Music Editor Alfie Warner and Comment Editor Jennifer Sawitzki interview GANS, covering what they think makes a band successful, and their touring experiences
GANS is a two-man punk-rock act from the West-Midlands, comprised of drummer Euan Woodman and bassist Tom Rhodes. We met Euan at The Anchor just before they opened for Hamish Hawke, and talked all about the band’s rise from side-project to main focus.
Woodman and Rhodes have been part of the Birmingham music scene since they met in 2017, but GANS didn’t materialise until 2023. Starting as a side-project, the pair were fuelled by ‘a f*ck it, no one is going to listen to it anyway’ mentality that they’ve proudly continued to incorporate into all of the band’s songs.
At the time of writing, GANS have released six singles, with Woodman taking the lead lyrically. But when the two paired up, they weren’t optimistic about their success, ‘When we first started, we didn’t think anyone would listen to us. And then people would tell us “this is really cool!”’.
There are still bands emerging from Birmingham, but it doesn’t feel like the support is there like it used to be
Thanks to their long history in the Birmingham music scene, GANS started doing local shows through recommendations by other local artists. Woodman was appreciative of how welcoming the music community in Birmingham had been, ‘we all see each other about and go to one another’s gigs, we all just try and support each other. There are still bands emerging from Birmingham, but it doesn’t feel like the support is there like it used to be.’ That being said, GANS has definitely been growing, with new agents, plenty of BBC Radio 6 plays, and most recently signing with the record label Strap Originals in January of this year.
For their most recent single, ‘IN TIME’, GANS worked with producer Ross Orton, who worked on the Arctic Monkey’s album, AM. Woodman spoke highly of Orton and his eccentrics, ‘Ross is lovely, but he’s a bit crazy; he’s the only person I know that could fix a £10,000 microphone, with a soldering iron, on his lap. He doesn’t pull his punches either, so if he thinks something is rubbish then he’ll just tell us.’
GANS have supported acts such as The Libertines in Paris, EKKSTACY in Germany, and Hamish Hawke in the UK. Woodman described the touring lifestyle as, ‘this weird little universe; no one else can really understand what it’s like until you’ve been driving for 10 hours a day from place to place. Hamburg was a particular favourite of ours, though we accidentally booked our hostel in the Reeperbahn, and didn’t realise until we turned up.’
Family is my biggest inspiration; we didn’t base it off doing X, Y, or Z, but we tried sticking to our own thing; it’s authentic that way.
Woodman appreciated how enthusiastic the crowds in mainland Europe were, ‘They’re really energetic wherever you go, you can be the first act of the night and the crowd will go wild. Compared to the UK, we’ll sometimes play and everyone will just stand there, nodding their heads. We’ll think, “oh god, this is going to be f*cking sh*t”, and then we’ll sell a sh*tload of merch, with loads of people coming up to us afterwards. Everyone enjoys gigs in different ways, and we enjoy that, whether you want to go mental or just soak it in.’ We definitely found this when we saw GANS, as the demographic between GANS and Hamish Hawke does not have a lot of crossover. That being said, there were a few grey-haired gig-goers properly letting loose in the middle of the crowd.
‘IN TIME’ is GANS’ first track heavily featuring a synthesiser, which they used to great effect that evening. The synth itself ties into Woodman’s strong family ties, ‘The synth is owned by my brother; technically, we’re borrowing it, but he’s yet to see it back again. Everyone says it sounds like Gary Newman. I’d say we take some inspiration from LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads, but more than that I think it’s Birmingham, and just life in general. It’s going to sound really pretentious, but through what me and Tom have experienced, there’s a lot you can draw from. Family is my biggest inspiration; we didn’t base it off doing X, Y, or Z, but we tried sticking to our own thing; it’s authentic that way.’
Both the city and family resonate through their work, with their first single ‘HARRY’S TUNE’ being dedicated to Woodman’s brother and synth-loaner. GANS have plenty of music videos on their YouTube, with nearly all of them being in and around Birmingham, of particular note were the Botanical Gardens in the music video for ‘WHAT YOU MEAN’.
GANS seventh single ‘I THINK I LIKE YOU’ is out on 04/03/25, and they have a headline show at the Hare and Hounds on March 27th.
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