My mind wanders when I run. A whole lot. Different things will drift into my head, I’ll think about it for a couple of minutes, and then I’ll get distracted by something happening in front of me. Today I witnessed one squirrel chasing another squirrel that had grabbed food from it, for around 300 metres. They were running alongside me, oblivious that I was running alongside them, separated by a chainlink fence. And once that day’s squirrel larceny event or its equivalent is over, I’ll have forgotten about what I was thinking about 30 seconds previously.
Today was different though. I followed through on a thought. I’ve listened to a decent amount of Fightstar in my time, and I’ve often found myself thinking: “That other vocalist (so not Charlie Simpson) has such a great voice. He should do solo stuff.” I mean, the gaps between Fightstar albums are fairly lengthy, so it’s certainly a possibility, right? Well, today I listened to Fightstar’s latest album while running, and resolved to check their Wiki page to see if he (Alex Westaway) had.
Well, the result was unexpected. Alex and Fightstar bassist Dan Haigh formed a synthwave band called GUNSHIP. They released a self-titled album in 2015 that channels everything great from the 80s. Their wiki page describes what they do far better than anything I can say, so here it is. GUNSHIP is “a neon soaked, late night, sonic getaway drive, dripping with luscious analog synthesizers, cinematic vocals and cyberpunk values, exploding from the front cover of a dusty plastic VHS case which has lain forgotten since 1984.”
Not only that, but their videos perfectly channel their aesthetic, recalling the influences that drove them to make this type of music in the first place. Take a look at the video for ‘Film Noir’ below, and get ready for me attempting to follow through on more stupid brilliant ideas I have while running.
Horses Playing Harps 