IF, in these long Covidian days, you find you could actually do with a decent slab of DM-bouncing indie-rock with a nod to Pavement and Bill Ryder-Jones, crunchy guitars, chantalong vocals and a little gentle shade cast on the so-called beautiful game, then get your GP to prescribe you the latest single from Gunke, to be taken ooh, at least a couple of times daily. And we’re premiering it today here on Backseat Mafia.
It’s the second single that Luc Grindle has released under the Gunke moniker, a solo project aside from his involvements past and present with Glasgow scene acts such as Moonsoup, Dutch Wine (a band that’s also, in recent times, fathered the lovely Western Column) and HEYUP.
With a decent, soul-cleansing pound, it examines the anxieties of not fitting in, all summed with that chant-worthy chorus: “Football? Softball? I don’t know the difference.”
Luc, who cites The Cribs, Yuck and early Bombay Bicycle Club among his inspirations, says: “‘Football’ took a long time to mature as a song; four years of recordings, in fact!
“I didn’t really engage in sports growing up, so often felt out of my depth when conversing with friends who would talk about last night’s game or whatever; I made the chorus with football chants in mind as way to a kind of counteract that notion.
“I took a lot of inspiration from The Cribs during the writing process; a lot of their fans are football lads, despite the band having no interest in the sport, I found that quite fitting to pay some kind of homage to.”
The song was written by Luc with Melissa Brisbane and Jack Boyle, who you can see getting down and dirty musically in the video.
Gunke’s “Football” is out tomorrow on all digital streaming platforms.
Connect with Gunke on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and YouTube.
