No Echo recently spoke with Gingey Fanning, vocalist of Port Charlotte, Florida band Gaijin. The group recently released a ravenous new EP entitled Third Impact via Barbaric Brutality (read No Echo' Record Label Profile here).
Gaijin's music is best described as modern metallic hardcore or slam metal. If this band came out in the year 2000, they’d be the best nu-metal band.
What's the quick history of Gaijin and how you came together?
We formed around 2020, but we’ve all been doing music together and alone on and off forever. We have a natural blend of hip-hop that comes from the delivery of our lyrics, down to the beats we lay down.
With such a unique crossover of slam and dare I say nu-metal? Where do you draw your inspiration?
That's always an interesting question to answer because we pull inspiration from all kinds of music from metal to hip-hop, pop, classic rock, etc. Growing up nu-metal was all over the place and the blend of rock/metal and hip-hop has inspired some of us very heavily.
I would even say more than just music inspires us, art can go a long way. Most people who are into anime can probably notice the few references we have. If I had to pick some inspos just out of random music wise, Biohazard, Slipknot, Three 6 Mafia, Erykah Badu, too many to name.
The sounds of both recordings featured on the next release sound next level! Did you go into the studio, or is the next offering a version of home audio?
We have The Swamp Sound to thank for that. Hunter Young and Brandan Lopez are the two behind The Swamp Sound and would like to consider them a part of the team even. They can hit any of your needs.
They have always helped bring the best out of us, and they are excellent to work with given the quality and the ethic they have. Not to mention they have worked with many other amazing bands and even play in some (moodring, Psycho-Frame, etc.)
Do you get a good crowd response? How is it performing out with a different tradition of “scene” going on? Post pandemic.
We sometimes are met with lineups where we are a bit of an oddball with our sound but we try to find ways to at least perform well so even if we are on a different bill sound wise, we try to play our hearts out no matter what, and I think people can feel if a band does that.
As time goes on it gets better of course, some of our favorite shows with crowd response lately has been SFL, we’ve played Hollywood, Florida a few times now and the crowd is always ready to boogie down with us.
Shout out to Above Death, Equinox Booking, brainwashedbooking, they’ve put us down there and also shout out to our brothers in Cold Steel for first bringing us over that way.
What was the inspiration for "Kira," a true ripper of a song?
That song is about the main character of an anime called Deathnote. In the show, a boy comes across a book called the deathnote that kills whoever’s name is written in the book.
He takes it upon himself to be a sort of justice system, taking out horrible criminals, but also killing for his own gain to keep his identity hidden, which ends up leading to some bad choices.
Eventually the police try to find out who the killer is, and they give them the name "Kira," which means "killer." So the song is basically about him.
What are the plans for Gaijin going into next year?
January 20th we’ll be playing a benefit show for a local venue in Tampa FL that recently had to shut down. Lots of very sick shows were put together there, bands like Mourning, Adrienne, and many others have even played there.
We are also hoping to be hitting the road again soon at some point to other states.
Best pizza place in Port Charlotte?
Forget pizza, go to Mint Thai Cuisine. Shout out Big Mikes Pizza in Venice, Florida, though.
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Third Impact is available on cassette via Barbaric Brutality.
Gaijin on social media: Twitter | Instagram
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