Interviews: Keeley Davis (Glos, Engine Down, Sparta, Denali)

We recently spoke to Keeley Davis, the former frontman of Engine Down, bass/synth player for Denali and current member of Sparta. Keeley talked to us about his new side project Glos (or "Glös") and answered some questions about the new project as well as reuniting with longtime collaborator Cornbread Compton and his sister, Maura Davis.

The band recently released their debut full length, Harmonium, and you can find some music from the album on their Punknews.org Profile.

You can click Read More for the interview.

Glös reunites you with
your collaborators from both Denali and Engine Down; and I understand many of
the ideas for the songs began while Engine Down was still touring. How do you
feel Glös continues - or breaks from - what you have done in your previous bands?

Glös basically continues
the chemistry that I had with both Cornbread [Compton] and Maura [Davis], and
allows us to create any type of music we feel fit. Since there is the freedom
to play any instrument we want
without the fear of reproducing it live, this band fulfills any creative
outlet we have wanted to tap into.

Because of your long
relationship with Compton, and of course, with your sister, the band must have
a very interesting dynamic. Many people talk about their bands being like
family, but it's literally the case here. What is it like in Glös?

Cornbread Compton and I have been playing music for so long that we are
able to finish each other’s sentences.

It’s the easiest creation
I've ever been a part of. First off
Cornbread Compton and I have been playing music for so long that we are
able to finish each other’s sentences. We gave each other total freedom to
create whatever we wanted over each person's songs. Most every time it came out
exactly like we wanted without having to explain what we wanted the other
person to add.

Secondly my sister and I
have been inspired by the same music since we were little. Its easy to write a
record when every person is inspired by the same types of things. We each have
the same taste but have greater talents at different things. They all come
together as Glös.

How do you balance
Glös and Sparta? On that
note, with each of you occupied with your own bands, will Glös remain a
part-time/off-time project? Is it a one-off?

The glos record was
mostly written before I joined Sparta. Since glos is able to write songs without ever being in the same room,
city, or time zone with the aid of
laptops and the internet, we are able to
work on songs at any moment.

We are all very busy, but
still find time to write glos songs. We are already writing the next record
at this moment. There is so much
freedom in this band, it is almost like therapy from the world of touring,
deadlines, managers, band member tension, etc.

It took two years and
you wrote 20 songs to produce Harmonium; how do you boil down that much of your
life into a single album of songs?

Most of the record was
written in a short amount of time. The length of time it took was basically
from us learning how to stop. When you have no deadline and recording budget
limits - being self-recorded - it is easy to get overly anal about things.

We would have a song and
make five different versions of it depending on the mood that we woke up in. I learned a lot about going with
your first instinct and then spending extra time making the mix all that it can
be. The process of recording and mixing would usually take a break when a tour
came up with the other bands.

Not to harp on Engine
Down too much, but it was a bit of a shock when the band split up, and there
wasn't much in the way of an explanation. With some time between you and the
band, do you feel you can elaborate on what happened?

Engine Down was a
wonderful experience for all of us. At the height of our involvement we just
felt like we had accomplished what we wanted to do in Engine Down. Every record
with Engine Down was about growth
and we just felt it was time to grow in different ways outside of the band. We
were friends first and wanted to keep it that way since all of our peers in
bands seemed to break up and never speak again.

We wanted to go out with
a bang.

How do you pronounce
Glös?

It depends on whom you
ask. Since we started writing the record in Europe it just seemed appropriate
to give it a Euro vibe.

I understand Maura
came in much later in the process, but her vocals seem very much an organic
part of the songs. Did you write them with her in mind?

This is a very good
example of why its so natural for us all to work together. Our styles just mesh
perfectly and Maura's voice blended in like butter. We didn’t think about
including Maura until all the songs were written mainly because we had not
realized how easy it was going to be to send each other music from various
cities. At the time she lived in a different state and once we thought of
including her… the rest is history…. and I guess the future too.

Who is Glös for?

It started for us. We
just wanted to hear songs like these. Once it seemed possible to make a record,
we knew that fans of Engine Down
and Denali would see the previous influence and latch on. Thankfully
fans of the two bands were music lovers and not hype followers.