Interview with Gentlemen Jackals: ‘The lyrics always come last, they’re guided by the music, the groove, a weird animalistic sound that eventually becomes lyrics!’

Fife, Scotland-based garage rock band Gentlemen Jackals are upping the rocky ante with their upcoming single, ‘Preacher’s Son’, with its addictive, fuzzed up bass line, chiming riffs and frenzied outro.

Like many good stories, Gentlemen Jackals began in a dark, windowless, soundproofed room. Eager to put their musical skills to the test, bass player, Scott Thompson, and guitarist, Craig McMahon – friends since primary school – responded to an online ad seeking musicians for an informal jam session. This led the pair to brothers Callum and Kieran Bell, who they met in the summer of 2015. The group was soon joined by Mark Wilson on vocals and bonded as they cobbled together, in their words, ‘chaotic interpretations of classic rock and blues numbers’. They performed together for close to a year under the name Scatter Kid before deciding to part ways. Callum and Kieran would later go on to form The Decrees while Scott, Craig and Mark decided to begin a band of their own, recruiting Mark’s childhood friend, Douglas Harden in late 2016 before Cam replaced him last year. After dozens of vetoed options, Doug landed on the band name ‘Gentlemen Jackals’ because it perfectly captured what they’re all about: exploring the junction between buttoned-up, ear-pleasing pop, and the abrasive bark of fuzzy power chords.

‘So kinda to go back to the start of lockdown, we were discussing the band being a wee bit heavier and distorted and ‘Preacher’s Son’ draws on that’

‘Preacher’s Son’, which will come out later this summer, is the heaviest, most distorted of their songs to date and gives Mark his second turn on lead vocals. ‘I’d say the song is blues inspired; I was particularly inspired by Status Quo while writing the bridge section of the song as you’ll hear by the shuffle in the bass line,’ Scott said. ‘Craig’s lead guitar really makes this song for me personally, his licks are tasteful throughout and give the song an extra bit flavour. The ending is just a mash of everything. We’ve been told it sounds like Blondie, but it wasn’t intentional! It just gets crazier and crazier and faster and faster, it’s really fun to play live!’

The song shows that the band has used lockdown to experiment sonically: ‘So kinda to go back to the start of lockdown, we were discussing the band being a wee bit heavier and distorted and ‘Preacher’s Son’ draws on that, it’s really saturated, more driven,’ Scott said. ‘Yeah,’ said Craig. ‘It’s got bigger everything!’ Cam is laughing: ‘A friend of ours, David, said the climax is chaos!’

‘Preacher’s Son’ pays homage to the long history of mass shootings in the US and was co-written with Mark not long after the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, when a gunman killed 59 people and injured more than 500 others attending a country music festival. ‘A couple of years ago, my mum and dad bought tickets to Vegas to renew their wedding vows, they weren’t too worried, I went with them, but it was on my mind,’ Mark said. Craig interjects: ‘You were on edge about it.’

As the song kicks off: ‘Preacher’s son, only 21, you know, they always said he was a roguish one. Lessons learned from all the books he’s burned, you know, they never taught him wisdom should be earned.’

Cam, who only joined last year, is looking forward to finally playing his first gig with the band, hopefully later this year. ‘It’s that anticipation of playing live again,’ said Craig. Scott agrees: ‘I’m really excited but there’s a small part of me that thinks gigs are forever away,’ he said wistfully. Craig adds: ‘The songs have high levels to play live, it’s about getting to maximum readiness, that’s what I’m aiming for.’

‘It’s based on my story…when I was offered a job in America and couldn’t decide whether to go’

Last month, they released their single, ‘Out of Reach’, a gorgeously upbeat, summery track, which was inspired by events in Mark’s life, with the ‘Rosie’ of the song taken from Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)’: ‘I stole the name from that, so it’s not based on a real-life Rosie,’ Mark said. ‘I was looking for a name that you don’t come across often in a song and you don’t often get a ‘Rosie’. It’s based on my story in 2016/2017 when I was offered a job in America and couldn’t decide whether to go. It would have meant severing ties in Scotland and my new relationship and the band was only in its infancy. In the end, I decided not to go, it’s not something I regret. We got a song out of it!’

However, the difficulty of his decision comes through in the lyrics: ‘What I got here in my hand, I cannot bear to lose. I am at a crossroad – oh lord, please don’t make me choose.’

