. “All the planets have aligned, basically,” Tali laments.
“The six of us in the band and all of us have hundreds of other things on our plates, so it’s always a big joy when we can get together. It’s just going to be fun to play the songs again. We still really love playing them – they’re good songs – so hopefully people come along and hear them, yeah. We would love to get another gig in this year but I’ve got a baby on the way and Cressida (cellist/bassist) had a child in February, so we’re very new to that; Phil’s (drums) got another kid on the way so, there’s a lot of kids going on – but we will try and get another gig in this year if possible.”
Reading between those lines you best get down to The East Brunswick Club this week if you want to see them in 2011. While White may feel the shadow of his former band in Australia, will they be getting back together for a one-off show any time soon? “Absolutely not,” comes the reply. Regardless, it’s overseas that The Guild League seem to make waves, quoted by none other than U.S. President Barack Obama. “Yes. We. Were!” Tali exclaims happily. “Good sources say that one of his script writers is a fan of ours and wove in one of the lines from Shirtless Sky, off our second album into his inaugural speech to Congress, which is pretty funny. So that was great; it was hilarious, but it’s nice to know that our stuff goes out and you never know where it’s going to end up.”
Playing guitar rather than drums means that the much loved ‘Tali drumming’ dance moves might be no more, but I’m happy to report that they live on with White in the doctor’s office. “I think I prefer playing guitar out the front because I get to move around a little bit more,” White says, looking back on his drumming days.
“I loved playing drums but I found out from my osteo[path], the year The Lucksmiths broke up, that is was doing me no good. She said, ‘What do you do?!'” he laughs. “She was just completely flummoxed as to musculature in my back and I said ‘play the drums’ and she said ‘I’ve had some drummers before, can you demonstrate to me how you play?’ So I stood up and showed her what I did and she said, ‘It’s no wonder, you’re standing on one leg, one arm is going crazy the other is just up and down and I have never seen anyone more right handed’. So it was salutary news at that time to think, well this isn’t very good for my body… but yeah, playing drums up front certainly has an affect on one’s body.”
In addition of sporadic gigs, the good news is there are new tunes floating around. “The Guild League is still my only musical outlet,” White says. “There is something brewing, it might take longer than other bands to get to fruition, but definitely there is whole bunch of new songs in the works. Somewhere down the track there will be a new album, but who knows when.” Which means don’t wait; see The Guild League while you can.
