Mystifying riffs, not knowing your own songs and pining for Fiesta Red Strats: inside the chaotic brilliance of Militarie Gun
If you ever find yourself in a room with Militarie Gun, brace yourself for impact. Weaned on the blood, sweat and tears of the American punk scene, the hardcore ethos of visceral, in-your-face catharsis is rooted in the band’s genetic code. Throughout every vulnerable acoustic number, synth-heavy anthem and soaring alt-rock riff, the magic of Militarie Gun lies in that heart-on-sleeve hardcore authenticity.
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Even today, the raucous quintet are gearing up to play to 50 people in a venue the size of a living room – the prime setting for a sweaty punk show. Just days ago, they also performed in the tiny Hazheart storefront in Los Angeles. If size matters, the smaller the better; a sweaty, intimate venue is where Militarie Gun thrive in, utterly befitting of their face-kicking, gut-wrenching flavour of alt-rock. “The Hazheart show was crazy,” guitarist Kevin Kiley grins. “There were some technical difficulties, because there was nowhere to stand but on top of my pedalboard.”
The slew of tiny shows are the perfect way to amp up excitement for the band’s sophomore release, God Save The Gun. And the response so far has been electric – Kick’s hilarious wails of “If I kicked you in the face, I’m sorry…” have been lapped up, while the rabble-rousing B A D I D E A has quickly become a new favourite, earning itself two spots on the setlist to close off on a chaotic high. The record amplifies Militarie Gun’s visceral alt-rock bite, both sonically and lyrically; not only does it see frontman Ian Shelton baring his soul, opening with a pained admission that “honestly, things have not been great”, but the instrumental carnage is second-to-none.
Heart Ripper
So how does one piece together a riff that rips your heart out, all before unleashing a string of chords that make your blood pressure spike? Well, according to long-standing guitarist William Acuña, ignorance is bliss. “I don’t know how to play guitar,” he shrugs, nonchalant as ever.
We pause, waiting for the punchline, but Acuña doubles down. “I mean, I know scales and stuff, and I can figure out what sounds good,” he continues. “But I don’t know any songs… I probably don’t even know every Militarie Gun song.”
In a way, the approach yet again falls in line with the hardcore, DIY roots of the project. Acuña’s self-taught approach is homegrown, resulting in a style that relies on pure emotion, instinct and a sound that is uniquely his own. “There’s all types of guitarists or songwriters that have talked about not wanting to ‘learn music’ because they don’t want to fuck up what they’ve got going for them,” he explains. “It’s the same with piano. I can play piano, but I also don’t know a single song.”
As his guitar comrade Kiley backs his claims up (“I’ve heard it, his piano sounds great!”), the pair point to one of the finest drummers of all time: The Who’s Keith Moon. “He was self-taught but he sounded incredible,” Kiley notes. “Most good drummers are people who approach a drum set as a kid and they just had a natural rhythm. And that can often be the same with guitarists.”
Of course, musical literacy isn’t a necessity to carve out a solid sound. “A good riff is catchy, it gets stuck in your head, and it works with the vocal melody,” Acuña says. “And I love a riff with a bend in it… but, yeah, we pretty much nailed all the riffs on this record.”
“What makes a good riff is so mystifying,” Kiley chimes in. “It doesn’t really matter how ‘good’ you are at guitar. It just comes to you, you can’t really plan it out…”
Image: Nolan Knight
Extra Levels
Having joined just last year, Kiley’s involvement in the band has added an extra level of guitar literacy to the project; “I feel like I am a pretty fluent guitar player,” he laughs. However, Kiley’s initial interest in Militarie Gun was rooted in the band’s overly ambitious, near-impossible riffs. “Before being in the band, I heard the Ain’t No Flowers lead riff and loved how stupid it sounded – and I mean that in the very best way,” he says. “It had that wild feeling that a lot of 80s punk stuff had – you could tell it was kids just getting all their feelings out there, learning as they went along.”
It’s a sentiment that doesn’t insult Acuña, who has served as the band’s rhythm guitarist from day one. “The way we play Militarie Gun songs can sound pretty fucked up because some tracks are written by someone who doesn’t play guitar all that great,” he admits. “I love when Ian writes a riff, because it’s written to convey an emotion, then we have to work out how to play it.”
“With Ain’t No Flowers, I used to stretch my fingers across the neck because there are the near-impossible notes that Ian wrote,” he explains. “Then Kevin came along, and he plays it completely differently because he knows an easier way to do it.”
Keep It Simple
While Militarie Gun may be overly ambitious with some of their riffs, their rig set up is pretty minimal. “A Strat, a RAT and a Twin Reverb,” Acuña lists. “That’s it.”
