A quick chat with The Theme's Martin Gamby
Casually strolling towards me outside after a loud practise
session with a fag in one hand, bottle of beer in the other, The Theme’s, Martin Gamby informs me
who his top bands of all time are. The Who and Led Zeppelin with The Who just
above them. The conversation didn’t end there. “My mates got a route master
bus. We hired it for a gig before and it went down really well. The bus holds
so many people that you just turn up at the gig, get off of the bus and it’s
buzzing. Everyone on the bus gets into an atmosphere.”
Here’s what happed when we talked mods, drummers and X
factor…
So you’re the hard-core
mod then!
Well pretty much (laughs). I’ve been a mod for years.
When you play the big
mod rallies do you find the older mods slightly less accepting of your music?
With me it’s been a bit different because I talk about the
band. My dad’s band that is (The Fixations) so I’ve got a link in. I think that
I’ve seen more recently that people have been a bit funny with the youngsters.
It’s true.
So why do you think
some of the older generation are being funny towards the youngsters?
They can be a bit funny because they get very specific. Another
rift is between fans of Ska and fans of pure mod stuff. Some people really like
the pure Northern Soul and Ska. You talk to a lot of people and they like all
sorts.
So are you into Motown?
Yeah that’s the roots of the mods. Stuff like the early Who
is brilliant and they took their roots from that sort of music, old RnB, Motown
and soul music. That’s where the mods started out in clubs.
The Who 70s stuff was
quite different to their 60s stuff yet they still had a big mod following…
That’s true yeah. They turned a bit hippy but the music was still
appreciated by people in the mod scene. The thing with The Who is they kind of
epitomised mod in the end but really the roots of mod were much different. The
Who were still outstanding. I mean they wrote the story of Quadrophenia!
Would you yourself
class The Theme’s music as mod?
I think it’s a cross between mod, Britpop and probably a bit
indie-fied even though I don’t like that take. I don’t like being called indie.
It’s also sort of rock, a bit punky like the mod revival. Our track In This Town
has the punk influence of the revival in it.
Who are your biggest
influences as a drummer?
Keith Moon, John Bonham but also Mitch Mitchell and Ringo Starr,
he’s influential in a way. Who else was I thinking of? There’s different
drummers up there… Thin Lizzy’s drummer and Deep Purple’s drummer and Ginger Baker
of Cream.
My influence mainly in my life came from my dad. He’s a
drummer too. He played in a mod band as I mentioned earlier. I was a mod from
an early age. When I was young he used to tap with me and stuff. I got taught to
play drums professionally from12. I was playing in church and then in bands. Getting
away from that (laughs) lead to the rock scene. I had a pair of bongos from
when I was 8 or 9 so I used to tap around on those but I was only playing
properly from 12. Completely different to Gary whose only been singing for a
year.
I still can’t believe
you’ve only been going just under a year as a band yet your sound is so tight!
We’ve worked hard at it really. It’s been practise, practise,
practise. I mean there’s obviously some times when we drop out for a little bit
but it has been pretty stringent. Also I think we’ve been spurred on by the
quality of it all. Especially the songs we’ve got so far. It’s like fuck it
lets go for it.
How important is The
Theme’s acceptance into the mod scene?
I think it is important. But the biggest thing that made us
possible was our huge following of Millwall boys and all the friends of Gary
from the beginning that helped us to be noticed. If it weren’t for that we
wouldn’t have got to the point where we got more contacts.
To be fair we all had contacts anyway. I’ve got contacts in
the mod scene through my dad. I’ve spoken to a lot people that are influential
in the mod scene and also these guys liaising with people as well. That helped
us up. In regards the mod scene accepting us, I think to a degree it has
happened but not everywhere. We went up to Birmingham and it wasn’t such a good
reception there so we’ve got more work to do, that’s all it is.
So you feel you’ve
conquered London?
Yeah and we’re trying to move out.
I’ve heard you’ve got
new tunes waiting to be recorded. Are you just waiting to get signed now?
We have got loads of tunes yeah. I personally think we should
get on with it and do them!
There’s a couple you
played in there that weren’t on your EP, that sound like you could record them
tomorrow. Especially Face In The Crowd it’s got quite a ska-esque bass line to
it.
