Shiny Toy Guns piqued many listeners’ interest when the quartet took stabs at such covers as Peter Schilling’s "Major Tom (Coming Home)," Sinead O’ Connor’s "Nothing Compares 2 U" (a track actually written by Prince), and Blue Oyster Cult’s "I’m Burning For You." It wasn’t only the general public who took notice, either. Both the Schilling and Blue Oyster Cult covers were first specifically recorded to be used in a series of Lincoln MKS advertisements, and thanks to growing buzz and high demand, those tracks were eventually released as full-fledged singles. But don’t expect the Shiny Toy Guns to have an arsenal of covers waiting in the wings for possible future singles. Keyboardist/bassist Jeremy Dawson revealed to Ultimate-Guitar that he was indeed "over the cover thing."
The Los Angeles-based indie rock/synth pop band has gone through several evolutions since forming in 2002 – at least in terms of the lead vocalists – but the core foundation of
Dawson and guitarist
Chad Petree has remained consistent. It’s that musical duo that not only shaped the dance-oriented sound, but also took it upon itself to find new means of marketing. With the help of social networking via MySpace and a hefty touring schedule, the
Shiny Toy Guns eventually earned a major label contract with
Universal Records in June 2006. Their debut record
We Are Pilots made a splash on the Billboard Alternative Charts and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album.
The band’s latest endeavor, a remix album titled Girls Le Disko, is a perfect match for Dawson, who in the past few months has taken on the role of guest DJ at clubs in Los Angeles and Miami. Shiny Toy Guns gathered up a collection of remixes (along with two unreleased songs) from a wide variety of DJs and producers including DJ Ferry Corsten and Kissy Sell Out. The band is now in the early stages of working on an original full-length to follow up 2008’s Season Of Poison, but Dawson is not entirely sure what direction the band will take. The part-time DJ did state that all of the best elements of Shiny Toy Guns’ music would "collide" on the next record. In the meantime, fans can discover their inner clubber with Girls Le Disko, which Dawson discussed at length in a recent interview via email with Ultimate-Guitar.
UG: What inspired the band to release the latest album of remixes, Girls Le Disko?
Jeremy: Girls Le Disko is the perfect bridgeway for us between albums. It’s sort of a symbolic nod to the dance industry from which we came from.
"Girls Le Disko is the perfect bridgeway for us between albums."
Yes …over 2 years now.
"Rocketship 2010" underwent its third update for the latest record. Can you talk a little bit about the evolution that “Rocketship” has gone through over the years?
Haha …the song that will never die. This tune started out in 2001 in another group Chad and I were in called 'Slyder". It was meant for a female to sing, but we canned the tune until 2003 when I started working on the original demos of the We Are Pilots record. We had literally totally forgotten about the song, so I dug up the vocal and gave it a new sonic treatment then. But again, we canned the song and it didn't make the cut for either of our two albums out on Universal. Song was never released in the USA. However, we began to perform the song live. And it exploded immediately. Became the peak of out sets...people shouting the name of the song louder than our radio singles. It was unreal. So, once again, we took “Rocketship” and re-polished her again into “Rocketship 2010,” and finally she will get her shot as our next single. We just shot a video for the tune as well.
Your cover of “Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” is a standout track on Girls Le Disko. Was there one particular member who spearheaded that undertaking?
It was Chad and I. He started the tune and got it running and we finally got it finished on the road during SXSW in people's houses and hotel rooms with headphones.
Talk a little about the songwriting process, specifically in a song like “Ricochet!” How did that particular song take shape?
“Ricochet!” was originally titled, I think, "Triplet Thing" or something I can't recall right now... Chad kicked it off by writing the guitar riff that basically carries the entire song. Then he took the percussion bed that I programmed for the "Nothing Compares 2 U" remake we did like six years ago, polished it up and connected the two together. Then we put our other singer in front of a mic and hit record and left her alone for a half hour. Then we started the lyric at the end using pieces of melodies that she wrote and pieces of melodies that Chad and I wrote.
You have a fairly high-tech, sleek sound to your records. What are some of your primary pieces of the equipment in the studio?
We are really simple actually gear wise. Mainly it's all about mic placement and spending a great deal of extra time fine tuning the little things that make something sound good, not a room full of gear. We use a lot of Avalons and Universal Audio pre's for just about everything, and try to stay analog when possible with our low-end stuff using Moog Taurus II's and old Roland gear. Logic is the brain of the whole thing.
Would you consider yourself a perfectionist in the studio?
Both Chad and I are. It makes it really difficult to write a lot of songs quickly.
In terms of the live stage setup, does your equipment change much?
Yes, it does a great deal. We tend to program all of our drums on our albums and all of the drums are played live acoustically. Guitar-wise Chad uses a variety of different guitars for different sounds live, and uses a pedal setup of different vintage delays and effects to try to replicate and re-convey sounds and effects we used on our music via synthesizers. Keyboard-wise, we only use Roland stuff, primarily the V-Synth series live and most of their vintage catalog in the studio.
"We are really simple actually gear wise."
Too Different? Absolutely. I don't know about "too soon." The album is amazing. We love it. It just sounds like a totally different band than our first album, that’s all. The cool thing is we learned both worlds, (and) now we can collide them on the third album.
I understand you’re already working on another full-length record that is slated to hit stores in spring or summer. Did you go back to basics or would you consider the album to be somewhat experimental?
Too early to tell. We haven't decided exactly what we are going to do yet.
MySpace played a key role in getting a buzz going about Shiny Toy Guns. Do you think that site still holds the same power that it once did?
In music I think so for sure. On a personal level the trend has moved away from the big power site, but it still is extremely important.
“Major Tom” has certainly garnered plenty of attention for the band. Are there any other covers you’d like to undertake?
No way …over the cover thing. Not doing any more at all.
Photo credit: Philip Rood Photography
Interview by Amy Kelly
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