Interview: Gabriel Franco Reflects On The Journey To ‘Never, Neverland’ And Finding Success With Unto Others
GID: Going off of that, are you an avid gamer? What are some of your favorite games?
GF: I’m not as avid as a Twitch streamer or something, but I play video games. I think most people in my generation do. Everyone in my band does. I play a lot of Diablo 2. It’s just a bunch of games I played when I was young. I’m not really into new games. The newest game I’ve gotten into was Skyrim. That was like 2015 (laughs). I’ve replayed Skyrim about 30 times since then. But I’ve dabbled in a few games here and there, but nothing really catches me. I still go back and play Warcraft 3, Age of Empires, World of Warcraft, and Diablo. I play a lot of Game Boy games. I’ll use emulators to play Pokemon Silver and stuff like that. Just the stuff we all played when we were 12-year-olds, basically. I don’t know what most of America was doing, but I was playing Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo.
GID: I was also playing Pokemon Silver at that age, which in my opinion, is the best one.
GF: It’s sitting right there (laughs). That was the one I got for Christmas when I was 10. I recently found it in a box and it’s in my relics on my desk here. It’s probably my favorite game. I like Red, Blue, and Yellow, but I didn’t like the monotone colors. They brought in a better color scheme for Pokemon Silver and Gold. I also liked how in Silver, after you beat the game there was another game to play. I’m like, thank you, because it was so annoying that you level up your Pokemon, you beat the Elite Four, and you have really strong Pokemon, but can do nothing.
GID: That’s what I loved about the game! I remember when I was playing it, and reached the new region, my mind was blown. Getting back to music, in a previous interview, you talked about how the creative process, like writing, recording, and producing, is the most exciting part of music for you. Could you ever see yourself stepping into a more behind-the-scenes role, like a producer?
GF: I used to think I wanted to do something like that, but as I get older, no, I don’t want to do that. I hate being in windowless rooms staring at a screen. And that is the life of a producer. Fuck that. There was a while when I was working hard and getting involved in everything. I was helping people with their music and working on other things like that. I thought maybe I could start spreading my fingers as wide as I could. But honestly, I just want a simple life. I want simplicity. So, I’m reducing the amount of clutter, reducing the number of extracurricular activities, and increasing the amount of me time to focus on my real life. Music is great, but success is an illusion that must be constantly chased. So, you have to be content where you’re at. Trying to chase this constant fleeting moment, I’m not into it.
GID: Think about social media and how you’re expected to consistently push out content. It’s about numbers, followers, and likes if you want to “be successful.” And your wish for a simple life echoes what I’ve heard other people I’ve spoken to have said. It seems as you get older, you crave a more peaceful life. You want to make sure you’re doing something for yourself.
GF: Yeah, totally. My goal with this band is to tour for the rest of my life. I like going out. I love the vacations. I love playing shows and meeting the fans. But if I do too much of that, I start hating it just like with anything else. I would like to live an overall pretty normal life with these cool little breaks and vacations in between. When I’m at home, I can focus on the day-to-day running of the band and personal things and have this feel more like a career rather than some insane art project that consumes every minute of my life. That being said, I’m still 33. I’ll give it another go. I want to do one more intense record where I work really hard on it. Then I’ll start putting out my Loads and Reloads and St. Angers. Just got to get a little bit more established first. Maybe two more good records. I should be about 40 at that point. That’s when the midlife crisis records start coming out.
GID: You’ve got the timeline down. That’s when people expect it, so you’d get a pass. Earlier in the interview, you talked about The Ramones, and the digital deluxe version of Never, Neverland features a cover of “Pet Sematary,” which is very appropriate because we are firmly into spooky season. What made you guys want to cover this song in particular?
GF: I just liked that one a lot when I first heard it. I was in love with it and thought we should cover it. That’s basically it. I was probably a bit biased because I’m a big Stephen King fan. [Pet Sematary] was one of the first Stephen King books I read. We also played the song live and people were like, that fucking rules. They were really happy we played it. We kept getting requests to record it, so we did. Took about three years, though.