Even when digging into dream gear, both Acuña and Kiley are reserved with their choices. Militarie Gun were named one of Fender’s Next Class bands of 2024, and they’re more than happy to keep waving the flag for the humble Strat. “I just enjoy a Strat, because it’s light and easy to play,” Acuña shrugs. “For me, it’s always about how it feels to play, how the neck feels, because the sound all goes through a RAT distortion pedal anyway.”
There’s also the worry about durability when you’re known to have particularly chaotic shows. “A Strat is also very sturdy, so you don’t have to worry about the neck snapping or the headstock cracking,” Acuña notes.
“I also prefer a Strat – I’ve played a Strat my whole life,” Kiley says. “In the studio I’ll use a Gibson for leads; I have this Gibson with a certain humbucker on it, and it sounds huge. But, when it comes to a live show, nothing stays in tune as well as my Strat. It’s just reliable.”
With the addition of Kiley’s “fluent” guitar knowledge and a thirst for experimentation, God Save The Gun pushes Militarie Gun’s sound into an entirely new realm. Cuts like Maybe I’ll Burn My Life Down serves up a bold new way of capturing a gritty electric tone, utilising blown-out acoustic in lieu of standard electric guitar. “We played so much acoustic with blown out distortion, so you’d think it was an electric,” he explains. “That track is entirely acoustic guitar.”
“The last song, God Save The Gun, has a lot of blown out acoustic but we did put some electric in there,” he adds. “But originally, the demo was just distorted as fuck acoustic with a tremolo over it.”
Image: Nolan Knight
Mello Yellow
Sonically, the record is bursting with unique textures. “With God Owes Me Money, the demo was all synths,” Kiley explains. “I wondered if it would become a guitar lead, but nothing sounded as good as the synths on there. It felt right. We don’t shy away from anything, because we never want to put ourselves in a box. If the song would be bigger and benefit from synths, then we do it. If it’s keys, strings… even Mellotron! We used Mellotron all over the record.”
Every sonic decision serves as a way of hammering home Shelton’s candid lyrical journey. “We always let Shelton tell his story,” Kiley says. “The entire tracklist is very intentional; it goes on a journey and it gets pretty deep, dark and poignant. A few people contacted Ian asking if he was okay after listening through the record, actually. But there’s an arc to it…”
Emotionally, I Won’t Murder Your Friend comes in as one of the most powerful of the bunch. It features a sample of David Choe mourning the loss of Anthony Bourdain, who committed suicide in 2018. “We were really throwing everything at the end of that song,” Kiley explains. “Lyrically, I think it is the heaviest on the record.”
Image: Nolan Knight
Slap Back
After an onslaught of introspection, the pivotal point of God Save The Gun comes in the form of an interlude featuring Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. “Isaac’s Song is one of my favourite moments on the record,” Kiley explains. “Ian keeps describing the track as a moment where Isaac kind of ‘picks you up, dusts you off and tells you it’s going to be okay’. He just picks you up, slaps you around.”
Acuña quickly pipes up, lightening the mood: “He actually did slap me, once. We were getting really drunk at his studio and I was falling asleep, and he just slapped me to wake me up. He felt bad about it, so he had me slap him, but I slapped him too hard for his liking, so he slapped me again, and then I slapped him back. And then we just started dancing. It’s an honour to be slapped by your musical idol.”
While Kiley has only joined the ranks recently, his history runs pretty parallel to Militarie Gun; his previous band, Lurk, even supported Militarie Gun on their first ever tour. “The first time I met these guys, my band was playing with them in smaller venues, like downstairs in Subterranean in Chicago,” Kiley reminisces. “It was so small all the gear had to go in the kitchen.”
Since joining, he’s been thrown in the deep end. Militarie Gun has become somewhat of a behemoth as of late, falling in line with the recent spike in popularity that Californian punk and alt-rock has mustered. “My first show with the band was at the Daytona Speedway for Welcome To Rockville festival last year,” he explains. “I’ve played in bands my whole life, and that was the biggest show I’ve ever played to date. It was kind of crazy to go from basements to that.”
So, what do the pair of guitarists want from God Save The Gun? “I want a Fiesta Red Strat with a Fiesta Red headstock,” Acuña states, deadly serious. “That’s the Will Acuña Custom Fender, when they’re ready.”
They also hope that Killing Joke like the sample they used on the “apologetic stage-diving” tune Kick. “They approved it, but they didn’t say a word about it,” Kiley admits. “But I guess, if they don’t, it’s their own fault for saying yes…”
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