A Thrilling Look Inside The Magic Of Touring with Glove
Written by Michelle Garcia on November 2, 2022
On October 15, 2022 synth-pop new wave band Glove opened the American Express stage at Austin City Limits Music Festival with a stellar performance.
The group exhibits 80’s nostalgia with a twist of post-punk electronic and consists of four members: Brie Denicourt, Rod Woolf, Michelle Primiani and Justin Burns.
Below is the transcribed conversation held during Day Three of ACL Weekend 2 between Coog Radio and Glove, where we briefly discuss what it’s like for the band to hit the road, go over some tips for new up-and-coming artists and overall, get to know the band a bit better.
Hi, everyone, I’m Michelle Garcia from Coog Radio. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. Let’s go ahead and start with introducing yourselves and the main instrument you play, now I do say “main” because I know you guys are well rounded and often switch between songs.
BRIE: “Hi, I’m Brie. I play drums and sing.”
ROD: “I’m Rod, I play guitar.”
MICHELLE: “I’m Michelle, I play the keyboards.”
JUSTIN: “I’m Justin, I play bass and sing a little bit.”
Great, let’s get straight into it. So you guys just got off the American Express stage not too long ago and played some of your latest hot singles like “Glass” and “Family Trip” amongst other songs, how was the experience for you guys?
ROD: “It was great. Felt good today, sounded good up there. It wasn’t as hot on stage so, it was great.”
BRIE: “It was booming up there, felt good. We could dance around.”
I know, it is super hot out here! I’m sure you guys are already familiar with that, having played both SXSW and Lollapalooza in the past, so far, do you guys prefer the big stage or smaller venues?
MICHELLE: “It’s definitely a different experience, you know we definitely enjoy, like our late night night-time shows, like small venues; really crowded. But then, this is definitely a different experience that’s also really fun.”
JUSTIN: “Yeah.”
BRIE: “People can actually see us in the daylight at the festivals right now so.”
ROD: “Usually our shows are pretty dark and strobe lights and fog.”
MICHELLE: “Lot’s of fog.”
ROD: “But this is cool, we like it. Big stage sound crew and we enjoy it.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, we wonder if it translates the same during the day but I think we get a pretty good response.”
I’m glad, that’s awesome. Now, from my understanding, you guys played a couple of dates with musician, Jack White. How was that experience for you guys?
BRIE: “Amazing!”
JUSTIN: “It’s awesome. I feel like it’s a very surreal experience for all of us.”
ROD: “Yes, I think he was an influence on all of us growing up, you know. So it was fun to meet him and hang out a little bit and the shows were great so yeah, we had a great time. It was definitely a highlight.”
BRIE: “Seven Nation Army was the first song I ever learned on drums, so, it was kind of like a full circle experience.”
MICHELLE: “I think each of us have, like, a definitive Jack White story from when we were younger so it’s cool to just kind of come together and then get to play with him. It’s surreal.”
That’s really cool, do you guys have any fun or interesting stories from being on tour during those dates with Jack White?
ROD: “What would you say, Justin? [laughs]”
BRIE: “Rod’s guitar pedal melted for a show during our sound check, so that was very fun to deal with! [laughs]”
ROD: “Haha, it was really hot, yeah.”
JUSTIN: “[laughs]”
MICHELLE: “[laughs] and so did Brie!”
BRIE: “I got a rash from the sun, yeah, lot’s of good things! [laughs]”
ROD: “It was fun, we were sound checking really earlier in the day and it was hot. It was probably, like, one of the kind of crazy, like, havoc things to happen but other than that—”
BRIE: “After that, it was all great.”
ROD: “Yeah.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, he [Jack White], like, walked into our green room unannounced and unexpected and we all just, like…I felt like…”
JUSTIN: “We all just stayed frozen.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, we just froze and we’re like ‘Hello! Hello!’ [laughs] like, I forgot how to talk! But then we, like, warmed up after that.”
BRIE: “He’s a very cool, humble guy. Super nice.”
How nice to hear and such great stories. So, now that you guys have been touring with Spoon and closing out a tour with Foals, there’s much more touring experience under your belt, are there any tips or tricks you guys have for any up-and-coming artists who might want to hit the road?
BRIE: “I would say—”
ROD: “Yes! Get in the van! Do it! ”
JUSTIN: “Yeah, get in the van and do it.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah.”
BRIE: “Just get out there, like even if you have to DIY it. You never know who’s going to be at a show that you can meet that, you know, like, another tour can come from it or just really getting out there, and that’s what we did.”
JUSTIN: “Yeah.”
ROD: “I think the best piece of advice is that you, one conversation might lead to a lot of things for a band, you know.”
MICHELLE: “Definitely.”
