Safeguard's Declan Gough
Rising UK pop punk band Safeguard's vocalist, Declan Gough, recently sat down with interviewer Megan Nelson to chat about their recent album "I'm A Stranger To Myself".
OTR: To start off, what inspired you guys to write in this genre of music? Did you take inspiration from bands you listened to growing up?
DG: For me personally, I’ve always loved pop punk and definitely grew up on that type of music, bands like Blink, Green Day, Good Charlotte etc all played a part in the reason why I wanted to play music so I’ve always wanted to play in a pop punk band. So when this band first got started, that was always the intention. We do all like pop punk, but some of us have other genres that are more of a main influence, so it helps we can also take inspiration from them and develop our sound by experimenting with different types of music.
OTR: Has doing music as a career always been a passion for all of you?
DG: Honestly, yes. Personally I’ve never really had an interest in doing anything else, at least nowhere near as much. A lot of my family have played in bands before, so I guess it’s kind of in my blood. I’ve been singing since I was about 4, and I’ve been interested in music for as long as I can remember.
OTR: How long did your newest release, I’m a Stranger to Myself, take to complete? Were there any songs that you guys have been working on for an extended period of time?
DG: It probably took about three and a half months in all. Al the songs were brand new, they hadn’t come from anything we’d worked on previously, we started work on it pretty much as soon as our first EP ‘When Did You Stop Caring?’ was released.
OTR: What song would each of you say you’re the most proud of?
Declan - November
Martyn - No Man’s Land
Denholm - Harbour
Zak - Harbour
Connor - No Man’s Land
OTR: How would you say this release differs from your previous one?
DG: As well as the production being head and shoulders above, I feel the songs are a lot more mature, both lyrically and musically. We’ve developed naturally as musicians so there’s more diversity in the songs in that respect, we learnt how to slow things down or strip certain things back, as well of course still staying true to the loud and fast elements the first EP was full of.
OTR: I saw that your first headlining show was in July! How was that experience?
DG: Yeah it was! Feels a long time ago now, but with that being our first ever headliner, we were nervous as hell but to be honest I think that only helped motivate us, and it ended up being a sick show! I feel it was hugely important for us to do that, as now we know that we can hold our own being top of the bill, and have since gone on to play a fair few more.
OTR: What are the general goals for the band/plans for the new year? Any tour plans?
DG: I suppose the main aim is just to try and get out to different places, and tour IASTM as much as we can. We have got a couple little things in mind tour wise for next year, but we’re keeping hush hush about that for now!