Biography The Guru Guru
THE GURU GURU has been happily dealing in deep express art rock since 2012, combining feverishly angular guitars with off-kilter, poly-rhythms all complimented by erratic and unhinged vocals.
While influences are drawn from the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, The Mars Volta, SOULWAX, The Jesus Lizard & Andy Kaufman, the indie-math- psycho-noise rulebook is torn apart, resulting in erratic songs that somehow seem to develop into wriggling earworms. The band cannot be placed into one genre.
With their 3rd full album ‘Make (Less) Babies’ – out on the 27th of October 2023 on Suisse label Hummus Records in collaboration with the French label A Tant Rêver Du Roi Records – The Guru Guru took matters into their own hands and they did the full production of the album themselves, from recording to mixing. No compromises, no one looking over their shoulders, they could just do their own thing. Having learned a lot from previous albums with Wouter Vlaeminck as producer (Raketkanon, Kapitan Korsakov, etc.), and the recent EP, we wrote, composed, rehearsed, recorded, produced and mixed everything ourselves. The album was recorded in Farrm studio, Hasselt (Belgium). The purpose of doing everything themselves was to make the most honest album since the band started playing music. Straight from the heart. They recorded everything live in the studio, there were no instrument overdubs recorded. What you hear is what you get. They took their energy and sound they have live on stage onto this album to make it more natural and organically sounding. Tight energetic drums, deep bass lines, virtuoso screaming guitars and with a very expressive frontman. This is what THE GURU GURU sounds like in 2023.
The recurring theme of ‘Make (Less) Babies’ is about how we are gradually destroying our planet and about the major role that our favorite commodity, money, plays in this. Together with the planet we are slowly destroying ourselves and we are doing it against our better judgement. This time, singer Tom The Bomb deliberately chose not to start writing until he knew what he wanted to talk about. For example, he often watched the news before he started writing instead of just letting the texts flow from his pen. It is because of this that the album has acquired a socially critical undercurrent.
Praised for their live performances, THE GURU GURU is a must-see… With palpable, electric energy oozing from the stage, vocalist Tom the Bomb balances on the verge of theatrical psychosis.
The band has made their mark playing across Europe sharing stages with the likes of BRUTUS, Raketkanon, Kapitan Korsakov, Birds in Row, as well as appearing at festivals such as ArcTanGent (UK), Portals (UK), MAMA festival (FR), Ment (SLO), Monkey Week (ESP), Rock Herk (BE), Sziget (HU) and Pukkelpop (BE). They played +- 300 domestic and international shows (France, Spain, UK, Reunion Island, Germany, Switzerland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia) in the last 6 years.
THE GURU GURU‘s latest album ‘Make (Less) Babies’ was recorded and produced by the band members themselves in the Farrm studio in Hasselt. The album was mixed by guitarist Emiel Van Den Abbeele.
Building on the band’s addictive deep express art rock, ‘Make (Less) Babies’ leads listeners further down their twisted rabbit hole; loaded with stories from the road, critique of society, climate change, controversy, social themes, humor and self-mockery.
THE GURU GURU are unstoppable and keep pushing their limits. Nothing is impossible.