ROD: “Meeting someone for five minutes and maybe exchanging numbers, you become friendly and all of a sudden, they know a band or—”
BRIE: “And it could be at a bad show too, you never know. If there’s like a show you play and there’s nobody there, it could be like the one person, you know, that you connect with and leads to many friendships and other things, you know.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, just meet as many people as you can, definitely.”
Good to know! And I’ve also heard that your debut album Boom Nights has an interesting story behind the photo that was chosen for the album cover?
BRIE: “Yeah, so my grandmother took that photo in 1976, she used to put on drag nights. And so, that was one of her drag nights. It was, like, Hollywood themed so it was a drag queen dressed as Liza Minnelli. And, you know, we picked that cover like five years ago, before we even had the album. We were going through old photos, like, with my mom and, like, Rod saw that photo and was like ‘Oh my god, this is an album cover’. Like, it looked iconic, you know, after recording the album, like, we just stuck with that. We didn’t change our minds after years, you know, we were like ‘that’s the one’. And then, Rod came up with the name ‘Boom Nights’ and it worked so well together, it felt right, so.”
ROD: “Yeah.”
BRIE: “Yeah, we had sat with that photo for a long time.”
ROD: “For a while, well the album was supposed to be ready right before the pandemic hit, you know, and then that delayed a little bit with those years and stuff. But yeah, we’ve had it for a while and I think we’re pretty strong about it. I think all of us liked it.”
Photographed by Aidan Noell via Instagram
BRIE: “We knew it was the one.”
It’s a solid choice, I was so glad to see the photo on the drum on stage. So, Boom Nights came out earlier this year and clearly has some 80’s influences that plays very well into the synth pop and darkwave sound, is there anyone you guys are listening to right now that is similar or far removed from this sound that you recommend fans to check out?
JUSTIN: “Nation Of Language, they’re really good friends of ours and they just make amazing music. So, that’s definitely one we all like.”
ROD: “Yeah, they played here [ACL] as well last Friday. They’re definitely ones that I, yeah, Nation Of Language people should check that out. What else?”
MICHELLE: “Working Men’s Club is pretty cool. They’re from the UK, doing some cool stuff.”
JUSTIN: “Yeah, they’re pretty tight.”
ROD: “Working Men’s Club is a cool band. Yeah, I don’t know, I mean we listen to everything, you know. So, it’s kind of hard to think about at the moment.”
JUSTIN: “Those are definitely, like, newer bands that we really enjoy.”
Great, I’ll be sure to check them out. And I believe that during your first tour, you guys only traveled with two songs under your belt, how was that?
ROD: “It was just getting in the van! [laughs] Literally, you know.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, getting by with, like, a lot of help from people who just trusted the vision and yeah, just getting in the van.”
ROD: “Yeah, we had a lot of friends that just gave us opportunities to, you know, play shows with them and go on the road early on, um, without knowing. I mean, they kind of knew what we were doing and stuff, you know, stuff wasn’t out yet but they were gracious enough to take us.”
BRIE: “They trusted us.”
ROD: “Yeah, it just kept growing and honestly, a lot of the songs we were doing and the time, I think, we wrote a lot of stuff after.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, I mean some of the first songs we were touring with are like no longer being played or going to be recorded, but you know, we were writing and figuring it out along the way and eventually it became what it is.”
Amazing, thanks for sharing, I have one last tidbit for you guys. If you guys could pick any band or artist to dedicate or include in a cover album concept, who would you choose?
ROD: “Ooh! [laughs]”
BRIE: “Oh! Just one?”
JUSTIN: “Mm I want to pick something that’s not, like, too on the nose.”
ROD: “Yeah!”
JUSTIN: “Hmm, fuck. [laughs]”
MICHELLE: “I would say, like, Devo or —”
ROD: “Devo, The Cure, I mean we really like—”
BRIE: “I’m going to say Daft Punk’s Homework [laughs].”
JUSTIN: “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
MICHELLE: “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
ROD: “Daft Punk, that’d be sick! Yeah, [laughs] mashup all of those!”
I’m sure you guys would kill it, you all did so great on stage and I just want to thank you guys once again for taking the time to sit down and talk. Coog Radio loves your music and we can’t wait to hear more from you.
Getting to know the members of new wave group Glove was as delightful of an experience as it was to watch them perform live and definitely matches the electric burst of energy you can get from listening to their music. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend to check out Glove’s debut album Boom Nights or catch one of their upcoming shows supporting Foals. Visit the Glove official website for more information on how to grab tickets.
Stay up to date with Glove and any of their future releases by following them on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music.
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Bay Boy Yardie On November 2, 2022 at 3:01 pm
I like when you ask questions that make me feel like I know them on a personal level 🙂