GID: As a fan of both The Ramones and Stephen King, it’s also one of my favorite songs. What’s a Stephen King book that scared you? Do you have a favorite?
GF: The only time I’ve ever actually been scared reading a book was IT. Maybe I was just weak mentally or hung over that day, but it’s the scene where they go to the library and a red balloon floats across. I was like, fuck this. My favorite Stephen King book is probably Salem’s Lot. I really liked the vampire story. Some honorable mentions – Dolores Claiborne, the one about the lady who murders her husband on the eclipse. I also like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon because that wasn’t even horror. It’s about a girl who gets lost in the woods and there’s a bear chasing her. That’s it. I love that about Stephen King. He surprises you. You think you know what you’re getting when you open up one of his books, but you have no fucking clue. There could be gross stuff, horror, telepathy, fire, pyrotechnic, aliens, all this shit. And I love it. Honestly, I feel like that kind of bleeds into our music a little bit.
GID: That makes sense because Never, Neverland feels like a mixed bag. You have songs dealing with serious topics. You have fantastical songs like “Mama Likes the Door Closed.” You’ve got some gothic metal in there and you’ve got straight-up thrash metal. You never know what you’re going to get.
GF: It’s funny, it is a mixed bag. Some people like that. Some people don’t. But what a lot of people don’t realize is we’ve always been this way. There’s some kind of rose-colored glasses about the past with us. I’ve seen some reviews saying this [record] is not cohesive. There’s a million genres overlapping over each other. I read the same review about Mana. I read the same review about Strength. But people like to say [those albums] are so much more put together. I’m so sick of it.
The reason everyone says your first record is the best is because they have nothing to compare it to. Once you have three records, people start thinking, about which one’s number one, number two, and number three, like art can actually be ranked. There’s a lot of themes and there will always be a lot of themes on our records. I don’t think I could write a cohesive record if I tried. This conversation should be an indicator of that. My mind’s jumping left and right. I go on tangents at all times.
GID: You mentioned your second album, Strength, and it seems like Unto Others has had good traction since then. Things seem to be clicking for the band which wasn’t the case for your previous bands. People are really responding and getting the music. What is it about Unto Others that resonates with people?
GF: This is a question I’ve asked myself before I started the band because I didn’t want to waste my time, no pun intended there – that’s the name of our first EP. I felt I wasted a lot of my time with my old band. So I thought, if I wanted to succeed at this whole band thing, how was I going to do it? There’s got to be a way. It’s not just luck; that’s something a fool tells themselves. They think someday, someone’s going to come out of the sky, pick me and my band up, and make us famous. No, that’s not how it works. There is a method. There’s a way to work yourself to where you want to be. I just had to figure it out. So, how do we differentiate ourselves? Everything’s been done. How do I create a new genre? Then I thought, you don’t have to do that. You just have to be honest and be yourself because there’s no one else in the world like you. My kindergarten teacher told me that.
That’s basically the philosophy behind this entire band. If I just be myself, and I’m open and honest, the human qualities that make me different are also the same qualities everyone else has. It’s kind of this weird thing where the more honest we are, the more people we’re going to appeal to. That’s why love songs do so well. A lot of people try to act tough and say, I don’t care about love. Everyone likes love. It’s just being honest. People can smell bullshit from a mile away. I think that’s what attracts people to the band. That and a lot of devious backdoor mastermind planning, scheming, and manipulation of audience metrics.
GID: Of course, as you do. Unto Others has had some good traction ever since Strength. And it seems like with each release, you guys continue to reach a wider audience. What’s something you hope Unto Others achieves in the future?
GF: Worldwide global domination.
GID: It’s the only right answer.
GF: I mean, pretty much. I want to play arenas. I would like to play main stages at festivals and be a metal institution. If that sounds delusional, it probably is. But I’m not gonna sit here and lie to myself or deny myself a dream. To say that you’re comfortable with somewhere in the middle is aiming for the middle. If I am high, I might end up in the middle and be lucky. Always aim high. Why not? There’s no one else that deserves to be there. The higher we go, the easier it is.
Unto Others’ new album, Never, Neverland, is out now. Next year, the band will embark on their UK/European tour. See all their dates here.
