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The last time Gym Class Heroes played in the UK, the marquee venue on their tour was the Yeovil Ski Centre. While this Somerset snow dome crackled with energy and mayhem that night – “maybe because the circus doesn’t come to Yeovil that often” speculates bassist Eric Roberts- we expects that locations of this size and ilk won’t be big enough when they return to Blighty in the summer. Following the obscenely good reception their modest sized February tour had over here (taking in a couple of Barflys and the like along the way) and with their Supertramp-sampling top three hit single ‘Cupid’s Chokehold (Breakfast in America)’ on heavy MTV rotation its not hard to predict that something juicy could be about to happen for these guys. Well, juicier than Yeovil anyway. Gigwise caught up with the band in London to discuss their growing phenomenon.
Taking advantage of the Godzilla-like effect ‘Cupid’s…’ is having on the charts and airplay at the minute, Gym Class are sticking new album ‘As Cruel as School Children’ out again in the States with the tune tacked on the end (originally heard on 2004’s humbly received ‘The Paper cut Chronicles’ LP), and including it at the last minute for the UK release of the album. Dubbed by the band as a humorous and childlike this rap-tinged melodic album plays heavily on the school days theme, including the spacing out of the tunes into periods as well as ‘yearbook club’, ‘detention’ and so on.
Screwing up his face at the suggestion that this sounds like a concept album, guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo does at least acknowledge that their timing seems impeccable, telling us: “its basically a summer time breezy record, kids will be able to drive around and get down to it!” While the overriding tone of the record is certainly light hearted, the depth of front man Travis “Schleprok” McCoy’s lyrics ranges from shallow boasts, to sincere verses of intimacy and concern. The smartness of tunes like ‘Clothes Off’ and ‘New Friend Request!’ are counter balanced by the darker topics discussed in ‘The Queen and I’. His amusing self-deprecation on tracks like ‘Sloppy Love Jingle’ (parts 1, 2 & 3) serves to disassociate McCoy from both the arrogance of mainstream rap and the self-pitying angst of US teen rock. A place where the band is content: “No matter what tour we’re on, whether it be a hip-hop tour, or a metal tour, we’re always that different band,” reflects Disashi. “If it’s a rock tour people are like ‘eeurggh…. it’s rap! And vice versa.”
Like the kid that doesn’t fit anywhere in the playground, Gym Class seem to be the unique outcasts of an otherwise formulaic musical landscape. After touring their instrumental laden hip-hop at break neck speed for a few years with bands of hugely varying genre and scene saw attempts to pigeonhole Gym Class have prove less than fruitful. “I think the worst one was ‘emo-rap’…we just about managed to break out of that one,” they quip. Playing along side punk, hip-hop, ska and emo bands on touring festivals meant GCH weren’t always what the audience were expecting: “these kids are amped up to see Emery (Christian rock outfit) or some other band, and we come on…a lot of fingers in the front row man!”
The fact that their sound is so hard to define and compare to other acts could be something to do with the lack of an overriding or influential scene in their surrounding area when growing up. Swapping the clichéd posturing and looped monotonous beats of commercial hip-hop for tongue-in-cheek stories about girls from their past and guitars makes for a refreshing listen. The flavour of their teasing, playful, sometimes touching rap lyrics laid over live instruments certainly doesn’t have its roots in the band’s upstate New York background. Out in the sticks and a good five hours from the spit and shit of the city, flannelled shirts and Lynyrd Skynyrd could’ve very easily been all over the tunes they gave birth to in later life. Luckily it seems that they have carved a unique space for themselves in music despite of their hometowns, not because of them. Eric cites his mother’s penchant for Van Morrison’s “ill, nasty bass” and the Eagles’ “really good soul songs” as the reason he started to play and ignore his father’s redneck collection.
The ‘emo’ tag was always going to rear its eye-linered head given the association with Patrick ‘Fall Out Boy’ Stump’s guest vocals on ‘Cupid’s…’ and their signing to his band mate Pete Wentz’s Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen label. Refuting claims that Wentz is becoming the ‘Jay-Z of emo’, Gym Class seem comfortable with his role in their development. “He’s involved with the record, but he’s not dictatorial in the slightest,” states Lumumba-Kasongo. “The label really helped us in terms of getting our underground fan base, and keeping them once we got a lot more exposure.” The eclectic nature of their representation in the States coupled with the steely efficiency of Atlantic Records could mean this band are equipped to retain credibility while smothering themselves all over the festival circuit and charts at the same time.
An Australian tour with Gwen Stefani (which we’re told by the band breaks conveniently for Eric’s birthday/Big Day Out festivities) beckons in July and is further evidence that Yeovil may not be able to accommodate the circus next time around. In their own box in terms of sound and attitude, Gym Class Heroes achieve a unique mix of melody and pop sensibility as well as injecting humour into their verses without becoming a novelty act. While these guys repeatedly assure Gigwise that they have had their fair share of “haters” in the past, currently they seem to be reaching a more diverse crowd than most. Gym Class have reminded music not to take itself too seriously and we could all learn a lesson from that. Every day’s a school day.
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