A GAZILLION ANGRY MEXICANS // No Blood, No Rainbow

You know the iconic Forrest Gump quote about life being like a box of chocolates. It turns out that applies to A Gazillion Angry Mexicans second LP, Blood Rainbow.

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Fusing elements of stoner, doom and hard-rock (and more!), the record is another edge-of-your-seat offering with surprises around every corner. We caught up with bassist Jimi Coelli to chat about what inspired the band, how Blood Rainbow came together and more.

Hysteria: We’ve got to ask, what inspired the band name?

Jimi: I really wish there was a good story behind it (laughs). We struggled for a while to find a name, and then one of the guys heard it on a TV show. He loved the idea that there were z’s and x’s in it and that it was really long. It’s such an unimpressive story!

And how’d you all come together?

Ben (vocals/guitar) and Dan Smith (guitar) went to high school and played in a band together. I went to uni with Dan, saw that band and fell in love with them. I thought they were the best band I’d ever seen. Unfortunately, they broke up, but then they asked me to play bass with them. We then met Sam (Macauley, drums) through another friend. Over a three/four year period, we also lived in the same house here and there.

It’s been a few years since your last album; what has the band been up to?

We’ve been playing a lot of gigs. We’ve done heaps in Melbourne and did a few runs up the coast. The last year was obviously a bit rough. We were planning on going overseas in April 2020, and when that fell apart, we thought, let’s start recording Blood Rainbow. It took us a long time because of lockdown and everything, but it was good to keep us sane. But then, with it taking longer than expected, that sanity kind of dropped as well. Over the last few months, we’ve been focusing on our upcoming trip to Europe and looking forward to getting the record out. 

We always want to better ourselves. The idea of cohesion and making a piece of work instead of a collection of songs was important to all of us.
[Jimi Coelli]

It struck us how cohesive Blood Rainbow is. Run us through some of the themes or sounds that inspired it.

That cohesion was a pretty consistent effort from us. Getting a more cohesive sound was one of the first things we discussed. Thematically, we were thinking of death and rebirth. We didn’t expect the world to turn the way it did, but that was what we were trying to focus on at the time. We deliberately tried to make it heavier but with more psychedelic flavours throughout.

Did you learn anything from the first record that really shaped this new one?

Once we finished Stoner-pop-Doom-punk, we sat down and chatted about what we wanted from this next record. We always want to better ourselves. The idea of cohesion and making a piece of work instead of a collection of songs was important to all of us. We took a lot of time whilst writing the songs, planning where they’d go within the album. We had a bit of fun working out song title names. 

How’d you approach recording in this weird, wacky world?

Most of the songs were written. When we went into the studio, it was February/March 2020, and we got all the drums down since Sam was thinking of going overseas.

We always record everything live as a band and then use them as our guide tracks. When we were all happy with the drums, everything in the world turned. It was good for us all to have something to do and to work on the record and put our parts in. To achieve something in a time when it was hard to achieve anything, especially in Melbourne. The longer lockdown went, there were times when we wondered if the record would ever be finished. Looking back, the process was different, but we hope we can use some of the ideas and the positives that came out of it to do it a bit quicker next time.

You’ve got a stack of shows coming up. You must be so keen on them, tell us what’s in store.

We have 14 shows in the UK, culminating with a slot at Desertfest in London. It’s the same thing as the record, we planned on them in 2020, and now it’s 2022, and we’re finally getting the chance to do it.