5 Records with Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton

Shelton: “I think I had a similar mindset in creating the record where Bob Pollard was, trying to put all of his best. It’s either this or nothing, like it was life or death, do or die with that record. And it led to all of what happened with the next Guided By Voices records, which is presumptuous on my part. I wasn’t necessarily saying, ‘We’re gonna break up if this record doesn’t go,’ but that was kind of the nature of Propeller. But all the stakes were there and the songwriting is so big. My thing is always just trying to make a big chorus, and Robert Pollard is a big chorus man. And he blends a classic rock influence with pop punk. I think of a song like ‘Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy,’ that’s a pop punk song through and through. It’s close to a Green Day song but done by Guided By Voices, and that’s what’s so great about it. Similarly, ‘Quality of Armor’ has such a distinct 1990s sound but also sounds really old. I’m just really influenced by Guided By Voices in just always writing, trying to make as many songs as you can, and they don’t necessarily beat it to death on revision. Instead they think, ‘I’ll get it right on the next one,’ and that’s what I’ve always been really inspired by.”

“I think people kind of throw the ‘one hit wonder thing’ onto the Vines. But when you listen to the record, it’s half Nirvana, half Beatles, down to the essence of them basically doing an ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da‘ song on there. The combination of melody and melancholy and anger was a super important balance. I don’t think that we are very similarly sonically to them, but songs like ‘Autumn Shade’ paired to the song ‘Get Free’ is where the dynamics of our song ‘Life Under The Gun’ are inspired by. I’ve always been a big fan of dynamics and a record having a journey and taking departures from where it needs to dip, so it can go high again. And I feel like Highly Evolved really does that. There’s so many amazing songs.”

“The balance of saying something crazy in a very pop format, instead of making it just the love song. It’s like, what else can I pack in here? Let’s talk about drugs. Let’s talk about mistakes. Let’s talk about things that the pop format doesn’t typically allow, while also just being unabashedly pop, and not disguising it in any other way. I think the record is pretty consistent front to back. That was a huge part of the list — it’s about making a full record, and having it ebb and flow. I was trying to find as many things that I felt were as close to perfect records and then looking at their sequencing specifically, and the way the dynamics flowed, and the way that it sets you up for success as a listener to be excited when the next thing starts because it actually feels new.”

“I learned to sing a lot by just driving weed delivery at the time that we were writing this record. I was listening to music for eight to 12 hours a day. And The New Abnormal was a constant at the time. Most bands didn’t release records at the time, but the Strokes actually had a record out during the pandemic and I just learned how to be a better singer by just singing along to him. I was absolutely obsessed with this record. I don’t think sonically there’s a ton of crossover. I think songs like ‘Ode to the Mets,’ you kind of hear a little bit that influence on our song ‘See You Around.’ It’s just more or less just mellotron and vocals, which is what that song starts out as, but that was actually more influenced by a song on the previous Strokes record. My girlfriend told me when she heard Julian Casablancas singing on one song where he speaks randomly and it’s super distorted and there’s a lot of vocal fry and she was like, ‘You should do something like that.’ And I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna try a low vocal.’ My vocal style is completely different, but I learned a little bit more accuracy and I learned a little bit more just about the comfortability of singing and again, vocal dynamic and range by mimicking The New Abnormal.”

“So the final record would be Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers. We have a song on our record called ‘Sway Too.’ It was me more or less thematically and with a couple musical cues mimicking the song ‘Sway.’ I just love the big ballads from the Stones. I don’t really care for the blues songs at all, those are the skippers for me, but there’s so many just big rock tracks on the record. Mick is someone who isn’t hitting a ton of notes, but he is not a limited singer. I think he employs himself in a very strategic way and can lay back. I kind of learned about layering as a concept. You actually just have a higher harmony that makes it more exciting and again, ‘Sway’ was this huge point where I feel like we needed a soft moment before the end of the record that isn’t as soft as the next moment. So that’s where Sticky Fingers comes into play.”