Intervista Baroness (Gina Gleason)

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Hi Gina, how are you doing?

I’m doing good, how are you doing?

Good! Let’s start talking about “Gold & Grey”: this is the first album you recorded with Baroness, how was the experience like?

It was very positive, definitely challenging, I never did anything like that before, especially with a band of the creative calibre as Baroness.
I didn’t know what to expect going into it, and I think the way it turned out was definitely a lot different than I could have imagined, but the process was really, really eye-opening and positive.
Yeah, I had a great time!

Like all of the other albums, also this one is called like a colour. Of course, this is something that started long before you joined the band, but what determines the colour of the album?

I could only speak for “Gold & Grey”, but we were tossing around maybe having it not be a colour, and I know specifically John didn’t want it to be called “Orange” just because it wasn’t a very great sounding word, it wasn’t very cool, but “Gold & Grey” in the end, the albums was already finished, mixed and everything, “Gold & Grey” was repeated lyrically throughout the album and it seemed to make sense having like the contrasting colours and elements.
At the end of the process it was like, “You know what? This is something that we keep hearing on the album, lyrically, and it makes sense with the musical motifs”, so we decided to go with it.

Did you take part in the songwriting process?

Yeah, it was really like all four of us getting together in a room and creating stuff together.
We wrote a lot of the record in the studio, which is really cool.

And how does it work, is it like just you jamming, or you go in the studio with some riffs and you develop them together?

It’s a bit of both.
A lot of times Sebastian has specific drum ideas, like rhythmic ideas, that he would work on, or he and Nick would work on, and then he would email us drum ideas, stuff for John and I to play guitar over, that kind of things.
Some songs started as acoustic and then we developed them from there in the studio, some songs, like ‘Pale Sun’, the last song in the record, we were jamming and we came up with that in the studio.
So, each song was a really unique process.

John is the only member who’s been in the band since the beginning, but does it feel like Baroness is his project, or is there more of an organic band feeling were everyone is equal and can have a saying in everything?

I didn’t know what to expect with that in mind joining the band, but it feels like an organic band, it feels like four people together making creative decisions and logistic decisions too, and that was really cool.
I wanted to play music with them regardless, when I first joined the band, but John made it very clear that the band is a democracy and that’s what makes Baroness, Baroness, everybody brings their stuff to the table.
It’s definitely surprising, and I’m really happy that it feels like that.

You joined the band to replace Peter Adams who had been with Baroness for almost 10 years. Were you worried about how the fans would welcome you? Because to me it seems that you blended in with the others really quickly, and the fans seemed to accept you right away.

I was definitely really worried about that, because I was a really big Baroness fan, and I was a fan of Pete, I like Valkyrie a lot, I’ve seen them a bunch of times, his other band, and I was really, really nervous about that [laughs] I was like, “Holy shit!”, especially with this album being so unique too, I was really worried like, “Oh man, new member, lot of new stuff going on in this record…”.
But at the end of the day I can only be myself and do my best [laughs] I can’t really be stressed out about that kind of things.
But, yeah, it felt really positive and I feel really grateful and appreciative for that, yeah.

You said you were a fan of the band, how is it like to join a band you’re fan of?

It’s crazy, it’s totally awesome!
I found out about Baroness when “Yellow & Green” came out, I was like, I fell in love with the band.
This band is so unique, it’s like, heavy but not just straight Metal, it has a lot more depth to it, a lot more layers, it quickly became one of my favourite bands.
So it’s really, really crazy to join the band.

Did you have fangirl moments when you first joined the band? Like, “Oh my god I’m in the backstage with Baroness…shit, actually I’m IN Baroness!”.

Yeah [laughs] I remember when John and I first started messaging I was like, “Oh my god, this guy is… fucking cool! This is awesome!”.
I really liked learning all the songs, I was really excited.
I love this music so much, I already knew a handful of songs and just, as a fan and as a musician, getting to have a closer look into the parts, how the harmonies are broken up it’s like, “Oh, this is fucking cool, man!”, it’s like a dream.

Last year you played a bunch of acoustic shows, have you thought of recording an EP, or even a whole album, of acoustic music?

Definitely, yeah, we talk about that all the time, we want to do that, I’m sure we… will do that [laughs].
We just have to decide when, and how, and new songs or…

Yeah, new songs, or old ones played acoustically?

Yeah, yeah, we don’t know yet, but that’s definitely something that we want to do, because we had a lot of fun doing that.

Is it ever difficult being the only woman in the band? I’m thinking especially with the touring when you have to spend long times in a tour bus all together.

No, I wish I had a more interesting answer to that, but no, it’s really not different or weird, and these guys are just the best so… [laughs].

You have had lots of different experiences with big and smaller bands before joining the band, you played with Santana and The Smashing Pumpkins, with Misstallica and Queen Diamond. What did you find the hardest about being with Baroness?

The hardest? Like, creatively I think everybody comes from very unique backgrounds, like Sebastian coming from Trans Am (a Post-Rock band), Nick has a really incredible background in Jazz music and stuff like that, I come from a little bit more of a Metal and Rock N’ Roll [background], so sometimes it’s hard or challenging when we’re starting songs, starting to develop them, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around what to do with certain ideas, especially certain rhythmic ideas, stuff like that.
So, on this album it’s challenging for me to step outside of like “Rock guitar frame of mind” and kinda step into how I can create more atmosphere, more melodic stuff that it’s not just like Thrash riffs, stuff like that.
At the same time the challenges are something I love, because it makes you a better musician, I think.

I just have one final question: what would you say is the defining characteristics of Baroness?
I would probably say that to me it’s the band’s being ever evolving, every album is different, there’s always something new. What is it to you?

That’s definitely what I would say too.
I think that’s… as a fan of Baroness that was my favourite part about them, every album is different, and somehow there’s still a strong standing element to the music that makes it Baroness.
It never doesn’t sound like Baroness, but there’s always new and unique things, and as music fan whenever a band do that it’s exciting, because I look forward to the new releases.
Yeah, Baroness being this evolving thing.

Ok, I’ll let you finish this interview with a message to our readers, if you have one.

Yeah, thank you for reading and, if you’ve listened to “Gold & Grey”, thank you so much, that’s very, very much appreciated by us! [Laughs]

Davide Sciaky