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Interview: I Am Giant
I Am Giant are is of those bands whose songs you know, even if you don’t recognise it’s them you are listening to. They get a lot of airplay and have appeared in a lot of surf and action vids.
KSM got to speak to Paul Matthews, the bassist for I am Giant, on the line from England and found him in good form.
You’re ambassadors for Quiksilver in Europe. How did that come about?
Basically Quiksilver Europe heard our music and wanted to put it on their movies.
I reckon getting on a surf vid is still a really good way of getting to a big audience. Was that something you were aware of?
Yeah, definitely. How we got Kelly Slater on the video was Quiksilver said, “if we can have your songs on the surf DVD, you can have the Kelly surfing outtakes for your music video”, so we went “Yep, sure”.
Do they pile you with clothes?
Yeah (Laughs). They do throw us a fair bit of gear, but it’s not like we’re all kitted out in a Quiksilver uniform the whole time.
I saw on Facebook during the Quiksilver pro you were with Matt Hoy . . .
Yeah, he came down after the gig. He knew how to get on the piss. He was fun.
How do the surf festivals compare to other ones?
Well when you go on something like the Big Day Out they’re there for the band, but at the surf comp they’re there for the surfing, so it’s different. The nighttime shows are still good. We just did a festival in Ireland called Sea Sessions. It was freezing cold. Kelly Slater was surfing there.
Was it the Quik tie-in that got you Tony Hawke in the Living the crash video?
Yeah. The street skating was Quiksilver footage, but the guys in the bowls were just skaters sessioning that day. They were all keen to get in the action too. We had to ask them “Stay over there for a while, you can be in the next shot”.
What skate park/bowl was that you’re playing in?
It’s in Melbourne. There were actually three of them we did the shoot in, but the main one is St Kilda.
Classic. I don’t think that’ been done before in a bowl.
Um, it reminds me of an old Ben Harper video. I think he was in a bowl. Everything’s been done before. (Laughs)
You guys skate a bit too?
I used to. And every time I get on a board I remind myself why I shouldn’t. As you get older, you get heavy. A lot heavier, and it hurts when you fall. I prefer snowboarding now.
You’re known for treating your fans well through the social media outlets. (They currently have 39,000 fans on Facebook,)
Yeah, it’s a progression of how people communicate and so how the band communicates. We’ve got a contest going on there at the moment telling us who the fans want to support us on the tour, and that’s been going really well.
Looking through your Facebook photos, looks like you have a pretty good tome on the road. Any standout place?
Asia is always good. You see different things there. We saw a circus running around with no harness on bamboo scaffolding last time.
I read you play the Viper Room (Famous LA night club once owned by Johnny Depp). How was that?
It was smaller than you’d think. You know Popa Jack’s in Auckland? (semi-famous bar in the ’90s). It was just like that.
You produce songs too ay. I know when I’ve finished a mag I’ve read the stories and looked at the photos a hundred times and I’m sick of it. But then when it comes out it’s all fresh again. Is it like that with songs?
Yeah, totally. I can produce other people’s music easily, but when it is your own you’re too close. It’s good to have another producer come in. Sometimes you’ve got songs that you play over and over live that you kinda get sick of, but it doesn’t mean they’re not great songs.
What come first, the music or the lyrics?
The music. Then you figure out what tones and vowel sounds of words will work best. I have a book of lyrics I can refer to.
When you listen to your album you realise how often you hear your songs in different places. Some of them get quitet thrashed so it was good to hear those news ones. I really liked that Drag My Name Through The Mud
(Laughs) Thanks. Yeah, when we did the album we thought it would need some changes of pace. You don’t want heavy song after heavy song. We actually took a few big songs off for that reason.
So you’ve got a few songs all good to go for the next album?
Yep, heaps.
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