Gringo Star Interview: SXSW 2010

It's no doubt that Gringo Star have had a busy year, opening for ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and The Black Lips, having a documentary filmed about them and still maintaining their grass roots approach to touring across the US when ever they can.

We were able to sit down with Nicholas Furgiuele and discuss their past, their future and what they love about Austin and SXSW

Describe your sound.

50ish rockish, lots of harmonies, it's like everyone in the band sings and has different influences...

How did the band form?

we all worked in this restaurant and started playing from there


How did you get the name?

We were trying to come up with something with the word Gringo and someone shouted that out and so we stuck with it

Who are your influences?

The Animals, The Kinks, Ritchie Valens, Bob Dylan, The Band, Hendrix.. basically our parents records collection

What do you like most about touring?

Being in new places everyday, new scenery, playing music... meet new people and sharing things with strangers

What do you like to do after a show to wind down?

Usually we end up having to drive to the next town to continue our journey?

How was the European tour ?

It was awesome so much beautiful landscape and architecture.

Any crazy things happen over there?

Ummm. Too many to choose and I don't know if I want to expose them just yet.

Tell me about your documentary "Hurry Up and Wait" also showcasing at SXSW.

I don't even know whats in there ... I'm scared to see it actually. We met the two guys last year in Dallas a night before SXSW and they were documenting the festival and just started hanging out with us. Then they called us a few weeks later and said they wanted to document our European tour, so they just came along with us. We'll will see it for the first time hopefully before SXSW.

Have you been to Austin?

Yeah for years we've played dive bars in Austin, like Trophy's Emos, and other clubs on Red River and lots of parties.

What do you like most about Austin?

Mexican food.

What do you look forward to doing in Austin?

Mexican food and baseball. We usually start up games with friends and do that to relax and have fun.

What's next for the band?

There is a European label releasing our first cd and we are going back to Europe to support that release. We are looking forward to that and touring and seeing all that again.

Marcus Rendon is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.