That was my idea to have the Ska thing. I was like let’s do
a Ska beat on this one! It works but they don’t like that one so much.
It’s already stuck in
my head. I humming it already… I’ve only heard it twice!
Yeah I get that as well!
So you haven’t got
any plans to hit the studio soon then?
I think what it is, is that it’s been so busy at the moment
that we need time to go back into the studio. Plus money and we’ve got so much
on the agenda, like gigs, practising, moving out of London for a bit as well,
advertising and the music video which is important at the moment, so going into
the studio has been put off a little bit.
Gary mentioned talk
of an Acoustic EP to follow In This Town EP?
I think we’ve got at least 3 good solid acoustic songs.
The only acoustic song
on your debut EP was Open My Eyes, you’ve a couple that follow suit then?
I think there is. There’s at least a couple more in the pipeline.
Already you have more
than one sound. That’s unusual for a band of under a year! Normally new bands
concentrate on getting one solid sound. How did you do it?
Yeah, I think they just come out of us fucking about. When
we’ve just finished practising it’s like fucking hell lets just do it. So we
did it and that’s how it happened really, just us mucking about after practise
and stuff or when we’ve met up a couple of times and had a little smoke. Then Ant
picks up a guitar and thinks actually we could actually do something with that.
Funnily enough Open My Eyes is one of our most dynamic songs because I play Ukulele
in it. It’s got my dad and me on djembe drums and it’s got the organ in it so
it’s dynamic in that way. Also the way it was put together sounds really good.
Do you see each other
a lot because you’re all quite spread out?
We are yeah. It’s mainly to do with the band when we see
each other. I’ve been saying for ages we need meetings outside of doing this to
organise doing things like this interview. It’s hard as we’re so disbursed as
you say. Reece is in Lee, one in Penge, one in Catford and I’m in Orpington.
But you’re making it
work? This practise here is regular each week?
Yes it is.
I think we’re making it work. You’ve got to do it for the
passion. That’s why I’m in this band because although I could be in other bands
I like this one because of the mod sound. It’s different. It’s just rock but an
alternative style. It’s cleaner in a way, it’s more interesting, and it’s not a
heavy smashing sound even though I don’t mind that stuff. Trying to create a
new scene is always a good thing although it’s hard. Yeah I think it’s good
that we’re doing something different because it’s what we want to do.
It’s good that you’re
passionate and have found a way to put your own spin on it as well as keeping
it loud, punky but mod.
Is your dad a big fan
of what you are doing? Was he slightly dubious towards the Britpop side of your
sound being a mod himself?
Nah he likes it. He’s very opinionated and gives me a lot of
advice but usually it’s good. The overall thing is that he likes our music. He
hasn’t seen us many times because he’s so busy.
Do you prefer playing
to the original mods or a more youthful crowd?
Personally I prefer younger crowds. That’s why we’re doing
stuff like the Uprising tour. We want to be involved with that sort of stuff
and that’s the sort of thing we want. We want the mod scene to come to young
people. It’s always good to embrace the mod scene whatever it is. Yeah I’d like
mod crowds. It’s got to be that sort of genre. Smart clothes, scooters and into
this sort of music, that’s what we want. We do want younger people to be
listening to it.
On your Facebook page
you say that “Mod has re-invented itself in every generation. We love the music, we
love the clothes, but this is our music and this is our sound.” As I said to
Gary I totally agree. Who was the mastermind behind that quote?
My dad wrote that, he’s written a lot of stuff for us.
Although the ‘X Factor
generation’ have dominated the mainstream music industry of late I feel that guitar
music is coming back to the forefront along with the mod scene. Do you feel
that you have picked the right time to shine?
People are pissed off with the mainstream bullshit and
they’re spurring off trying to find something new. It’s happening in a funny
way even though it’s not mainstream and big, it is happening. People are
rebelling against that.
Yeah you can see it
even in the fashion. Just look at what chains like Topman stock now.
It’s turning into a smarter scene again. Desert boots, cut
jeans…
A few years ago I got
taunted about wearing all this kind of mod gear!
Exactly, hypocrites!
Catch The Theme at The Uprising Tour September 22nd or supporting Ocean Colour Scene's Steve Cradock with an acoustic set at Lewisham's The Dirty South 29th September. To book tickets see the flyers below.
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