The Last Gang are:
Brenna Red: guitars and vocals
Sean Viele: Bass
Ken Aquion: lead guitar
Sam Mankinen: Drums
The Last Gang have, at the time of writing, just released their new album, “Obscene Daydreams,” that Lorraine reviewed for us, linked here. Lorraine says, ‘Reflecting on the review, where I had played the whole album through once, I’ve had time to play it a bit more now and it is less of a turn left than “Noise, Noise, Noise.” That album had more notable Ska influences and it was a little more experimental. This new album sees the band nail a fluid form of melodic punk that rattles the cages. We got the chance to speak to the band before their recent show in Leicester as part of their UK tour, which opened in our hometown up in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where they played at the Cluny.
Having backpacked their jet lag and bringing their sound to us over here from home in Orange County, we noted the slight move in the new album away from the previous one.
Sam: There are certain songs in the new album that do have strong elements of the Ska touches from “Noise,” but it has a much stronger melodic punk sound laid over it so maybe it’s not as noticeable as before, but it’s still there. The Undertones are still a strong influence on us.
Brenna: With “Electric Avenue,” “Rumors,” and “Hide the Antagonist,” it is still there.
And the band continues to make waves, with 25k + listeners now on Spotify. They are also hitting the road; our favorite track from the new album is the ode to life on the road that forms “Berlin to Rome.” Do the guys have a routine for life on the road.
Sam: It depends on how early you get to a venue. Today we had some time to walk around Leicester and get some food. Generally, though we don’t, as the drives can be long. Every day will be a two-hour drive over here in the UK but when we are home in the States, it can be six to eight hour drives. Then it becomes a lot of travel, getting to the venue and hanging out.
Brenna: If we have down time, it’s not enough to do anything fun so we all have our individual quiet times where we can do something that we like. I play my Nintendo Switch, Ken likes to kill zombies on his phone, and Sean will bring in a book. We just do quiet things to keep sanity.
Sam: I have no routine, nothing that keeps me sane; I am just anxious all day long!
Sean: I’m currently reading a book called ‘Trip.’ It’s about psychedelic drugs such as LSD and the relationship it has with the Nazis and so forth; it’s an interesting book.
Sam: The thing that we appreciate about being over here is the amount of history that is preserved, cared for and is still here. It is there on every corner.
Brenna: When we left London a few months ago, we stayed in Canterbury and the guys pointed out a wooden sign that had been there since the 1400’s; it’s a sign that is older than anything we have stateside. And there is a river in Canterbury beside which there is a little chair where the witches were placed to see if they would drown!
But America has the Salem Witches?!
Brenna: Yes, but they tripped out on hallucinogens and we just murdered a load of innocents.
But we were just as bad. High-profile figures like Anne Boleyn were accused of witchcraft as a means to bring them down.
Brenna: The song “Hide the Antagonist” is about exactly these things: hiding your true intentions for greed, lust and power, but hiding behind a righteous veil of who you are. It is not about religion; it becomes about your greed for power, the lust for power. It happened back in the Crusades and it happens now.
Lyrically, Brenna is the master of the interesting word…
Brenna: Well, sometimes I just make up words, and sometimes they are already made up for you!
Another song we loved here at the magazine was “The Others,” which has this big fist pumping chorus. Jump around and have fun. But the theme is quite sad.
Brenna: We were at a festival in Florida, and we were walking around when a fan came up to us with his girlfriend. It began with a typical ‘loved the show and you guys are awesome.’ Then he said that he didn’t usually like “chick bands,” but he felt we were cool. At that point I was thinking, ‘there’s no such genre as chick bands, but…’ However, he then saw a shirt that Sean was wearing, which was an ‘Against-Me’ T-shirt, and he began to make some comments. I was just not happy when the bigotry came out.
Sean: We just had to walk away.
Brenna: I don’t know how to make it more clear about who we are as people, let alone a band. But we believe in certain things and I want to make that obvious. We don’t want people around us who are transphobic or against others in any way.
Sam: We’re willing to have a conversation with someone if they are willing to learn from it, but if they are going to take a hard stance, then go away. It’s worthwhile to spread positive message about these things and to show that we stand behind what we say. We care about everyone, apart from racist pieces of shit!
We think that although not a political band, The Last Gang do carry a message and if people are changed in a positive way through listening, then that has to be a good thing.
Sam: True, we are not a political band, but we do sing about relevant things and things that we care about, so it’s important. But I don’t always want to be nice about people who are f****** a******* !
In the US, we notice a greater intensity of your politics than we get here, these huge rallies and hats and everything. We don’t have that enthusiasm here. And the front page news on who Taylor Swift endorses—why on earth would anyone at all care? It’s mad.
Brenna: Politics becomes a reality show.
Sam: You put all that money into something, so they will entertain the hell out of you for it! I think that is it.
Brenna: Have you seen the film “Idiocracy?” (Luke Wilson, 2006; it’s very good!) That’s what we are living in now. In my opinion, what might help is art, music and culture, that is what can make people improve. Those in power don’t want us to have access to these things, but the more you learn, the more you can fight it.
Sam: We also live in a time when if I can use my words in a positive way in music and touring, then I can make a positive change.
How close a relative is the new album to “Noise, Noise, Noise?”
Brenna: I see it as an evolution. I like the phrase that fans don’t want to see artists change, but they do want to see them grow. It’s a fine line between changing who you are and growing to the next level. Look at bands like The Clash, and you see the progression. We have all the roots still there; we have a form of evil reggae in there. “Rumors” is almost like a funk reggae and its a bridge from “Electric Avenue,” so we still retain those avenues. We do push the melody this time and not just do what is expected; we are trying to evolve and grow.
Sam: Each album has added different members, or a new member, so that all helps with the evolution too. I joined with this record, and it adds a new flame under us, a new influence.
How about a keyboard player?
Ken: No f*** that!
We think Wikipedia has “Noise, Noise, Noise” down as album number three, making this number four. But we thought this was album three?
Brenna: There have been other things released. I’ve been doing this music for a while, but for official albums, this is three. There was one that I just burned on my computer and printed copies of.
And the last album listened to by them?
Brenna: We were listening to Mean Jeans, the Jingles collection. It’s a fun, dumb album to listen to on the road—a thirty-minute killer. Living together and squashed in a van together, you get super tight and music helps to pass the time. We even have rhythms on waking up together; we are a cohesive unit.
Sean: I played the “Homefront album,” and it was F****** awesome!
Ken: The last record was our album, as I’m trying to remember all the songs, excluding ours, Frank Turner’s “Undefeated” record and it was great. For our record, half the album we’ve played live already, so a lot is in the setlist now.
And there we are; the band were heading off for a soundcheck so we closed there. You can stream the new album, but for vinyl lovers, there is a great vinyl copy out too through the label Fat Wreck Chords.
We hope you liked the feature, dear reader! If you did, please check out the other pages of the magazine; we have many great features, merchandise, editorials and even poetry! We work hard for you, and if you want to show some appreciation and support what we do, then do use the Support Us link below! Always appreciated.
The bands website is here
You can stream music by The Last Gang here
By Mark C. Chambers
and
Lorraine Foley
