Gideon kick off their Australian tour with Bury Tomorrow tonight in Brisbane, but guitarist Tyler Riley already has one eye on what comes next.
There’s always been something slightly crooked about trying to file Gideon neatly into one box, they’re a hardcore band until that Southern groove starts crawling through the riffs.
They’re a metal band until the punk blood shows, they’re from Nashville, but they’ve never sounded like they’re interested in dressing themselves up as somebody else’s idea of the American South.
Talking to guitarist Tyler Riley ahead of Gideon’s return to Australia, that collision starts making considerably more sense.
Country music, punk, Pantera, skateboarding, construction work and metal all sit comfortably in the same lane for Riley, none of it feels contradictory because, growing up in Nashville, it never really was.
‘I’m actually I’m from Nashville, I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’ve been around it constantly,’ Riley tells us.
His parents weren’t especially into country, but other parts of the family absolutely were.
‘My my uncle and my aunt that I spent a lot of time with that really were in the ’90s were listening to country nonstop. They did line dancing, you know, instructional stuff, and my grandmother sang kind of western country western music, and she she moved to Nashville to sing.’
It was there whether he liked it or not.
‘I think sometime in my 20s, in my probably early 20s, I realized I knew every ’90s country song that was written.’
Eventually, what had simply surrounded him as a kid started feeling more like home.
‘This like reminds me of home. This is, this is like part of part of who I am.’
Gideon ‘More Power. More Pain’ video
Nashville Isn’t Just Country Music
There’s a tendency from the outside to imagine Nashville as one endless stretch of cowboy hats, Telecasters and country bars, Riley’s version is considerably broader.
‘It’s a music city. It’s not a country music city. Although country is huge here, music is bigger than than country. Just music generally.’
That matters when trying to understand why Gideon can sound rooted in Southern culture without becoming some novelty crossover act.
Riley says Nashville’s guitar community naturally pushes musicians toward heavier music because technical playing inevitably leads people towards metal.
‘When you play guitar, you start with blues licks, and if you ever get to a point where you’re trying to play faster and you’re trying to see like where the limits of playing, whether it be drums or guitar, really, any of these electric instruments, you you find metal at some point.’
His own introduction to Pantera came through his uncle, the same person who taught him guitar.
‘He was like, you know, a jazz player, but he loved Pantera because Dimebag shredded.’
That overlap sits right at the heart of Gideon.
Gideon ‘Too Much Is Never Enough’ video
Gideon Wanted To Show A Different Side Of Southern Culture
Riley also grew up skateboarding, something that doesn’t necessarily fit the tired Southern stereotype from thousands of kilometres away, for Gideon showing those contradictions has become part of the point.
‘That’s what I feel like, it’s kind of important for us to show people that there are so many different kind of walks of life in in Southern culture.’
He remembers heavily accented country kids around him growing up who were just as likely to be skateboarding or riding BMX.
‘People love heavy music; they sit around and they love being free to kind of just like the things that they like and and do what they want.’
That eventually fed into something of an identity reset for Gideon.
‘There was a point in our band where you kind of have an identity crisis, where you’re like, you know, who who are we, and you kind of start trying to get back to where you came from.’
Touring helped clarify it.
Riley describes the familiar urge to leave your hometown, see everything else, then eventually recognise what was worth keeping from where you started.
‘If you get out long enough, you start to realize the things that are good about where you come from.’
For Gideon, that circle back home became part of the band they are now.
Gideon ‘Wrong One’ video
Australia Has Already Become Part Of Gideon’s Story
Tonight’s Brisbane show isn’t Gideon’s first Australian rodeo, far from it. This will be their fourth visit, following their most recent run supporting Void Of Vision in February of last year.
The connection has gone considerably deeper than touring, too.
‘We love Australia. In fact, two of our members are now married to Australian women.’
Both Gideon’s drummer and vocalist have Australian partners, giving this return a slightly more personal edge than another passport stamp.
Riley has also absorbed at least some of the local language.
‘You guys love keen, you love keen.’
His Australian slang knowledge deteriorated pretty rapidly after that, although he did leave our conversation equipped with ‘carry on like a pork chop’ and ‘flat out like a lizard drinking’, so we’ll call that cultural progress.
Gideon ‘4×4’ video
Gideon Are Already Writing Their Next Full-Length
More importantly, Gideon aren’t arriving here simply to keep flogging the same chapter.
The band released their five track 4×4 EP earlier this year, pushing their Southern groove, hardcore weight and increasingly unapologetic personality even further forward.
But according to Riley, the next record is already taking shape.
‘We’ve been writing the whole time that we’ve been home the last three months.’
The plan is to keep writing heavily, then potentially begin recording early next year.
‘Hopefully we’ll be able to record early next year, and and really not make the people wait too long.’
Interestingly, 4×4 had actually been finished for more than a year by the time it reached listeners, that gave Gideon time to think beyond it before anyone outside the band had even heard the EP.
‘We’ve had a lot of time to sit and reflect and kind of think about what direction we wanted to go before people had even heard that.’
And Riley leaves little ambiguity about what’s happening now.
‘We’re deep in the throes of writing a full length record right now.’
So while 4×4 might be the material Australian crowds are getting first crack at this week, Gideon are already pushing into whatever comes after it.
Gideon ‘4×4’ Tracklist
- ‘Wrong One’
- ‘4×4’
- ‘’Til The Wheels Fall Off’
- ‘YEEHAW’
- ‘Find It As I Go’
Listen here.
Bury Tomorrow Australian Tour With Gideon & Headwreck
The run kicks off tonight in Brisbane before moving through Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
- Friday, September 4th – Brisbane, The Tivoli 18+
- Saturday, September 5th – Newcastle, King St Bandroom 18+
- Sunday, September 6th – Sydney, Metro Theatre Lic AA
- Wednesday, September 9th – Melbourne, Northcote Theatre 18+
- Thursday, September 10th – Adelaide, The Gov Lic AA
- Friday, September 11th – Perth, Magnet House 18+
Tickets are on sale now via Destroy All Lines.
For Gideon, Australia is becoming increasingly familiar territory.
The music itself is doing something similar. The further they travel, the clearer it seems to become where they came from.
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