Having spent time relentlessly touring at festivals and support slots whilst packing out shows of his own, Notts lad George Gadd is a DIY folk-punk songwriter, blending heartfelt lyrics with big singalongs. This December, George will take to The Bodega stage with his band for a big hometown headline show. We caught up with him to chat about bad gigs, 2019 and what to expect from his upcoming show.
Hi George! Looking forward to having you back at The Bodega in December. For those who aren’t familiar with you, what can they expect from the show?
Folk-punk for punk folk or just everyone! Best described as a mix of Bruce Springsteen, Frank Turner and 2000s emo.
It’s been a number of years now since your last Bodega headline, how excited are you to bring the full band back?
Very much excited, our last gig together was in August at the Riverside Festival. I’ve been taking a bit of a break to go on holiday and I’ve also been focusing on my job a bit more. This will be my last gig of 2019 which has been a pretty incredible year which included me playing some of my biggest shows as well as touring with Ducking Punches and Harker (who are also on the line-up) earlier in the year.
You’ve played shows all across the UK since a young age, how has your approach to live shows changed in that time?
I think confidence. As I’ve grown older, I’ve not been as worried about embarrassing myself, especially with a few drinks in me. I used to be really nervous before going onstage but not so much these days. If I have a bad gig now, I tend to laugh at it rather than get upset. After myself and the band headlined Bodega last time, myself and Ciaran (guitarist) played a gig at a beer garden in Cotgrave and everything that could of went wrong did. It was the only gig in 11 years of doing this that my mum has attended and she said she wasn’t keen to go to another after that!
We’re itching for some new George Gadd tunes, is there anything you can tell us about any new material in the works?
I can confirm that I’ve been demoing a few new songs but not rushing anything. There may be one in the setlist though.
Take us behind the scenes in a George Gadd songwriting masterclass, how does a song usually form?
It can either be me and a guitar and it will all just pour out fully formed or it can be something I work on over a number of years. ‘Not Human’ was a song which was immediate and if anything, there were additional verses that were cut. Whereas ‘Shake a Ghost’ I think I wrote in May 2017 and wanted it to be like the ‘Walking on Sunshine’ of emo-folk but it didn’t really get finished until January 2018. A lot of those ideas would have also have been floating around for years in various notebooks.
And finally, if you could go back through the Bodega time-capsule and see one band here that you missed, who would you see?
There are a number of bands that I wanted to see but was too young to see them. Manchester Orchestra, Frightened Rabbit, Ben Howard, Laura Marling, The National and Bright Eyes all came through but I was far too young to go or at university.
George Gadd will be at The Bodega on 7th December with guests Harker, Velvet Blush and Kate Auburn. Tickets are on sale now here.
