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Gazebos are At Home in Seattle

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Photo by Coco Aramaki

Photo by Coco Aramaki

Every once in awhile, a band comes along who perfectly encapsulate a time and place. Gazebos is that band for 2016 Seattle. Polished yet lo-fi instrumentals, help create the perfect backdrop for Shannon Perry’s impossible-to-not-like vocals. And it’s not just the cool girl timbre that makes her voice so addictive, it’s the original prose-inspired lyrics that are coming out of her mouth. What girl can’t relate to lyrics like “I don’t like the boys who like me/And the boys I like don’t like me back.” Gazebos’ sound and genre may be described as “alternative” but despite that, the band manages to make music that is downright relatable.

The four-piece consists of lead vocalist Shannon Perry, lead guitarist and backup vocalist TV Coahran, and the rhythm section, Kimberly Morrison and Tyler Swan. Gazebos released its latest album Die Alone in February of 2016. One of the hottest tracks on that album “Just Get High” is a nihilist stoner track that every Seattle cannabis-enthusiast should have in their music library. If you want to check them out, you can! Gazebos will be playing Freakout Festival December 8, in Seattle at Chop Suey. CULTURE had the chance to chat with Shannon Perry about Seattle, bands, and of course cannabis.

“I like to get stoned before composing melody parts just to get my mind out of thinking regular—to get a little bit of a different perspective.”

How did Gazebos get started?

Shannon Perry: We’re all longtime Seattle residents. Or at least we’ve all been in bands around here forever. And everybody in Gazebos has been in a bunch of different bands. So, I think it was only natural that at some point we’d all be in a band together. I’ve been on tour with TV, the lead guitarist and [backup] singer’s old band, with my old band. So it was just maybe inevitable. Then TV had formed Gazebos, the instrumental part of it, he had a drummer a bassist and himself, he was just looking for a singer. And when he initially asked me to sing in the band, I was in the process of opening a tattoo shop. So I told him I couldn’t do it at the moment. But as soon as everything was set up and I was ready, I gave him a call, and thankfully he was still ready.

Where are you all from?

I’m from Seattle, more like suburban Seattle, I moved to Seattle proper when I was 16. TV’s from the tri-cities, and we just recently replaced our rhythm section and have two new members. Kimberly has lived in Seattle for a super long time and has been in a bunch of bands, not exactly sure where she’s from originally. Tyler grew up around where I did, over on the Eastside.

Photo by Coco Aramaki

Photo by Coco Aramaki

What are Gazebos’ musical influences?

That’s complicated. I think we all four probably come from different places. But I know TV is really influenced by Sparks and Devo and that sort of thing. I’m kind of all over the place. I love Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson was my favorite growing up. I was also a goth kid, so I am really all over the place. Pertaining to the band specifically, I actually got into the Talking Heads after being in Gazebos, but I noticed some stuff about how David Byrne sings that’s similar to me. His lyrics talking about regular stuff a lot, or an existential crisis, or just society. That’s a really hard question. Because there are just too many bands I like.

Has the cannabis-laden culture of the PNW impacted your sound or creative process?

I mean, I smoke weed every day. But it’s the PNW, so I was doing that before it was legal. And I was creative before I was stoned, so I wouldn’t necessarily put the two hand-in-hand. But I do like to get stoned before composing melody parts just to get my mind out of thinking regular—to get a little bit of a different perspective. I enjoy the marijuana aspect to things, but it’s not necessarily an operative factor.

What music do you like listening to when you’re under the influence of cannabis?

I feel like when I get stoned I am more likely to listen to things that are like guilty pleasures from my childhood. But I will say that in the last year or so, when I’m really stoned, and it’s really late at night, I’m watching a lot of YouTube videos of Whitney Houston when she was young. And also I’ve been listening to a lot of Enya.

hardlyart.com/artists/gazebos

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