If there was ever an appropriate name for a band, it's Walking With Giants, the moniker guitarist and singer Gary Noon chose for his hard rock project. For Noon, whose debut full-length album with Walking With Giants, "Worlds Unknown," will be released on Jan. 15, the band is a culmination of a dream of sorts: to work alongside some of his musical heroes - namely members of heavy music titans Sevendust and Alter Bridge.
Noon and Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery became friends after a mutual buddy introduced them. In 2013, Noon, along with Lowery and drummer Scott Phillips (Alter Bridge, Creed), recorded the first Walking With Giants EP, and followed with another EP, "One By One," adding bassist Brian Marshall (Alter Bridge, Creed). On the soon-to-be-released "Worlds Unknown," Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose took over for Phillips.
In a recent exclusive interview with Headlines & Global News, Noon was asked if he feels a sense of validation from working with musicians he considers to be true giants in their field.
"The validation piece is kind of hard to say, because I still feel like I'm this Jedi Padawan learning from these masters," Noon said with a laugh. "So I don't necessarily feel like I'm validated playing with them, but I'm super grateful, and I get inspired to practice even harder to get better for next time, but it makes me feel good that they're writing songs with me and they enjoy it. When Clint tells me, 'Hey, that's a real cool chorus part,' or 'I like that lyric,' that's stuff that I file away, and when I'm having those crappy moments or a hard time writing something, I go back to that mental filing cabinet and pull those things out."
Noon went on to discuss the meaning of "Back To Life," a song from the record which makes its exclusive debut here today, his roundabout journey to the rock world and why a certain brand of music speaks to him.
What type of reaction do you hope listeners have to the new album?
The main thing is I want people to feel something good or bad, something strong, from what they hear. The reason I wanted to write music was because of the bands that I listened to. There's a select group of bands that I listen to, and I'll try to add another band to it, and I'll start listening to a song, and if I don't get a vibe or a feeling or some sort of connection to it, I just move on to the next track until I find that song that I'm looking for. That's the kind of thing I'm hoping people will get out of this. I've had people email me and say a tune on the first record really meant a lot to them, they were going through a time when a relative passed away or they were struggling through something with their job, and they would hear this song and it meant something specific to them, but it was totally different than what I was thinking when I wrote the song, and that's what I'm looking for. Somebody will listen to it, and if they like how it sounds it makes them feel something, but most importantly do they identify with that? Can they relate to the song in their own way? And I feel like if they can do that, they make the song their own, then I've accomplished what I wanted to.
What can you tell us about that song "Back To Life," which we are premiering with this interview?
It's a really cool tune that's really about being frustrated and sometimes thinking that everything is against you, you can't do anything right, and then you feel like you can't handle it and you just want to quit, and you go to bed, and the next day you wake up, and it's like, man, things are great. It's another day, and you feel completely different. It's kind of that sort of thing, like an individual that goes through that cycle. A lot of people do it, and I do it quite a bit. I overthink things sometimes and analyze things a bit too much, and then the next week my perspective is fresh and I just keep going.
There's a dramatic opening to the album with the instrumental track "Worlds Unknown Part 1," and then you bookend it at the end with "Worlds Unknown Part 2." Why did you decide to begin and end the album that way?
We finished most of the songs in April, and then we came back in August for the last three, because I felt the songs were cool but I still felt like there was something else in there. It was Breaking Benjamin's new record that inspired the idea. They did "Dark Before Dawn" and have two musical bookends on the record, and it was really cool because you could sense where Ben [Burnley] as coming from at the beginning of the record, and as you listen to each song that thought process had really progressed, and then they left you with the positive side at the end. It's kind of like, things were dark but now things are really good. I heard a couple of their tunes and thought, man, I need to come up with some other stuff again because this is a great record and I don't know if I can come up with something that is Breaking Benjamin good in my mind, and I don't know if we have or not, but I just felt inspired to keep going and do more songs, so I thought they had a great idea to do that, and I went to Clint and said, wouldn't it be cool if we did a bookend just like Breaking Benjamin did, but in this case, musically it's trying to hint at what's about to happen, and at the end trying to remind people about what they've experienced. We did a combined version of it as well that's a bonus on the CD so you can kind of feel that whole thing together.
What was your musical experience before Walking With Giants?
I've been playing guitar since 1989, and I did the high school metal bands and talent shows. When I graduated high school I went on this religious crusade, if you will, and I was really trying to get into the ministry and I did eight years to do it, but I became a youth pastor for a couple years. During that whole time I was like the guitar player in the church orchestra, and anytime the bass player was sick, then magically I became the bass player, I had figure out how to do it, and drums as well. I did that for like three services a week, two rehearsals a week, for almost 10 years. So not going on tour, but I feel that it's equivalent to the amount of shows that guys that go on tour do. After that I started playing guitar covers on YouTube, and that's really how this whole thing got started, playing covers of bands that I really was into, and people would tell me this is really cool, maybe you should write your own stuff, and I was fortunate enough to meet Clint and Brian and these other guys and show them some of these YouTube covers, and they're telling me that it's cool and exciting.
When you started playing with these guys, was it a natural fit?
The actual playing in the live room was a really natural fit. I was scared spitlesss for the first half an hour or show, because I'm thinking, Oh my God, I'm going to be so outclassed, these guys are going to kill me if I make a mistake (laughs). And when I saw them relaxing and having a good time, I started to. We got a in a real good flow. I was surprised, honestly. I guess because we have similar tastes and I love their music because of how they play, it just kind of made sense that we would be able to click like that.
Is the band your full-time gig or do you have a day job?
I have a day job, a 15-year career that I'm really proud of and I love doing it. At some point, it'd be really cool if I could do this full-time, but I guess only time will tell because it's a self-financed project right now, and getting people to actually think music is valuable enough to purchase is a tough gig to make happen these days. But it's cool, as long as people are listening to it, that's fine with me.
What is it about Sevendust and Alter Bridge that you love?
I like music that makes me feel. It could be anything, it could be a gospel tune, it could be a hip-hop song, it could be bluegrass or country. I'll put it to you like this. When I go see Sevendust in concert, there's like this emotional power or strength that in my mind that flows from the stage when they play, and when you see the band start playing a song, halfway into the track the whole building is just alive and excited. There isn't one dude that's standing still. When you go to some other shows, people are just standing there looking at their phones. You go to an Alter Bridge show - if you get a chance watch their "Live In Wembley" Blu-ray - every single person in that stadium was rolling to that vibe that came off that stage, and that's what I love about their music. There's something specific about it that makes me feel things very strongly, and every time I hear the music, it's the same. I never get sick of it. Sevendust and Alter Bridge and a lot of the related bands, like Dark New Day, Tremonti project, all those kind of dudes.
Will you be touring to support "Worlds Unknown?
No official tour dates yet, but the plan is to start doing weekend shows in the spring, so we'll be posting those on the home page pretty soon.
Would you be interested in hooking up with a larger tour, especially considering the connections you've made with the other guys in the project?
That's something I want to do, but I think that's more in the future. This first group of shows for this year is really about me getting the hang of being a good frontman and giving people an excellent show. If I don't work that stuff out and make people excited to come see us, then I'm just going to set myself up for failure and make those guys feel bad that they invited me on the tour (laughs). I want to bring something that's good and valuable to them, so that's what it's really about this year: practicing, kickin' ass and coming up with a good show for people.
