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Interview with Gustav Wood from Young Guns, by Cherry Pullinger

You’re currently on the Kerrang! Relentless tour, how is it going?
It's going awesome, it's such a great tour to be involved with - we're over the moon about it. We've only played four or five shows but it's already been a great experience.

How excited were you to be asked to join the tour?
Haha, we were literally unable to contain ourselves, we found out quite a while ago, very hard to keep something so cool a secret! We've been really busy trying to get our album written though so it's ended up creeping up on us.

Are you fans of the bands you’re currently touring with?
Yeah. It's a really diverse bill but all of the bands are at a level where theyre so good live it's hard not to love them y'know? My Passion and The Blackout are so good live, so much energy, and All Time Low are great showmen. We're humbled to be on stage with all of them.

How does it feel to play to crowds that possibly aren’t there to see you, how do you win them round?
Well we just go out and try do our thing every night, I'd like to think that we put on a good show and have songs that are strong enough for people to be able to get into pretty fast. The love we've been shown is really awesome so we're beyond pleased with how we've been received so far.

You were recently voted Best British Newcomer in Rock Sound magazine’s Readers Poll, did you ever expect you would achieve any of the things you have?
No! We are a pretty determined and ambitious lot, but none of us thought if would be like this, certainly hoped for it though. We've had an amazing year, winning Best Newcomer in both Rocksound and Kerrang! is a huge deal for us, I can't believe our fortune at the moment. That said, we work really hard and try not to take anything for granted.

You also came in at number 2 in the Best Unsigned Act category; usually a band that has achieved such accolades would have been snapped up by a label by now, have you had any offers?
We've spoken to people sure, but we're pretty happy with how things are right now.

If so, why have you turned them down?
Well, the way the industry is now is just so different, it's in such a transitional phase. a band doesn't necessarily have to have the muscle of a label behind it to progress, if they're willing to work hard. The success of social networking sites and the Internet in general means that it's a lot easier to self promote and get yourself out there. We have a small but very dedicated team of people we work with, and they're all fantastic at what they do. We wouldn't have it any other way right now.

You’ve just released your new single Winter Kiss, can you explain what the track is about?
The track is about the idea of feeling isolated and disconnected, even when/if you're not necessarily alone.

You’re offering the track up as a free download, what made you decide to do this and why did you pick Winter Kiss?
We've had such a good year that we wanted to give something to those that have been good enough to give us their attention, helped us out, parted with their cash etc. We picked Winter Kiss because we wanted to experiment with strings and arrangements, and wanted to record a song that had a real identity and vibe to it.

Your EP ‘Mirrors’ was a huge success, are you working on a debut album?
Yeah we are, should be out by summer time.

What are your hopes as a band for 2010?
To continue the good run we've had so far, and to continue to evolve and improve as a band. We've not even scratched the surface of what I feel we're capable of. I don't know if we ever will , everyone knows how fickle this business is and we could be off the radar tomorrow, but we're certainly going to try. We're gonna record our album and then tour as much as humanly possible.

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