Photos by Mary Claire McCoy
“You’ve gotta check out this band ‘Gun‘,” I tell a friend over a Wednesday afternoon phone call. “They’re gonna bring back nu metal.” With the angst of the likes of Limp Bizkit and Eminem, the vocal melodies of notoriously “NOT-nu metal” band Deftones, and epic guitar distortion of 80’s metal acts like Slayer and Pantera, they exist in a post-internet era that inherently brings in ultra-meta layers to their sound while their punk mind-set keeps them grounded. Formed in Queens, NY by singer Stavros Lari in 2021, brought on fellow NY native, Billy Hay, on guitar. After a few line-up changes, the band added bassist, Maria Galebach, and guitarist, Aadil Mufti, with Hay on drums. Their sophomore, concept album, Neo Notown, is here to take you on a wild ride into the past, present and future.
The album features singles, “Casual Goon”, a rap anthem featuring NO!MAD AMIR and Nas Jee and, “Laser Gun”, a catchy crossover track featuring Le Bang. Neo Notown was written almost entirely by Lari, and tells the story of a band of characters that are fighting against an omnipresent government in a dystopian, futuristic NYC. After watching Samurai Jack and The Matrix, he was inspired to create something that could be a soundtrack to an action movie. Created alongside a series of self-published comic books, it is clear that the album creates its own world to exist within. After a pop-punk heavy debut album, Gunmetal, released in 2022, this album confidently and loudly wanders into an experimental territory. With tracks that feature funkier grooves and louder guitar solos, it seems to demand attention from every angle.
Collaborating with girlfriend, musician and director, Sofia Zarzuela (Veronica), the new music video for “Casual Goon”, sets up a visual backbone for the album. “The video was largely inspired by Bladerunner 2048. A lot of different movies pull from this concept of New-York-City-meets-Tokyo but 1,000 years in the future and I wanted to tap into that,” says Zaruela. Lari also was heavily inspired by Gorillaz music videos, “you know, just us being dirtbags and drinking and smoking weed.” It’s highly stylized to almost look like an anime and solidifies that they are playing characters. The director of photography, Syd Villacortabuer, brings us inside their world and makes you not want to leave.
A key part of Gun, however, is their high-energy live performances. “I want people to come to shows. One of the major goals of the band is to make music that makes people move: dance, jump up and down, mosh or fucking throw themselves around. I just want to have fun with everyone,” Lari tells me. They’ve coined themselves as “The Most Dangerous Band in NYC”, while not taking themselves too seriously. The purity of their punk spirit makes them stand out in a music scene that feels like it only exists to breed the next big act. They don’t plan too much into the future, they just want to exist.
Gun will play an album release show tonight (October 18th) at Addison Pest Control in LES, Manhattan and will feature sets by Veronica and Maraya. You won’t wanna miss this chance to f*ck sh*t up with them!