Somewhere, in the forgotten page of the Rolling Stone, features a small article on Gethsemane.
(Tim Drik at a recent concert.)
MOST NORMAL BANDS have three to four people in the main lineup - Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums. It's simple like that - an almost genre-crossing universal standard. Of course, there's rhythm guitar, and there's bands with odd instruments like mandolin and violin, but not to this level.
Gethsemane, a Welsh band slowly but surely evolving out of Swansea, their hometown, has a lineup consisting of 14 members - with instruments such as, along with the universal standard - two rhythm guitarists, xylophone, violin, trumpets, a mandolin, a lute, flutes - all coming together to form a unique, but interesting and great, sound.
"We're just a bunch of guys who decided to form a band one day," Tim Drik, one-half of the lead vocals, says.
"We decided to just throw everything in there that we could find."One would expect, with instruments like this, to be a mix that just seems out of place and odd - but the composition and production makes it all fit in well, without any instrument being deemphasized in favour of another.
"It's just a big orgy of music that people actually like, apparently," says Tim,
"And, along with having fun, half of our goal was just to entertain people."Tim attends the Swansea Metropolitan University, where he studies performing arts.
"Always been into acting," he says.
"Maybe if I ever get famous I'll finally be able to get my own TV Show," quickly adding a laugh.
Currently, after releasing several singles, each increasing exponentially in quality, they are almost finished recording their album.
"Just gotta do that, finish up producing, and bam... we've got our first album, hopefully out in stores."On the topic of not having a record label, Tim had a very strong comment:
"I really am tired of it. There's a lot of things that we do just so we can try to find some work, be it toning down or removing a little bit of the oddity from our music. It's about time we got something back - other than love, but we can't really use that as food or to pay bills."Though our time with him was limited due to bigger interviews needed in the same day, it was clear to us that Tim, and Gethsemane as a whole, were very determined, ambitious, and were going to make it big - eventually. For now, they're mollified playing in small clubs for spare change - but they think, nay, know, that that they want to and can eventually change the world of music.
This interviewer thinks that time is bound to happen.
~Rolling Stone, March 2010
