MusicIncomingGay Against You Sends Out Righteous SignalsA cacophonous sound is being let loose from the bonny city of Glasgow.ShareLink copied ✔️July 20, 2009MusicIncomingTextNarinder Purba New on the scene is Gay Against You, a truly fruity musical duo from the bonny city of Glasgow, who see the release of their second album Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes in August. With a thoroughly imaginative and unclassifiable style of music jacked up by their flamboyant live performances and wild fashion sense, GAY (dig the acronym) are an interesting proposition for those who have a liking for experimental, cacophonous, and kooky songs.A case of the marmite-test, one expects you’ll either love them or hate them. I catch up with the refreshing team that is Lachlann Rattray and Joseph Howe for a lowdown on the GAY story, size-zero music, friendship, and the science of music and clothes.Dazed Digital: What’s the story with the name?Joseph Howe: Gay Against You backwards spells "the lost original recording of 'Smile' by The Beach Boys." Satanic! Lachlann Rattray: Its true, Satan came to us in a joint dream and told us to form this band. DD: Where have you come from and where are you going? Joseph Howe: we started the band four years ago when we moved into a shared flat because it was the right thing to do. Since then, we've expanded, both into separate flats, separate cities and now separate countries. Next step I suppose is separate bands and self-fulfilling prophecy! Lachlann Rattray: It's actually a Glasgow by-law that everyone living together in a flat must be in a band. DD: How would you describe your music? Joseph Howe: The easiest way to describe it is that it’s like pop music with all the shit bits taken out: mostly no repetition, no wastage, and no fat. Lean music. Lachlann Rattray: Yeah it’s filter pop: we strain out the crap like membrane bioreactors.DD: Tell us some more about your new record Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes.Joseph Howe: It's a record about friendship. We had to really work at being friends sometimes through the process but I think it was sort of therapy for the band. I think it’s the most successful - at least for me, personally - thing we've done as a unit. Lachlann Rattray: Our record label was really worried about us splitting up so they hired us a group psychologist. He really helped us with dealing with our huge egos and eventually we actually managed to work together to make the record. So I guess this record is really a tribute to him. DD: An unruly mess of unmelodious compositions, or the deliberate cocktail of experimental music… what should we believe? Joseph Howe: I would hope that people would be able to pick out at least some melodious parts this time; I mean its still pretty wonky but there's a lot of songwriting that’s gone on behind the scenes. Two words: through composition. Lachlann Rattray: I think anyone basing their opinion on the live show would pick the former but I think the new album is pretty different, we put a lot of thought into it and Joe spent hours mixing it and getting it to sound like it does; We also got the Vatican to bless all our equipment before we began, so I'm pretty sure it will be at least as good as Jesus’ new album. Joseph Howe: Also, this time you can hear the vocals better and it's got guitar solos and stuff like that. DD: Where do you buy your clothes? Joseph Howe: Humana (a European second-hand-superstore kind of a place), flea markets. Lachlann Rattray: I have been taking evening classes in sewing, which has been a lot of fun. I also recently got a heat press and have been making satanic t shirts. I am pretty sure that by 2012, I will be ahead of the governments target for self-sufficiency. DD: Is there a correlation between your music and your sense of style? Joseph Howe: I guess they are both similarly home made and slightly off-kilter. It’s difficult also to pin us down to a really distinct style both sartorially and musically. Lachlann Rattray: Yeah, it’s true. I think if you where to graph the relationship between our fashion and musical styles, I think you would produce a Torus Knot, with the co-prime integers p and q, where p equals our fashion cool points and q is inversely proportional to the number of time signature changes in our music. DD: Vinyl, tape, CD, or MP3? Joseph Howe: I'm very pleased that our record is coming out in three out of four of those formats! (We should've organised a tape release too). For me, vinyl and tape are the only formats that don't feel like junk, disposable. Lachlann Rattray: I wish our album could have come out on all the digital formats like .wav .wmv. .aiff .ogg. .flac .aac. - but mp3 is pretty good. I look forward to the day when people get nostalgic for CDs. DD: To all the haters who just don’t get you, what do you say? Lachlann Rattray: Hello! Joseph Howe: To stop worrying about it and just get on with things. Also, Hello! DD: What’s next for Gay Against You?Joseph Howe: I have a new band I’m working on at the moment, called 'Ben Butler & Mousepad.' It’s a sort of experimental synth-funk project. Got a single coming out later in the year - do a wee search for it on the internet. Lachlann Rattray: I too have a new band, called "Teenage Ricky." I wanted to call it "Neighbourhood Gout" but I was overruled. I'm also pretty into drawing pictures of Satan and President Ahmadinijad and Elvis. Joseph Howe: we're hopefully going to be doing some touring around the UK before the end of the year, too. It’s been a while so keep an eye out for that! Also, we've just dug a bunch of previously mostly unavailable material - including videos- out from the vaults and we're looking into ways of sharing that with everyone.Lachlann Rattray: Yes, come see us on our tour, we are working on a way of starting our own religion. That way we can get government sponsorship. Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes is out August 3 on Upset the Rhythm Records Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MOREInside Erika de Casier’s shimmering R&B universe ‘Rap saved my life’: A hazy conversation with MIKE and Earl SweatshirtRay Ban MetaIn pictures: Jefferson Hack launches new exhibition with exclusive event7 essential albums by the SoulquariansIs AI really the future of music?VanmoofWhat went down at Dazed and VanMoof’s joyride around BerlinThe KPop Demon Hunters directors on fan theories and a potential sequelplaybody: The club night bringing connection back to the dancefloorAn interview with IC3PEAK, the band Putin couldn’t silenceFrost Children answer the dA-Zed quizThe 5 best features from PinkPantheress’ new remix albumMoses Ideka is making pagan synth-folk from the heart of south London