Interview by Kris Peters
Brisbane rock machine Gutterfire! have wasted enough time lost to the forces of nature and other things conspiring against them and have declared 2023 to be the year of Chill, their debut album which might be a couple of years old now but has still not received the mileage it deserves.
After having to delay the release due to the big C and its ensuing global lockdown, Gutterfire! painstakingly sat back, eager to unleash their monster on the world but growing increasingly concerned that the Gods of music may have overlooked them on their maiden voyage.
The band need not have feared, for when Chill was finally unleashed the world was still not ready for its rumblings of hard rock infused stoner metal that was only matched by the sheer ferocity of their live performance.
With Gutterfire recently embarking on a 21 date tour of the East Coast to give Chill one final push, HEAVY managed to nail down vocalist Photon Jon not long before the band boarded yet another plane to fly South for a few shows.
"It's been great," he enthused of the first few shows of the tour. "We sold out the first two and had a great time on the Gold Coast for the third one. We played with Dreamkillers at the first one, which was great because they are childhood heroes of ours, and great crowds. It was really nice the second night to see a sold out crowd of people we don't know, so it was all strangers who were there to see us which was nice. We must have gained some traction in our downtime (laughs)."
This weekend Gutterfire! hit Sydney, Woollongong and Woy Woy before returning to South East Queensland and Northern NSW, then Victoria before heading to FNQ to finish up with Jon smiling when we point out the enormity of the run. We press him on how he prepares mentally and physically for such a long stretch.
"With great difficulty," he laughed. "We're all full time employed too, so we basically fly out every Thursday or Friday and fly back in Sunday or Monday every weekend until the end of May and work during the week as well. The journey to getting here has been a bit full on. We've been trying to plan a tour of this size for a few years, but obvious events stopped that from happening. We're just happy to finally get interstate and play to a whole bunch of places."
In the full interview Jon runs us through the support bands and their selection criteria, a typical Gutterfire! live show, the reaction to
Chill, what they were going for with the album, which songs best typify the band, album number two and more.