Mark leads the track, strumming the hope-filled chord progression that serves as the backbone of the song’s harmonic structure, joined by Scott and Cam, who anchor the track with a tight sixties’ girl-band groove that will get people tapping. Scott and Mark traded lead vocals for the first time on this song, with Mark on lead and Scott singing the pre-chorus before they reunite for the chorus: ‘I wrote this song and we switched it up to try something new,’ Mark said. ‘When we started writing the middle eight, we realised we had two melodies, so that’s how we developed it.’ Scott nods: ‘It was interesting, the song naturally progressed that way as Mark wrote it, developing the melodies. I’m up for the challenge!’ The track culminates in a catchy, sharply-executed chorus in which the pair share the spotlight, coming together to belt out a melody begging for an outdoor crowd ‘drunk on sunshine and beer’, as they put it.

Incredibly, not everyone has picked up that they’ve swapped out lead vocals on the song; ‘Cam only joined the band last year and our old drummer listened to the track six times before he realised,’ Mark laughed. Scott joins in: ‘Not just him, my own mum didn’t realise! She thought I was singing the chorus but didn’t realise it was me on the pre-chorus!,’ he said, looking faintly bemused. Craig interjects: ‘Every time with a song, we try to do something differently, it’s been constantly growing. Scott, you were keen to push yourself and do things on the edge.’ Scott agrees: ‘Doing something a bit too difficult is the best way to grow,’ he said. ‘The bass line in ‘Out of Reach’ is quite difficult, it’s hard to play it and sing it at the same time, you just have to practice.’

Other tracks, such as ‘Wisdom to the Wise’ (2020) are more pared back and allow Scott’s vocals to shine: ‘I wrote the lyrics for the previous band, Scatter Kid,’ said Mark. ‘It was pretty much one of the first songs that we wrote together. There’s less meaning to it, it’s more a stream of consciousness, really. It took me a while to write songs with a true meaning.’

‘When we sit down to write a song, we let the musical ideas verbalise themselves’

Most of the time, they see where the song takes them, according to Mark: ‘When we sit down to write a song, we let the musical ideas verbalise themselves,’ he said. ‘I wish we could say we’d write a rock song or another kind of song, we’d be rich! By the time I wrote ‘The Mirror and the Razor Blade’ (2020), I’d started to write lyrics about actual things. This song, as you think, is about drugs but also addiction in general, about needing something. The protagonist goes from being in love to realising that he’s ruined his life with his addiction. The lyrics always come last, they’re guided by the music, the groove, a weird animalistic sound that eventually becomes lyrics!’ Cam is laughing: ‘We usually rewrite songs at least three times, that’s the running joke!’ Craig agrees: ‘The biggest thing is to know when something’s not working and to pull the plug, knowing when to push and when to stop,’ he said.

The inherent misery of the situation is clear from the lyrics: ‘Our voices echo the sound of a terrible lie. We paid the piper with riches from days gone by.’

If they could tour with anyone, Scott picks Green Day: ‘Green Day and Weezer are doing a tour at some point, their Hella Mega tour,’ he said. ‘Green Day is my favourite band, I’d love to tour with them.’ Cam nods: ‘I’d certainly pick Green Day,’ he said. Craig is mulling his answer; ‘For me, it’s about the places to play, if you’re in the situation where you could play some amazing venues,’ he said.

Growing up, they had a diverse array of musical influences: ‘I was a Pixies fan,’ said Mark. ‘The Beatles were the first band I got into when I was 12-13. They were masters of removing anything from a song that wasn’t interesting.’ Cam nods: ‘For me, it was the way that Ringo approaches his drum parts, the way he plays the song, not just the construction.’ Craig joins in: ‘The older I get, the more I go for songs with a good structure and guitar parts. Sometimes, you can be too busy figuring out how it’s been recorded to enjoy a song!’ For Scott, Green Day remains his biggest influence: ‘They’re at the top of my list,’ he said. ‘My dad loves 70’s music, he played Slade and Status Quo when I was growing up, anything with a shuffle! Anything of that ilk, it’s ingrained in my head, whether I like it or not. My taste has diversified now, I used to think that Green Day is the only band that exists!’

If they could hear ‘Preacher’s Son’ on TV, Cam picks a sports show: ‘It would fit really well on Match of the Day or the Euros,’ he said. Scott jokes: ‘I was going to say Love Island!’ Craig is deliberating: ‘To be honest, what Camy said about sports, or even playing a sports arena – I’m going to nick Camy’s answer!’ Scott agrees: ‘It could be a really cool coming together song to hype up hope for the Euros. We did well to make it, so I’ll be watching it with my friends!’