Words by Willa Rudolph / Photos by Nik Bauman
Today, NYC based punk rock band Gun are releasing a collection of two singles, “Lovingly,” and “Chemical Fear.” The two songs differ greatly in sound and theme, one being a pop punk ballad, and the other a rap rock anthem, in the vein of Limp Bizkit with some tinges of Wargasm.
Gun is an insane and lively pillar of the NYC DIY scene right now, inspiring chaotic mosh pits, haphazard head banging, and proceeds through the scene with ferocity and passion, but also finesse. They’re certainly a band to watch, and this double-single-launch marks the beginning of a few releases over the next year that we can look forward to, including a full length album (date TBD).
The band, just under two years old, is fronted by Queens born-and-raised Stavros Lari, who has been writing music for ten years, since the age of 14. “ I was always into music as a kid. I loved the radio and I would try and write lyrics to songs I really liked, like Matchbox Twenty’s “Unwell” or Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”
For Gun, lyrics come last. Stav explains, “When writing music, I usually come up with a riff or an instrumental passage and bring it to the band. We work on it, and at the end I’ll add lyrics. We’re inspired by a lot of late 90’s/early 00’s bands like Limp Bizkit, The Prodigy, Deftones, and Atari Teenage Riot. More recently, we’re inspired by bands like KFC Murder Chicks, Static Dress, Joey Valence and Brae, and Wargasm.
“Chemical Fear” is an expression of anger and frustration, calling into question politics and a specifically heinous piece of US History: The Franklin Scandal. This scandal “was a set of allegations of satanic pedophilia rings, thrown at some high ranking Republican officials in the 80’s. A bunch of wayward kids came out and accused Lawrence E. King, Jr., a Republican Party activist, of buying, selling, and drugging kids for sexual and ritual purposes. Learning about this event really shook me and made me sick, so I decided to channel that energy and anger into the song,” Lari expounds.
The rousing rhyme was inspired by “hip-hop heavy nu-metal bands like Limp Bizkit, Primer 55, and Insolence. I think a song like that deserves the most amount of aggression possible, so the combination of rap and metal works perfectly,” Lari explains. “‘Lovingly’ was inspired by some of the more melodic Deftones songs, and even some emo hits like ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ or the song ‘Uniform’ by the band Push Ups. That song in particular really led me in the right direction.”
The next song, “Lovingly,” is a dark love song, in which Stavros writes from a feeling of insanity brought on by desperation. “It’s about yearning for the physicality of a lover when they’re out of your grasp.”
I wondered why Gun decided to release these two quite different songs together: “Chemical Fear and Lovingly are very different thematically and sonically, but I think they share an energy that runs throughout almost all of our music that ties them together. I’ve been working on keeping our body of work more focused, and I think hearing certain, heavy parts of ‘Lovingly’ tie it to ‘Chemical Fear’ in a really fun way.”
2024 is going to be a huge year for Gun. An album is in the works, and the band feels it’s their best and most fun work yet. “It’s gonna be really awesome so keep your ears open for that, I’m really excited,” Stav tells Deli.
More from Gun here!