Militarie Gun have spoken to NME about their blossoming friendship with Post Malone, and revealed that they have already begun work on new material.
The Los Angeles five-piece caught up with us backstage at Reading Festival 2024, having just flown in from a show in Spain and gearing up to take to the Festival Republic stage. During the discussion, the NME Cover stars opened up about the overwhelmingly positive response they had to their breakthrough debut ‘Life Under The Gun’, as well as the personal meaning behind ‘Thought You Were Waving’ — their first single of 2024.
The band also reflected on their contribution to the soundtrack of the new WWE game 2k24, as well as revealing some of the artists they’d most want to collaborate with.
Check out the video interview in full above, or read it below.
Welcome to Reading, how are you feeling?
Ian Shelton: “We’re doing pretty terrible right now! It really sucks outside. We flew from Spain at 6am, so we went straight from the airport into this shit rain. I’m sure the audience would be great, though. Mainland Europe is very tame so we’re very excited to be back in the UK where people are fun again.”
‘Life Under The Gun’ has had a great response, especially in the UK. What’s it been like to see that?
Shelton: “It all started in the UK, really. On our record release day, we played Outbreak Festival and had this crazy set, so it’s cool to come back. I think it’s our sixth time back since the record’s been out.
“It’s nice to know we’re not wasting our time with all these flights, you know? Fans in the UK are pretty similar to fans in the States. I think there’s not as big of a cultural difference between UK fans and American fans. But mainland European fans are very different than the American fans.”
You recently shared ‘Thought You Were Waving’. Why was that the right song to be the first release of 2024?
Shelton: “It was a song that we had been marinating on for so long, and I feel like it’s something that we always loop back to with what we want to say with the band. It’s about trying to step outside of ourselves and read when someone else is struggling. With it being summer, we wanted to drop a fun bummer summer track, you know? It felt like summer, but it also felt sad. It’s exactly the way that we go about things.”
You also shared your track as part of the WWE 2K24 soundtrack earlier this year. How did that arise?
Shelton: “I just got a text one morning saying Post Malone wanted a wrestling intro and they wanted me to write it! I think he procrastinated doing it for a really long time. He was supposed to write his own, and then he had me do it instead. It was pretty funny.
“I texted David [Stalsworth, drummer] in the morning like, ‘I just recorded these guitar parts. Can you do a drum part for me ASAP?’ He thought it was going to be something that would be re-recorded later, and it was not! So I think he was bummed on that.”
Is that how you found out that Post Malone was a fan of yours?
Shelton: “We had actually been friends with him for probably a year at that point. I got a text one day when we dropped ‘Do It Faster’ saying that he was a big fan of that song and that he wanted to hang out… so that happened. Then, just recently, we all got to go and hang out with him in Paris for two days when he played the Louvre. It was a crazy, crazy time.”
Did he have any influence on your own music?
Shelton: “I wouldn’t say he is influencing our music, but I do love pop music. I love Post Malone’s music. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. ‘Better Now’ was the first song that I got into from him and then I’ve been a big fan since. I think all of us have been fans of his, and ‘Help’ is now the band’s anthem after shows.”
Do you reckon you could see yourself collaborating with him in the future?
Shelton: “He always talks about it, but I don’t believe that he’s actually down! I don’t think it’ll ever happen. We can’t push him, though; he’s the superstar, we’re not the superstar! We have no pull in the situation… he can say that he wants to do it, but that doesn’t mean really anything at all for us. Unless he’s like, ‘Yo, do it, let’s do it today.’”
Are there any other dream collaborations you have in mind?
Shelton: “We would love to do a song with Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. I would love to sing on a Gorillaz song, too, if ever that was a possibility.”
What’s coming up next?
Shelton: “We have a lot of US touring and then we are going to be making our record in the early part of next year. We’ve been writing it for quite some time, and we’re ready to start recording it.
“It’s better [than ‘Life Under The Gun’]. It’s better in every way. It’s catchier and it’s more bold in its decisions. We’re trying to make a record of what we really want to hear – that’s the first priority. I’ve been listening to some of these songs for almost two years now, so I think that when it’s done, we’ll have a record that we really like.”
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